Mid Century Homes Tampa Archives - Mid-Century Modern Homes Tampa

Meet the Home that’s Not Just a Stunner but Also an Architectural Prize!

I’m always excited to have a new listing, but this one especially gets my blood going. Two reasons: It’s a classic mid-century modern, a personal style favorite of mine, and it’s also a house with a pedigree. The Puritan Road residence is a (rare in Tampa) Frank DePasquale home – more about this fascinating, accomplished architect later.

Frank DePasquale Mid Century Home in Tampa

But first, the house is possessed of more than half a dozen elements guaranteed to take your breath away.

Its location – situated on the widest part of the Hillsborough River – cannot be replicated. As in the iconic works of Frank Lloyd Wright, an architect who greatly influenced DePasquale, the home’s placement creates the illusion that the structure sprang up organically. Like many of DePasquale’s homes both in Tampa and in Durham, North Carolina, where he became a local celebrity in his later years, the structure appears to be an inevitable part of the landscape.

The waterfront location is a launching point for the nine-mile cruise to one of the crown-jewel parks in the region, Lettuce Lake. Many islands can be spotted along the way, complete with osprey-nest-topped trees. Conveniently, a new wooden dock with lift can accommodate a 20-foot boat. A concrete boat carport with 20 foot ceilings makes protected storage a snap.

And one more word about the location: Striking cloud-filled skies on sunny days and the occasional late-afternoon dramatic, electric thunderstorm are spectacular to behold from this river vantage point.

Freakin’ Awesome Features of the Mid-Century Approach

If you’re not already sold on the mid-century style, let me share a few aspects that always win my heart. Architects in the mid-century modern tradition were breaking new ground in their time. (This three-bedroom, two-bath home was built in 1961.) A primary pleasure of living in a mid-century home is the way the separation between indoor and outdoor space is made all but invisible. The feat is achieved through the generous use of glass and floor-to-ceiling windows and sliders.

The indoor-outdoor meld plays out in this house, which contains 4,200 square feet under roof, via a raised, covered patio and a giant wall of glass sliders that creates a river-view lookout area from the family and living rooms as well as the kitchen. The master bedroom, too, offers floor-to-ceiling views of the backyard, pool and Hillsborough River on two separate walls.

Did you notice catch the mention of a pool? It offers a striking sweep of curved corners and blue shimmering water in contrast with the right angles and clean straight lines of the home’s design. An ample expanse of pool deck could be the scene of Gatsbyesque parties where the main conversation draw could be the house itself! Even the steps leading to the back patio create a touch of drama and also signal another tipoff to the mid-century design: lavish use of organic materials, including block, brick, stucco and wood.

Incidentally, much of the home’s original, phenomenal design was left intact by homeowners who appreciated the structure’s many well-thought-out details.

Who was DePasquale?

Frank DePasquale, who died in 2010, made a splash in Tampa even though he worked full-time in the city for only a few short years. Two well-known Temple Terrace homes, both on South Riverhills Drive, show his handiwork. His obituary notes that he was the architect behind Clair-Mel Elementary School, opening in 1960, “which was built on such a flat site that it required five feet of compacted fill to create drainage to Tampa Bay.”

A WWII vet and graduate of NCSU School or Architecture and Engineering in the Raleigh-Durham area, DePasquale came to Tampa at the behest of an architect formerly from Durham, Leslie Walker. After Walker’s firm dissolved, DePasquale established a solo practice in Tampa. But during a recession in late 1962 DePasquale was confronted with a drying up of projects. He returned to Durham, where he became a leading architect, making his mark by designing homes, schools and churches. His award-winning structures in Durham include the Durham Arts Council building and the Hayti Heritage Center. He helped create the Historic District Commission in Durham city government.

You can find out more about him, including photos and a personal anecdote, here: http://www.ncmodernist.org/depasquale.htm

A Few More Reasons to Jump on This House

In addition to its classic mid-century modern appeal, this home is unique. You’ll notice that the square feet of heated space is listed at 2,012, but there is more than 4,000 square feet of space under roof. That’s in part because there’s a large bonus room with an AC unit and electricity that could be an artist’s studio or a man- or femme-cave.

Other assets worth mentioning are the whole-house water-treatment system, remodeled kitchen, upgraded electrical panel, hurricane-rated garage door and 11-foot ceilings throughout (and in some places the ceiling measures 15 feet). A new well pump and pool pump mean never having to pay for water. The oversized two-car garage with workshop area has extra storage, with no deed restrictions to hamper your style. The home’s front sports a unique cantilevered porch that jets out from the bottom of the house suspended in air. The lot measures more than half an acre.

What’s not to love in this fabulous, lifestyle-enhancing, historic home with a list price of $425,000? In truth, multiple offers wouldn’t surprise me. If you’re interested, you know where you find me!

Contact me if you want to know more!

Call Rae Catanese. Click Here

Times are Changing:

Mid-Century Modern Craze meets New Century Modern Luxury

Part 1: An Original Mid-Century Home in Carrollwood

I became involved in marketing and finding mid-century modern homes last year when I decided to purchase an old 1950s1960s block home to renovate for myself. I love the open-house concept, clean lines, angled roofs, and the melding of indoors and outdoors with lush tropical courtyards and expansive glass that was used to allow natural light into the home.

What I learned was the homes I found had potential to be spectacular, but no homes were for sale that were already renovated and had the square footage I wanted.

Most original mid-century homes were between 1,100 and 1,400 square feet. The homes could cost anywhere between $150,000 to $350,000 unrenovated, depending on location. Investors are not buying these homes to flip, and the trend is so new that homeowners who have rehabbed mid-century homes aren’t yet selling them.

Finding what I wanted became a real struggle.

First, the neighborhoods where most of the mid-century homes were located were not in areas I personally wanted to live, near the urban core of either Tampa or downtown St. Pete. You can find more inventory in Temple Terrace, a suburb of Tampa near the University of South Florida, but the majority of homes are in Pinellas, in neighborhoods like Lakewood Estates, The Pink Streets, Jungle Prada and Gulfport.

Location not the only problem

The second obstacle I ran into was that if a mid-century modern home was located in a flood zone – such as Ballast Point or Beach Park in South Tampa or near water in St. Petersburg – I could spend only 60 percent of the home’s current depreciated value on renovation. That “value” is determined by the property appraiser. By city rules, you are restricted in the amount of money that you can sink into a flood-zone home.

Most of the homes’ depreciated values were coming in low – very low, between $60,000 and $80,000. It hit me that I would not be able to do the renovations I wanted per county guidelines.

Builders were telling me that it would take somewhere between $60,000 and $80,000 to do a whole-house renovation, a figure I found reasonable given that I’ve already got one or two home renovations under my belt. Most of these houses would need new windows and doors. Kitchens would need gutting, and bathrooms would need to be completely redone. What’s more, it’s a rare homeowner who would not wish to expand a mid-century home’s square footage, because the master bedrooms and bathrooms are too small for current-day tastes.

Experience also told me that even the $60,000 and $80,000 estimates might be low. First-blush estimates are sometimes unrealistic because problems are discovered with older homes once you start the renovation. Anyone who watches HGTV knows that old plumbing, wiring, and a host of other factors can significantly increase the cost and blow your budget.

Building a home that adheres to current building codes, even if in a flood zone, will allow you to do almost anything provided the home will fit on the lot. Insurance costs on a new home can be lower, and of course modern, energy-efficient building materials are used from the get-go – and all of that can add up to big savings. I’m getting quotes as low as $400 a year for flood insurance for a 2,900-square-foot brand-new home in a flood zone. Homeowners insurance is running about $1,500 a year as well. You might have to shell out double or triple that amount on insurance costs for older, smaller homes – they’re just not built to withstand hurricanes and probably fail to meet today’s building codes in other ways as well.

This is the main reason new construction of these new-century modern homes has taken off in a big way.

I became part of the new trend

I decided that building a new home was going to be the best bang for my buck!

Once set on that course of action, I was on a mission to find a home builder who could construct a new-century modern home. It is a term coined to describe architecture reminiscent of the classic mid-century modern home, yet utilizing current materials, color palettes and architectural theory.

I met with several builders of Modern Homes in Tampa Bay Their vision was in line with what I wanted, and we shared the same passion for modern architecture: A blend of the old mid-century with new-century modern. Many of the homes resemble the famous mid-century modern architect Joseph Eichler. After World War II, Eichler built some 11,000 single family homes in California.

Many New-Century Homes are located in unlikely places, such as Historic Kenwood in St. Petersburg. Sometimes finding larger lots in the urban areas is difficult, but these designs don’t necessarily need large lots.

What they look like

The design is simple and low profile, having open spaces and interiors that open up to views of landscaped courtyards. These lines really allow you to have viewpoints from the inside of the home out – something to look at while you sip a glass of wine and relax while still maintaining privacy.

The homes are visually handsome, clean, and the open spaces make the home feel larger than it really is. There’s no wasted space. No two homes he builds are exactly the same because he is appealing to a sophisticated buyer who respects quality and uniqueness. He understands why people are moving from cookie-cutter suburbs back to the cities.

As a licensed Realtor, I decided to start a new website, https://midcenturymoderntampa.com/ . Please consider it your resource if you are looking to renovate or build a modernistic home.

You may also reach me at 813-784-7744 or send me an email here

To learn more about me: http://thetamparealestateinsider.com/about/

Mid-Century Modern Homes Tampa

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Frank DePasquale Mid-Century Home For Sale in Tampa!

Times are Changing: Mid-Century Modern Craze meets New-Century Modern Luxury

Mid-Century Modern Homes, MCM, Modern Homes, St. Petersburg, FL