Midcentury modern finds a place in the Valley

The aqua door is a warning — the house you are about to enter is unlike any other in Scottsdale. Beyond the door is a marriage of midcentury modern and Asian design. An ornately carved antique chest sits next to a yellow Swan chair in the entryway.

The aqua door is a warning — the house you are about to enter is unlike any other in Scottsdale.

Beyond the door is a marriage of midcentury modern and Asian design. An ornately carved antique chest sits next to a yellow Swan chair in the entryway.

Beyond that is a dining room table with vintage tulip chairs and the aqua waters of a backyard swimming pool. Lots of windows, lots of light.

“The windows are really all you need,” says Jean Herring, whose husband, Paul, found this midcentury modern ranch home in the Scottsdale neighborhood of Village Grove. “We didn’t want to go over the top. My husband liked midcentury modern, and I like Asian. They mellow each other out.”

Midcentury modern was the prevailing style in the Valley from 1946 to 1970. Characterized as a ranch house with lean, horizontal lines and low pitched roofs, these single-story homes were largely neglected and forgotten (sometimes razed) until 2003. Now midcentury modern is a chic and highly desirable style thanks in part to the Web site www.modernphoenix.net and homeowners like the Herrings who walked into a dump (the home was a rental for many years) with a vision and the resilience to make it a reality (photo tour).

“A lot of people involved in our movement are creative, hands-on individuals,” says Alison King, who along with her husband, Matthew, launched the Web site in 2003. “They are the creative class.”

With 940 members and growing, the site is a self-described “clearinghouse of information about the Modern lifestyle in Arizona.” Here people will find a range of topics from where to shop for modern decor or how to spot homes designed by architects like Ralph Haver, whose work in Phoenix’s Marlen Grove neighborhood is the focal point of the third annual Modern Phoenix Home Tour and Expo March 24-25. The tour’s theme is “Progress + Preservation.” The Herrings’ home is not on the tour this year.

“Progress is going to happen whether we want it to or not,” says King, a design instructor at the Art Institute of Phoenix. “Clearly these two need to coexist peacefully. Preservation doesn’t happen on its own.”

It never occurred to the Herrings to opt for a home in a newer development, dubbed “stuccoville,” by the creators of www.modernphoenix.net. They’d lived in a downtown loft in another city before moving to Phoenix and wanted to live in a truly urban neighborhood.

“It was definitely destined for us,” says Herring of her home. “This neighborhood as it is, is like a gold mine for this style.”

If you go

Third annual Modern Phoenix Home Tour and Expo

What: Expo featuring purveyors of the modern style in Arizona and seminars by architects and authors such as Bob Mather and Alan Hess.

When: Noon to 5:30 p.m. March 24

Where: Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, 7380 E. Second St.

Cost: Expo is free. Seminars are $5-$10 each.

Information: (480) 994-2787 or modernphoenix.net

Home Tour of Marlen Grove

What: Self-guided tour of Phoenix neighborhood featuring homes by architect Ralph Haver. Owners and architects available to answer questions.

When: 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. March 25

Where: Marlen Grove, bordered by 10th and 11th streets from Bethany Home Road to Montebello Circle, Phoenix

Cost: $30 per person (advance purchase recommended)

Information: (480) 994-2787 or modernphoenix.net