In Love with a ‘Case Study’

Do you remember the last time you fell in love? Did it happen all at once or gradually? Was it your lover's looks that pulled you in, or his or her personality? Did you become obsessed, wondering about your lover's past, wanting to know more about their family, intrigued even by their flaws?

And did you find yourself singing your lover's praises to the world?

Such is what happened to Cord Stuckmann and Alfonso Cordon when they fell hard nearly a decade ago for Case Study House #26, a 1962 steel‐framed home that juts out bravely from a hillside in San Rafael's Peacock Gap neighborhood.

Since moving into the home, Cord and Alfonso have made a mission of promoting the heritage of its architect, Beverley David Thorne, and of the house—through Instagram and a website; by opening the home for visits from architects and students; presenting the home as part of a PBS documentary; and by constant research into Thorne, including by seeking to visit other Thorne‐designed homes.

"One interesting thing is that all his houses look very different," Cord says of the architect. “He didn't repeat like Richard Neutra, all the details again."

By visiting Thorne's homes, they hope to learn more about how his style developed. They would love to see a book published about the architect.

The men were living in an OK mid‐century home in San Francisco's Glen Park in 2015 when, sort of looking for a house but not avidly, they visited the San Rafael home during an open house simply because they had never visited a Case Study House before. Case Study houses were built from 1946 to 1966 in a program run by Arts & Architecture magazine to promote modern homes.

Case Study #26 was designed by Thorne (1924‐2017), who'd won fame a few years earlier with his first major commission, the Dave Brubeck house in Oakland. Thorne was known for his use of steel framing to master difficult sites and create soaring interiors.

Construction was sponsored in part by Bethlehem Steel to promote its product; the house was widely published in the professional and popular press.

"I didn't know that there was a Case Study House up here," Cord says. "I did not know anything about Beverley."

Shortly before the house went on the market, the original owner, Renee Ketcham, had recently died. The home was lingering on the market, though it had attracted press and many architecturally inclined visitors. Cord and Alfonso bought it around Thanksgiving 2015.

"We were not looking for a mid‐century modern house," says Cord, who is an architect trained in Germany and Italy. "We were not looking for a Case Study House. We just liked good architecture. This felt very well designed and had a good feeling, and, of course, an amazing site with a view."

Cord and Alfonso's attraction to the home proved more than skin deep. They wondered about it. Why did it look the way it did? Had it always looked that way? What sorts of trials and travails had beset their home over the years?

They reached out to Thorne himself, but never heard back. Thorne died within two years of their buying the home. They spoke to members of Thorne's family; to the last editor of Arts & Architecture; and to the Ketcham family, who were happy to reminisce but had few photos showing their life in the home.

"If we could see photos from the '80s, I would like to collect them to really see how it developed and to really see what's original, what was changed later," Cord says.

One change: the steel beams, once a sort of gold bronze in tone, today are white. Otherwise there are few changes. Cord and Alfonso made some minor modifications: removing a door to the kitchen, changing some flooring. But all in all, the home is much as Thorne had designed it.

The steel has held up well over 60‐plus years, Cord says. Not a pane of glass has broken. The radiant heat still works fine.

"It's not your typical American architecture," Cord says of the home. "It really expresses the [steel] structure." He adds: "Because of the steel, you can have this big, open floor plan without columns."

The main effect of the steel structure, its owners say, is light, which infuses the house through a glass wall lookout over a valley, and high clerestory windows that bring in light from all sides.

Alfonso says: "The light that we have right now, it helps you to do things much better. I mean, read better, cook better, work better."

Learning about Thorne's architecture and the detailing of his homes also provides added enjoyment to living in the home. Cord and Alfonso go out of their way to find original, or original‐looking, lights and other detailing when things needs to be replaced.

"If you have a mid‐century modern house, research it," Cord advises. "Never give up."