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Look!: House With No Door

090808-nodoor.jpg This weekend I was out and about checking out some Mid Century homes in the KC metro and came across this one. The house with no door. Click through the jump for closeups!

 
 

090808-nodoor2.jpg This is the view to the right of the driveway. Some fantastic skinny Mid Century windows an exterior blind and then the brick wall.... no door to be had here!

090808-nodoor3.jpg To the left of the driveway there is a fence taking you around back. We are assuming the primary entrance is in the garage, but it would certainly make things interesting to have people over for dinner! Maybe just for fun, not tell them you don't have a front door and see how long it takes them to call.

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Look!, Mid Century Modern, Kansas, Kansas City, Mission

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Comments (14)

Oh how strange... i think if i moved in i'd have to add a door.

posted by DahliaCactus on September 8th 2008 at 1:07pm
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This isn't so uncommon for mid-century homes...
...and most folks would be smart enough to follow the pathway to the left of the driveway.

posted by bepsf on September 8th 2008 at 1:09pm
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this house exemplifies how some mid-century design is not attractive, door or not.

posted by Seaside on September 8th 2008 at 1:31pm
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To present such a blank wall to the street, makes for antisocial, anticommunity architecture, in my opinion, no matter whether the style is midcentury modern or contemporary "colonial" ranch...

posted by hypostyle on September 8th 2008 at 1:33pm
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I think the mailbox placement makes it more confusing. if the mailbox was on the left side of the garage (as opposed to right in the middle of the doorless front wall) and if the fence looked slightly more inviting it probably wouldn't be that awkward.

posted by lcg on September 8th 2008 at 1:35pm
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I live in a midcentury house that did not have a front door either. I moved the side door to the front, and it's much more welcoming. It also improved the flow of traffic in the house. About half the homes in my area (all the same model house) do not have front doors.

posted by figs on September 8th 2008 at 1:41pm
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My guess is that the front door was a casualty of a not-so-mid-century renovation.

posted by patrick (the other one) on September 8th 2008 at 1:44pm
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Is the house on a corner? If so the door is probably on the other side.

posted by eleany on September 8th 2008 at 2:12pm
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This house was actually designed by a well known mid-century California architect A. Quincy Jones of the firm Jones and Emmons. It was called the House that Home Built and it was part of a NBC TV show and a National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) nationwide campaign.

Some Californians might recognize this as an Eichler home from around 1955. Joe Eichler built this home on both sides of the bay.

You can see an article about the house here.

http://www.kcmodern.com/articles.htm

Another version of the article including the plan is available here.

http://www.eichlernetwork.com/ENStry25.html

posted by moderns-r-us on September 8th 2008 at 2:20pm
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By the way the house has a private side courtyard where the entry door is located. Most of these had carports originally and it is sort of 'H' shaped in plan.

posted by moderns-r-us on September 8th 2008 at 2:23pm
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interesting bit of architectural history moderns

posted by JonathanB on September 8th 2008 at 3:20pm
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I'm with Seaside.

posted by madampince on September 8th 2008 at 4:03pm
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Maybe ghosts live there.

posted by K T G on September 8th 2008 at 6:28pm
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KTG, You're probably right. As everyone knows, ghosts don't use doors. They much prefer going through walls, it's more direct that way.

posted by ce_pelle on September 9th 2008 at 6:39am
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