Mid-Century Modern mania

By Kristen Peterson

Sunday, Jan. 14, 2007 | 7:18 a.m.

What: Mondo Lounge Atomic Frolic

When: Jan. 26-28

Headquarters: Aruba Hotel, 1215 Las Vegas Blvd. South

Tickets: $30, www.mondoatomic.com

Tour: The booklet and maps for the self-drive tour are $20. Docents will be available to guide tours at three stops on the tour on Jan. 27.

Paradise Palms

Location: Between Desert Inn Road and Flamingo Road and Maryland Parkway and Eastern Avenue

Built: 1957-1959

Developer: Irwin Molasky

Architects: William Krisel and Dan Palmer, known for building thousands of Modern homes in Southern California

Details: One-story horizontal homes with flat or angled roofs and futuristic embellishments. Heavy use of stone screen, which is patterned; open concrete blocks that provide shade, yet allow light through.

Edward A. Greer Education Center

Location: 2832 E. Flamingo Road

Built: 1965

Architect/engineer: Walter Zick and Harris Sharp

Details: Stone screen, clerestory windows, decorative brick, folded plate roof

Morelli House

Location: Built on Desert Inn Estates, moved to Ninth Street and Bridger Avenue

Built: 1959

Designers: Antoni Morelli and Richard Small

Details: Stone screen front, indoor/outdoor space

Heading west on East Fremont Street, Mary Margaret Stratton spots a rundown storefront building.

"Look at that streamline modern awning," she exclaims. "That is an outstanding building."

The shabby building looks more like dilapidated wallpaper lining the very neglected stretch of East Fremont Street.

But spend five seconds looking at it with Stratton and you'll see it as a classic example of Mid-Century Modern architecture.

If anyone can spread the word on our Mid-Century Modern treasures, it's Stratton.

The former Los Angeles resident, a member of the Los Angeles Conservancy Modern Committee, moved here two years ago and started Atomic Age Alliance, a Mid-Century Modern group in Las Vegas.

At the end of this month, she'll launch her 164-stop Mid-Century Modern architectural tour to run in conjunction with a national conference for fans of Mid-Century pop culture, kitsch and design.

The tour winds through the Paradise Palms neighborhoods off Desert Inn Road , the Glen Heather Estates, UNLV and its surroundings, downtown and side trips that even include Sunset Park's tiki statue.

Visitors will even trek through Stratton's own lime green 1963 Paradise Palms home that she and her husband bought less than a year ago and are renovating to the era: a tangerine kitchen, a golf motif (with putting greens in the front yard) and industrial tile floor common in rec rooms of the past.

Local real estate agent Mark Minelli calls Stratton a purist. Indeed, she does sound a little disgruntled as we weave through Paradise Palms and she points out the Mid-Century horizontal homes that have been badly remodeled, destroying their architectural integrity.

"There's another 'remuddle,' " she says, looking out the car window. "They just decided to add on a square room for no reason."

But Minelli, who sells only Mid-Century Modern houses, understands Stratton and even calls himself a fan. He sponsored the tour. "There's an underground culture of us. There is a big Modern movement taking shape in Las Vegas."

The movement generally spans from 1945 to 1965, but structures from the '30s and the '70s often get lumped in. Much of Las Vegas' Mid-Century Modernism centers on the 1960s.

For many, Stratton's tour will be a giant eye opener.

Who knew that the Flora Dungam Humanities building at UNLV is a rock star of Mid-Century Modernism in Las Vegas and revered as much as the Promenade strip mall across the street? Or that the residential homes in Paradise Palms, designed by William Krisel and Dan Palmer (noted for their work in Palm Springs) have a huge following?

Or that the Edward A. Greer Education Center, a Clark County School District office building on East Flamingo Road, is another gem boasting cornerstones of modernism: decorative block, stone screen, the blending of indoor/outdoor spaces and a folded plate roofline.

"You drive by all of this stuff all of the time and it becomes background. Hopefully this gives some insight," Stratton says.

It could inspire us to care about Findlay Motor Buildings (formerly Pat Clark Pontiac) with its dramatically angled roofs - one of Las Vegas' last stellar examples of intact Googie architecture - and the Ranchera Medical Center before it's too late. The two-story structure, off Rancho and Sahara, is the gem of the tour, but nearly empty of tenants and not long for this world. Its cantilever, decorative concrete screen, original globe-lighted interiors, raised tile fountains (not in use) and indoor/outdoor characteristics make it quintessentially modern.

"This is an undiscovered treasure," Stratton says. "Especially with the interior being as intact as it is. It's been in a time machine for a while. I have not seen the likes of this kind of building in a while, in terms of style and the way it's been taken care of.

"Not only is this the gem of the city, we think it's highly endangered."

The building is a favorite of Lynn Zook, historian with Classic Las Vegas, who grew up here: "My doctor's office was there. It was full of professional businesses. It was quite the thing in its day. As that neighborhood changed over the years, so went the businesses."

Zook, who along with photographer Allen Sandquist helped research, says, the tour "helps to provide a history to the community. There are a lot of really cool buildings that people have forgotten about or they've moved here in the last 10 or 15 years and know nothing about."

The three-hour tour looks at residential, ecclesiastical, commercial and civic buildings. It begins at the former home of Antonio Morelli, bandleader at the Sands during the Sinatra era. The house was built in 1959 in the Desert Inn Estates. When Steve Wynn was razing the area for his new hotel, the Junior League of Las Vegas picked it up and moved it to Ninth Street and Bridger Avenue, where passers-by can appreciate its flat roofline covered in white rock, its clerestory windows and stone screen.

Some stops, such as Guardian Angel Catholic Church and the old El Morocco casino lobby, are well known. The Peppermill Restaurant and Fireside Lounge was included for its kitsch. Cashback Loans on Eastern Avenue was an A&W prototype and with its pavilion-style roof, a perfect example of building as sign. Also included are roadside attractions - the pink elephant at Diamond Inn and the Carpeteria genie. The Neon Boneyard is part of the tour, but the tour is about buildings, rather than signs. On the East Fremont Street portion of the tour, Stratton says, "We try not to talk so much about the signs, but the building. We talk about the development of the roadside motif."

Stratton says it breaks her heart to see rundown buildings, but adds, "I would rather see a really bad rundown and dilapidated building, than one that's fixed up and destroyed.

"Our house? It was a wreck, a dump. But I saw that as a dump that hasn't been destroyed yet. It still had life in it."

Passing a flat-roof home with a turquoise door, Stratton says, "That's very classic 1960s-era glamour. You can just imagine the kinds of parties they threw in the day."