Midcentury modern homes make up the majority of Denver-based agent Adrian Kinney’s listings.
Kinney always liked midcentury homes with their modern edge and warm natural features, but it wasn’t until he purchased his own authentic midcentury home that the agent fell into an obsession that, he says, has spread into every part of his life.
The home was an original Cliff May, an architect credited with creating the California ranch house. These homes were one story, had courtyards and focused on natural light and outdoor living. They boomed in the 1930s and later evolved more modernly as copycats replicated the style nationwide.
According to Kinney, the greater Denver market is rich in midcentury homes and has the largest concentration of Cliff May designs anywhere outside his home base of Southern California.
“Cliff May Homes” was a system of premade, affordable and panelized structures by May and architect Chris Choate. Local builders could be licensed to sell and assemble these stylish ranch homes quickly. The Harvey Park neighborhood of Denver has about 170 built in the 1950s.
“We ended up buying one of those houses in 2013 and I renovated it, won the Denver Mayor’s Design Award for it in 2016 and fell in love with the house,” Kinney told Homes.com in an interview. “I knew I loved it, but living in one itself really made me fall in love with it.”
Kinney had been selling real estate on the side of his property management career for several years, but in 2015 after purchasing his Cliff May and rehabbing it, moved full time into real estate sales, running as an independent agent and doing business as MidMod Colorado.
Today, his sales volume is made up of 65% midcentury modern homes.
He’s since sold his Cliff May and purchased another midcentury modern in the neighborhood of Lynwood. When not tinkering with its details, sourcing time-appropriate finishes and furniture or selling midcentury modern, Kinney renovates them.
“It’s literally spilled over from my personal life to making a business out of it,” said Kinney.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
What is your favorite part of your Lynwood midcentury modern home?
The courtyard. In true California fashion, you enter through the courtyard first, so there’s no true front door to the physical house. We have an outdoor living room, firepit and dining spot covered by a 60-year-old honey locust tree.
Especially in the spring, summer and fall, I’m out here working eight hours a day. We have breezeblock fronts so it’s private looking, but it’s a great spot to sit outside. I get a great view of the house with its tongue-and-groove ceilings and post-and-beam architecture. Plus, I get to be outside in the true indoor-outdoor concept that this modernist movement was about.
What is something most people don’t know about the Denver housing market?
Our range of date stamps of our housing inventory. We were very much a gold rush mining town, so we have a big stock of 1890s to about 1920-built homes. Classic Victorians, brick builds, and we call them Denver squares here, but the Sears craftsman homes.
Our Denver economy is really based on a boom-and-bust cycle until recently. We don’t have many homes from the mid-1920s through the late 1940s.
Then we had a rush of folks in the ’50s and ’60s, so we have a lot of classic Midwest ranches. We had a decent boom in the ’90s, so we have ’80s and ’90s structure, and 2014 timestamps.
We have a wide range from cool Victorian era, midcentury era and contemporary things being built. A lot of folks don’t know what to expect, but there’s a very wide and defined range.
What are your hobbies?
I love midcentury stuff, so the hobbies have become my whole career. We collect furniture from the era. We’re really into it.
What’s a hidden talent of yours?
I’m very handy. I can do most of the work: plumbing, electrical, tiling. It’s a blessing and a curse. I want to do it all, but I don’t have time for it.
It plays well to the business side. At showings, I can give off-the-cuff advice or the cost of things. I wasn’t just the general contractor on our fix and flips. I was the worker. And I’m self-taught.
