We can all agree that 2020 has been quite a year!  As things wind down for the holidays, we take this time to reflect and share how grateful we are for YOU, our clients and friends, for supporting our small business.  Our huge accomplishment this year was launching this new and improved cincinnatimodern website and midmodtalk blog.  But before the pandemic afforded us the time we needed to devote to the website, there was  once upon a time in hollywood…

Little did Arlen and I realize that our quick trip to Los Angeles in March for his cousin’s wedding would happen to be on the day the world changed forever.  We arrived in LA just in time to wander the Brady Bunch House neighborhood, then make it to our ‘bucket list’ tour reservation of The Stahl House (aka Case Study House #22 circa 1960 | Pierre Koenig, architect). As things would play out, it was the last day it (and everything else in California) was open before pandemic shutdowns.  It feels like such a distant memory in light of all that has happened since, but it was a surreal experience and we are very thankful to Melisa Stahl, daughter in law of original owners Carlotta & Buck Stahl, for leading our very up close and personal tour of her family’s very famous home.

This house had been at the top of my ‘must see’ list for as long as I can remember, and it did not disappoint.  Unlike The Miller House in Columbus, IN – which has crossed over from family home to museum – The Stahl House is still very much a home (although no one actually lives in it full time).  Melisa had us all enthralled with stories of their annual family gathering for fourth of July when the ‘kids’ traditionally jump off the roof and into the pool.  A couple days a week they conduct tours of very small groups, and the monies raised go toward the care and upkeep of the property.  And they have done an admirable job of keeping the property well maintained and appropriately styled.  Half bath not withstanding.  I’m not going to ruin the surprise.  You have to go there and see it for yourself….

We were encouraged to take our shoes off and explore the house inside and out, sit on the furniture in the iconic living room corner, and just chill for a bit high up in the Hollywood Hills.  To say the views were breathtaking is an understatement.  And the siting of the house on the hill is a marvel of midcentury engineering, due in no small part I’m sure to the steel construction that Koenig insisted on.  The only rule was ‘no professional photography,’ so we were limited to (and encouraged to take) cell phone photos only.  The professional shots were best left to Julius Schulman, anyway.  No one can improve upon perfection.  But here are photos of trooper Melisa Stahl, taking photos of all of us (with our own cell phones), in that iconic spot.

If you want to visit once the world returns to normal, we highly recommend it.  It is worth every penny.  But be sure to reserve your spot well in advance.  The popular twilight tour sold out while I was paying for our tickets, so we had to ‘settle’ for the afternoon tour instead.  Be sure to check out this link to the Schulman photos and more detailed information on the house and this link to a detailed history and more photos.  And congratulations to Nate & Joanne on a most memorable corona-wedding, thrown together a day early with only a fraction of their family and guests present.  We are grateful the stars aligned and we were able to live in our fairy tale for an afternoon and be there for the beginning of theirs.   

other significant events this year:

• the cincinnatimodern team was among the first to devise covid safe protocols for all of our listings after real estate professionals were determined by the State of Ohio to be ‘essential workers’
• the cincinnatimodern team, including David, Susan & Arlen, did over $14 million in sales in 2020, even with historic low inventory
• our 2020 listings averaged over 98% of list to sale price, with many listings selling for over asking price
• in addition to listing and or selling 19 midcentury/modern homes this year, we have also listed/sold: 7 craftsman bungalows, 7 condos, 6 newer construction, 4 cape cods, and 4 historic homes.  We also worked with several first time buyers and helped our nephew and 5 of our kids’ friends buy and or sell homes!
• the new cincinnatimodern.com website now features a fairly complete history & research archive of modern residential architecture in Cincinnati
• we completed restovations on the cincymod projecthouse, #mcminthewoods
• a very unexpected opportunity arose and we started a new restovation on a Ray Roush designed lake house, #roushlakehouseproject
• our daughter Kirsten + son in law Adrian got married in a very scaled back ‘minimony’ in October with only immediate family present
• sadly, we lost Arlen’s mother to COVID19 this Fall.  it reminds us daily to be thankful for her legacy, for our health and good fortune, and to never take anything for granted

on behalf of David, Arlen and me, we wish you a HEALTHY, happy and drama-free 2021