Tasteful Friends: Mid Century Modern in Bay City, Michigan

I can see references to the Robie House

If married a good man and stayed that would have been my future.

Love everything except the hideous, inappropriate furniture, but that would be easy to fix.

[quote] Love everything except the hideous, inappropriate furniture, but that would be easy to fix.

The staging is garbage.

It’s beautiful but I wouldn’t want to live there. Too cold feeling.

The marketing video is so odd, with the guy looking off to the side like a yearbook photo.

Love the house, but for a house with all that glass it looks like you're pretty exposed to the street and the neighbors. I don't think I could handle living in a fishbowl like that.

A lot of that could be fixed with proper landscaping, R6.

This house is so stunning. If this was in the Hollywood Hills it would be $10 million. Alas, it is in Bay City, Michigan (which has seen better days but is still cute — I was randomly there last year and it had lots of pretty older homes).

It would have been wonderful to own in 1956.

Today it's nice to look at in a coffee table book about mid century style homes, but I wouldn't want to live there.

[quote]The marketing video is so odd, with the guy looking off to the side like a yearbook photo.

LMAO!😄

Is this house anywhere near where Mac and Rachel lived?

Way too many goddamn windows, and looks as if it would feel more like an architectural curiosity than a comfortable home. Some of the fixtures and beams are cool, though.

Great to put a face & voice to a fellow DLer.

[quote]Is this house anywhere near where Mac and Rachel lived?

No, Underhill Terrace is located in Bay City, Illinois.

[quote]Great to put a face & voice to a fellow DLer.

The second time the voice said "midmod," I had to turn it off.

R14 reminds me that Bauer Barbecue 2 has been paywalled (@ 249 posts).

Apparently, someone was baking cookies in that kitchen during the filming.

Outside looks like a real estate agency.

From the street it looks a community center. No thanks.

A lot of Frank Lloyd Wright concepts overworked and poorly applied. It doesn't feel space or have a good sense of the progression of spaces. The various window forms and placement don't seem to have been used to best advantage. There's little richness or skill on the materials and their juxtaposition.

Still, a talented interior design knowledgeable of the period could make it a pleasant, interesting space, but I don't think it's ever going to be a beautiful space. I don't hate it, it's just an under $300k interesting but not distinguished house.

Better to have friends who owned it who throw fun parties.

It looks like an elementary school.

A flat roof in Michigan? Yikes!

Utilities must be hell. All those windows will bake you in the summer and freeze you in the winter. That was okay back in the 50s when energy was dirt cheap and nobody gave a damn about waste.

I like it but I would like to see photos instead of that video with the annoying narrator reading an annoying script about ‘almost organic connection.’ Fuck that, just let me see the house and I’ll know if I like it or not.

I love all the windows because I am a plant fanatic. But I do agree that it has an ‘elementary school’ feel. I like Midcentury Modern aesthetics but some such houses toe a line between faithful to the era and industrial spaces instead of home dwellings.

I just want to pinch the cheek of the realtor and tell him he acts very grown up for a little boy.

[quote] I love all the windows because I am a plant fanatic. But I do agree that it has an ‘elementary school’ feel. I like Midcentury Modern aesthetics but some such houses toe a line between faithful to the era and industrial spaces instead of home dwellings.

Does it look like an elementary school or do many elementary schools look like mid century modern home?

R24 Chicken and egg...I don’t know, but the point is that I don’t know if I would want to live inside what to me has a bit of a public school building vibe.

So it's been for sale since 2018 and has only come down in price by $5K? ($600,000 to $595,000).

Maybe if they'd filmed it on a sunny spring day instead of gloomy late fall.

I love mid century modern design and there is a lot of great MCM across the country.

This, however, is not great design. It's very mediocre and simply blah.

It's all vaguely reminiscent of an overblown rumpus room. I'm also not fond of the choice in woods or stone.

This historical Victor Nurmi Exhibit Home is available right down the block for $300K less .

I really love it. I'd live there in a heartbeat for all the natural light and the great flow from room to room and level to level.

The staging was terrible, but I don't know what kind of budget they had to do it.

I was also struck by the flat roof in Michigan and imagining the weight of the snow and wondering how often someone has to go up there and clear it off so there isn't a massive ice dam.

And as much as I love the windows, I'd worry about utilities, especially the gas bill. If the family room's fireplace is gas, that might help a lot toward zone heating.

The landscaping was bare to the point of barren, even if the video was shot outside of a green season. I'd want some evergreens to provide year-round privacy around the rooms that have so many windows.

The patio in particular needs some sprucing up, but that would be some of the fun.

If I had the money and time to sink into it. I don't think my ticket is coming in anytime soon.

R29, I knew that was a 1930s house. It's very nice.

The narrator is just way too precious.

It looks like a attorney's office. I would need something on those windows when the orgy is going on.

I was thinking a neighborhood branch library,

R29, that white house down the street is beautiful and a steal at $299K! I didn't realize Michigan real estate was so cheap.

R35 A lot of Michigan is insanely cheap. And there’s a reason. Jobs are generally hard to come by in those areas, and a lot of areas are underdeveloped or dilapidated.

Lovely house but where the hell is Bay City, Michigan? Is it close to any city?

I adore mid Century Modern, but there was nothing especially different about that house. It may be well preserved, but it doesn't seem like a great example of Mid-Century Modern. The MCM that I love NEVER looks like a school or an office building and that house certainly did.

As someone said upthread, I'd rather see photos that watch that video. And the realtor reading off a bland script was beyond annoying. That contributed greatly to my poor reaction to the house.

That part of the country looks like ass from November until April. I hope he's had the virtual tour reshot and done on a sunny day. The landscaping is horrible and the sunken "deck," a term I've never heard in 20+ years in RE, looks like hell-it needs power washed. The Realtor was adorable and I'd like to kiss him! If the house R29 linked is available, he's way off on pricing.

OP that looks like a public school

It's a frozen wasteland for six months of the year.

Indian Guides is CULTURAL GENOCIDE! And we can't feed this generation of kids the 50s and 60s party food that house calls for. It would be a very dreary place today to raise a family, without the optimistic cheery superficial lifestyles of it's time.

I can't believe the living room ceiling forbids the use of privacy curtains!

And there's a pole-dancing pole in the basement recreation room.

"Travis" the realtor on his way to choir practice.

(btw - His wife's name is Hailey."

R43 pole dancing strengthens your core it’s a tough work out. You should try it.

Other than that I’m with R20 the building has a school vibe. I wouldn’t want to live there

I can't believe the house at R29 is only 300k. Except for the weird tarp thing, I really like it.

The white house that is priced at $299k is so pretty

[quote] I can't believe the house at [R29] is only 300k. Except for the weird tarp thing, I really like it.

Are you referring to the awning?

[quote] The white house that is priced at $299k is so pretty

It’s 2000 sq ft smaller. I wonder if the garage was original or added at some point. I hate the multi colored cabinets in the kitchen.

Kind of looks like a public library; and as others have noted, it would be a bitch to heat & cool. You'd need mega-window coverings & shades. I love the Nurmi Drive property - & it's $300K - good lord! It looks like a Kennedy Compound-type property - like maybe where Pat lived (not as nice as the others, but still nice). But after seeing how Michiganders acted during the pandemic, you couldn't pay me to live in MI.

It could also be a Senior Citizen Community Center.

Bay City, MI is the home of Madonna. Seems like a nice, modest place to live. Cities aren't for everyone.

A little political fact ... Bay City is the largest city in Bay County, which is one of the Michigan counties that turned red in the 2016 presidential election thereby helping Trump win the state's 16 electors. Trump won Michigan by a mere 10K votes, and won Bay County by 7K votes. Prior to 2016, Bay County had been blue in every presidential election since the 1988.

Well FUCK THEM, then.

R20 it looks exactly like our local elementary school.

Don’t forget about us and our VPLs though!