MCM Classicism in Sausalito, $4.285M

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Someone once quipped (and only partly in jest) that Roger Lee (1920-1981) was the Bay Area’s “greatest forgotten architect”. Like most jokes, there’s some truth there. Lee was a product of USC Berkeley’s School of Architecture and worked in classic Second Bay Area tradition, primarily for a specific clientele of well-educated intellectuals of modest means and taste. Most of Lee’s houses can be found in the hills of the East Bay where his simple, straightforward residential projects took Bauhaus ideals and translated them with unadorned expanses of redwood and glass in post-and-beam construction. Lee moved to Hawaii in 1964 and continued his practice there– which may account for his partial eclipse– just as Modernism was heating up here.

In Sausalito, and new to the market this week, this classic Roger Lee built in 1955 was expanded and rescripted in 2000 by architect Roger Swatt (now of Swatt | Miers)one of the Bay Area’s leading Modernists. More recently, the current owners have put it in the hands of Julie Dowling of Dowling Studios to refine Lee’s and Swatt’s vision; it’s a formidable design legacy for any property.

Tucked into a steep slope. the long, open plan of the house has views of Richardson Bay and Mount Tamalpais backed up by a verdant outlook onto Coastal oaks.

More: Go to the listing for additional details and outstanding photography, plus a video and floor plans. A unique opportunity to own a significant, legacy work of architecture in perfect condition with amazing views, represented by Joseph Lucier and Stacey Caen at Sotheby’s International Realty San Francisco Brokerage.

For additional information about Roger Lee, go to Patrick Sisson’s excellent overview of his career in Northern California.