This Boston modern home was designed by Marcel Breuer in 1957.  The open floorplan, ample natural light and retro bookcases are making us swoon.  I love how the decor reflects the home’s time period but with a modern edge, like with the modern sofa and sheepskin throw.  And do you see those awesome dining table chairs?  I love!

It’s rare to see lofts in apartments these days and when it’s done right, it can be absolutely gorgeous.  Check out a few that I dug up and love:

This modern home is a bachelor’s ideal retreat

Boston is home to history, education, sports, temperamental weather and families that have lived in the area for generations. But Boston also has its share of bachelors. Some choose to live in small apartments, with minimal accouterments, while others, as evidenced by this modern home outside Boston, MA, prefer all the amenities that the best of today’s architecture and design can afford.

Modern Home | Boston, MA

Although the road that leads to this waterfront haven on Lake Cochituate passes tiny cottages built in the early 1900s, this home is essentially new–gutted, raised above a new 10-foot foundation and rebuilt as a contemporary in 2005.

Address: 82 Evergreen Rd.
Price: $1,099,000
Style: Contemporary
Built: 2005
Square feet: 3,250
Rooms: 8
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 2
Sewer: Septic

The strain of climbing a steep hill is rewarded when you reach the top; the effort is recognized and the relief is appreciated. Imagine, then, climbing a hill in Boston, in Chestnut Hill, toward a home that is uniquely modern, structurally designed to caress the contours of a long hill, and environmentally sound.

You’d have the Chestnut Hill Residence, designed by Jonathan Levi Architects, and a testament to contemporary Boston homes.

From the Web site:

Occupying a wooded site in a suburban location, the maintenance of a number of large tress was a priority of the owners. This led to the formation of a narrow plan, which wraps and incorporates the largest specimen tree – a 42” maple located near the center of the site.

The form of the main building stretches diagonally both in plan and section, conforming to the sloped terrain and stepping back to allow each room a unique relationship to the south facing views. Careful placements of the detached garage and court provide privacy from the abutters as well as an intimate outdoor living space.

The architect Marcel Breuer arrived in Boston in the late 1950’s. Breuer, fresh from a stint at the Bauhaus School, signed on to create a unique modern home in Andover, a town 15 miles north of the city.

Andover was an ideal location for a modern home because it offered plenty of acreage on which to build. Constructed in the late fall, the landscape was often blurred by wind and the blowing of leaves, by undulating roads and long, plush hills that stretched into the gray New England sky. But Breuer’s architecture is alive with a clean and vibrant design. It retains nothing of the harsh winter, and instead brings to life a modern home with white and stone exterior, glass walls, and an open floor plan.

Marcel Breuer was a pioneer of the Bauhaus School. His work on this Boston home exemplifies his dedication and school of thought, a credo that understands building as the most sophisticated form of creativity.

The home is suffused with natural light and features built-in bookcases that stand as dividing walls between rooms.

The Glass Wall looks out over the property’s two acres of land. With it’s abundant light, stone and glass, the design of this modern Boston Home is derived from the lessons of the Bauhaus School.

Chaewon Kim and Beat Schenk are ascending architects. Founders of the design/build company UNI, their work has attracted scores of writers, admirers and detractors, each of whom is motivated by a desire to explain just what it is that Kim and Schenk are up to.

The couple lives and works in Cambridge, MA, where their renovated home is the Boston Globe’s Home of the Week.  In 2002, after they purchased the small cottage, the architects stripped down the walls, the plumbing, the shingles–everything. They wanted to renovate and design the house using affordable, do-it-yourself products. The result is a natural and unnatural hybrid, tucked within a plot of land that otherwise knows only of Colonial and Cape-cottage styles houses. Still, the home captures New England’s antiquity while celebrating a modernistic approach to 21st century architecture.

Corrugated Steel envelops the A-Frame cottage.

A wide, spacious kitchen with a slate backdrop.

Polycarbonate walls and incoming translucent light are features in an upstairs bedroom.

A combination of new and old, this project exemplifies the best of Boston’s modern homes.

It’s a renaissance of culture in Canada’s largest metropolis. The Crystal, inspired by the museum’s mineral collection, is Canada’s new cultural icon. It’s got no right angles, but many perspectives.

Eyesore or icon? Millennium Dome or the Guggenheim? The heated debate continues. But one thing is sure: the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM)’s Michael Lee-Chin Crystal is a groundbreaking piece of architecture. This type of work, as well as the numerous contemporary Toronto homes that attract attention, signal Toronto’s rise as a modern city.

It’s tough to overcome your reputation. For Boston–a city steeped in history and parochialism–the task is even tougher. The city’s architecture is diverse, but much of it is based on standard 19th and early 20th century techniques. Older structures like churches, libraries, and commercial property date back even further–all the way to the 1700’s.

The New Old South Church, located in Copley Square, is a prime example of Boston’s older Venetian Architecture. It was built by architects Cummings & Sears in 1874.

Boston is as much an historic city as it is an innovative one. Over the years, contemporary architecture has flourished, showing itself proudly, but always in the shadow of its grand forebears.

In the 1970’s, Boston and nearby Cambridge experienced a minor Postmodernism movement, with architects constructing numerous skyscrapers and buildings designed with strong angles, muted colors, and unique designs.

Constructed in 1973, Harvard’s Science Center is a Postmodern jewel.

Creative contemporary architecture has surged in recent years–a sign that Boston is eager to share its historic past with an equally rich present–and neighborhoods are being recognized as homes to unique individual structures.

In Cambridge, MIT hired architect Frank Gehry to construct a modern academic complex. The project, which included funding from Bill Gates and the building’s namesake, Frank Stata, among others, made a considerable splash in Boston’s architectural world.

MIT’s Stata Center

The building was completed in 2004. Here’s a snippet of the Boston Globe’s review.

“The Stata is always going to look unfinished. It also looks as if it’s about to collapse. Columns tilt at scary angles. Walls teeter, swerve, and collide in random curves and angles. Materials change wherever you look: brick, mirror-surface steel, brushed aluminum, brightly colored paint, corrugated metal. Everything looks improvised, as if thrown up at the last moment. That’s the point. The Stata’s appearance is a metaphor for the freedom, daring, and creativity of the research that’s supposed to occur inside it.” Read More from the review and about Contemporary Boston Architecture.

View from a Window in the Stata Center

But not all of the critics doled praise.

Former Boston University president John Silber noted that the Stata Center “is really a disaster.” He cited the building’s excessive use of glass as diminishing privacy, as well as saying that the building was not constructed with its inhabitants in mind.

On October 31, 2007, MIT sued architect Frank Gehry and the construction company, Skanska USA Building Inc., for “providing deficient design services and drawings” which caused leaks to spring, masonry to crack, mold to grow, drainage to back up, and falling ice and debris to block emergency exits. A Skanska spokesperson said that prior to construction Gehry ignored warnings from Skanska and a consulting company regarding flaws in his design of the amphitheater, and rejected a formal request from Skanska to modify the design.

Gehry said MIT was after his firm’s money, not reconciling issues with his approach to modern architecture.

This spat aside, Boston has become a safe haven for enterprising architects. The city’s landscape is evolving, and builders are taking note.

Below are more samples of recently completed structures.

The Apple Building

The Institute of Contemporary Art

Known as the Fishbowl; An office building outside of Boston.