Behold the Ain-terprise

Although Brooke Anderson was brought up in a modern milieu, she credits her famous “Grams'', actress Gloria Swanson, for imbuing her with a love for the traditional. As a young woman, Anderson frequently visited her grandmother's stylish apartment across in New York.

“It was formal but comfortable and filled with antiques and books,'' she says, adding that her grandmother always wanted to be an opera singer. “She had a piano in the living room, where she would play and sing.''

Two worlds

Today, that green baby grand has a place of honour in Anderson's new Los Angeles home, a 1938 classic designed by Gregory Ain. Though she fancies the traditional, Anderson is also a fan of modern architecture.

The former gerontologist-turned-writer grew up in a 1950 redwood, steel and glass home designed by architects John Rex and Douglas Honnold and landscaped by Garrett Eckbo.

The state-of-the-art residence, published in Arts & Architecture's June 1956 issue, featured built-in furnishings, radiant floor heat and stainless-steel cabinets.

“I loved the sense of proportion and light in my parents' home. It was beautiful but cold,'' Anderson says. “I knew that if I was fortunate to have a modern home, I would fill it with friendly furnishings. I love modern architecture but I love my comfort too.''

Ain, a second-generation modernist architect, created Anderson's split-level home for pharmacist A.O. Beckman and his wife and two daughters.

According to Anthony Denzer, assistant professor of architectural engineering at the University of Wyoming and author of Gregory Ain: The Modern Home as Social Commentary, “it was not typical of Ain's prewar houses''.

Ain is perhaps best known for bringing cost-efficient, modern homes to the working classes. He is also credited as being one of the first architects to design a house that did not contemplate servants. He did, however, include a maid's quarters in the more upscale Beckman home.

Access to functionality

From the front door, Ain created direct access to the functional realms of the home — zones for sleeping, leisure and work.

An office with its own entrance faces the street in the front wing of the house; children's bedrooms are down the hall. The dining room, kitchen and bedroom overlook the backyard.

Designed in a pinwheel shape, the house allows gardens on three sides.

Anderson bought the mid-century gem six years ago. Out on a neighbourhood walk, she fell in love with the house nestled along a sycamore-lined street.

“They had an open house every weekend and after six months of walking by,'' she says, “I bought it.'' She made small changes but lived for nearly three years in the home before calling in a friend, interior designer Joe Nye, to help with some serious renovation.

True to the modern

“We wanted it to be as true as possible to the modern home but making it comfortable was also equally important,'' Nye says. “Comfort in a modern home seems like an oxymoron. Modern homes back then were all about effect — how it looked rather than how it felt — but it doesn't have to be that way.''

Anderson's 2,100-square-foot residence feels comfortable — and modern. Filled with traditional and modern furnishings and with a peppering of memorabilia from her grandmum, the well-edited furnishings ooze aesthetic.

A down-filled sofa and club chairs sit atop original dark-stained oak floors in the living room. Nearby, a pair of red Chinoiserie chests that once sat on top of each other in Swanson's apartment now serve as coffee tables — colourful exclamation points in a room awash in cream and ivory hues.

A Regency dining table, doubles as a console and, when pulled out into the room, a formal dining table. Upstairs in the plush wall-to-wall carpeted master bedroom, a cushy chaise lounge in the corner of the room beckons.

Eclectic mix of ages

Downstairs, Anderson's everyday dining is done at a contemporary, white-laminated table in Ain's open-plan kitchen.

Nye gave it to Anderson as a gift, then surrounded it with her vintage Chippendale chairs; antique toile baskets filled with flowers complete the mix of old and new.

But just what would the mid-century great say of this home, appointed with antiques, down-filled sofas and spa-steam showers?

“It's true Ain designed for the working classes and was more concerned about economy,'' Denzer says, “but Ain was not possessive about his work.''