Preserving a Golden Valley Midcentury Modern Home
Finding your dream home can be difficult. One family in Golden Valley turned their pipe dream in to a reality.
“We were house hunting for about three years when we came across this beautiful home,” says Sam Soulek, who owns a Midcentury Modern Home. “We gave the lowest bid and the seller was paying closing costs, but he loved my letter so much that he wanted us to have the home.”
When Sam saw the home, he knew the competition to purchase it was going to be tough. So, he wrote a letter to the seller telling him just how much he admires the home for its unique architecture.
“The letter was just me leveling with him on the front of a designer to architect,” added Soulek. I told him we would be maintaining the integrity of the home caring for it and raising our family in it. That is what he wanted. It wasn’t about making money, it was about the sentimentality of it and just the integrity of the home so it was pretty special.”
While the story behind how the family obtained this home is special, the home itself is one of kind.
“People are always excited when they get to see it,” says Soulek. “It’s a special house. Mid-century homes like this are unique and they need to be protected and preserved. So we feel whenever you can share it with people it’s a great opportunity. “
Docomomo Home Tour
That’s why Soulek decided to add their home to the Docomomo home tour.
“We have a general mission for Docomomo,” says Katherine Stalker the Vice President of Docomomo Minnesota. “It is to document and preserve that’s the D-O and the C-O, the buildings and the sights of the modern movement. Modern is M-O and movement is M-O. That’s where we get the Docomomo acronym from.”
The modern movement were homes and buildings constructed in the middle of the 1900’s. It was considered a fresh way of looking at how to design.
“People were stripping the excess of the materials,” says Stalker. “They were laying things out in a way that was pure with a way that it was uncrowded and wasn’t frivolous. This type of design really got to the core of what the materials could do.
Sam Soulek hopes the people who visits their home will have a fresh perspective on home ownership in general.
“The cookie cutter Home Depot house in the suburbs isn’t the only way,” added Soulek. “There’s a lot of thought that went in to every little knuck and cranny of this place.”
If you would like to learn more about Docomomo you can visit their website and Facebook Page for more information.
