Mid-Century Modern Utopia

When we think of mid-century modern, we picture the swooping glass and concrete gems in Palm Springs and Southern California designed by architects like Richard Neutra, Rudolph Schindler, and Joseph Eichler. Who knew there was a mid-century modern enclave right here in our own backyard?

This weekend I toured the Hilltop community in Bellevue, Washington. Hilltop, with its 39 homes and common spaces, collectively shines as an example of paradise kept.

The founding members, mostly artists, architects, builders, engineers, and University of Washington faculty, pioneered the cooperative community in 1948 to value modern architecture, natural beauty and democracy. The band of families united to design and build their dream neighborhood, pooling $15,000 to buy a 63-acre site in what was once a logged-off, brambled area with limited access at an elevation of about 1,000 feet. They mapped 40 one-acre lots surrounded by a greenbelt to preserve views, greenery and privacy. They built and maintain roughly 13 acres of common land, including nature trails, a swimming pool, a tennis court, picnic tables and a playground.

“The architecture here, it doesn’t impose itself on the land,” said a current owner. “The houses are often tucked in, but light, bright, and airy. People made them to be a good place to live in, not to dominate the landscape.” Averaging 2,200 square feet, their living space is dwarfed by the past decade’s McMansions, a gluttonous trend that’s reverting to more cozy spaces as people seek once again to simplify.

Architects who designed homes for the original Hilltop families —in some cases as their own residences — include Wendell Lovett, Lionel Pries, Johanson, John Morse, Bassetti, Paul Kirk and Roland Terry (with collaboration from others in the firm Tucker, Shields & Terry). They were young, for the most part, and in an experimental mode. "For us, it was a dream world," founding member, age 101, Victor Scheffer said recently of the place he calls "a noble idea."

Connie Reed, 83, and her art-historian husband, met at Yale University, moved West in 1951 and bought into the group soon after. They built their house in 1957, and she still lives there. "What was it," she asks, "the creative energy of the times? We really liked that you weren't so much buying a piece of property but a membership. I didn't know about that utopian stuff, but the idea of working together — you know your neighbors and share a sense of responsibility for each others’ well-being.”

Learn more about mid-century modern architecture from the people dedicated to preserving it: Documentation and Conversation of the Modern Movement, Western Washington.

Or look for a modern home of your own with 360 Modern.