Snower House

In 1953, Robert Snower wrote to the Hungarian architect Marcel Breuer to ask if he would consider designing a home for his growing family.

“We hope for a house that we will consider exceedingly handsome,” the letter read, “yet which will not too seriously offend what in our opinion are duller eyes than our own. Of course, I am probably asking the impossible.”

A little while later, Breuer wrote back in the affirmative.

Marcel Breuer's Snower House, following a restoration by Hufft Projects. Photograph by Michael Robinson.

Over the next year, the architect and his team designed a home for the Snowers in Mission Hills, Kansas that remains an arresting example of Breuer’s detail-oriented architectural style. With an exterior clad in cedar and painted with swathes of blue and orange, the residence represents refined, Bauhaus-rooted design both inside and out—with interiors that incorporate bookshelves, desks, and vanities in the structure itself.

“We shall buy all new furniture and will want your advice in regards to interiors as well as exteriors,” Snower wrote to Breuer. Indeed, the architect mapped out seating arrangements with the same level of care that went into the plan of the house itself, specifying the type and orientation of furniture in the living room and bedrooms that together form the upper floor of the house, cantilevered off a masonry base.

Sketch of furniture in the living room by Marcel Breuer. Image from the Marcel Breuer Papers, Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries.

“We hope for a house that we will consider exceedingly handsome, yet which will not too seriously offend what in our opinion are duller eyes than our own.”

—Robert Snower

Recently acquired by a couple with an interest in modern architecture, the Snower House needed a careful appraisal to return the structure to Breuer's distinct specifications, made over 60 years ago. For the restoration, the new owners enlisted the help of Hufft Projects, a Kansas City-based architecture firm with a focus on integrating builders and fabricators into the design process.

With their hands-on approach and the fortuitous discovery of Robert Snower's archive of ephemera from the construction process, the designers at Hufft Projects were able to restore the home as close as possible to its original state. They used paint chips from Breuer’s old binders to get the colors right and built custom casework that matched the dimensions and materials specified in the original plans.

While the furniture arrangement has changed since Breuer designed the space, a pair of Barcelona Chairs and a Saarinen Side Table bolster the modernist aesthetic. Photograph by Michael Robinson.

When it came to the furniture, Hufft Projects took the same meticulous approach. “We took inspiration that Breuer specified the Florence Knoll sofa for the living room. In fact, he used that same sofa in many of his houses,” Jesse Hufft told Knoll. “We relied on that direction for all of the pieces we added to the home.”

Apart from a pair of Mies van der Rohe Barcelona Chairs, all of the furniture in the living room is original to the home. A Florence Knoll Sofa remains in the center of the space with a chaise lounge designed by Marcel Breuer positioned next to it. In the corner, a Womb Chair and Side Table by Eero Saarinen create a corner to read books plucked from the built-in storage unit.

“We took inspiration that Breuer specified the Florence Knoll sofa for the living room. In fact, he used that same sofa in many of his houses.”

—Jesse Hufft

A Womb Chair and Side Table by Eero Saarinen in the corner of the living room. Photograph by Michael Robinson.

Original Knoll designs pepper the other rooms of Snower House, and have remained in place since its renovation. On the lower floor, a desk chair by Vincent Cafiero matches an early sofa design by Florence Knoll, both upholstered in red leather, while a Saarinen Executive Armless Chair continues the narrative of the mid-century modern.

On the lower floor, vintage designs by Vincent Cafiero, Florence Knoll, and Eero Saarinen. Photograph by Michael Robinson.

Hufft Projects restored the abode keeping in mind the uniquely Bauhaus principle of the gesamtkunstwerk—the house as a holistic work of art. From the patina of the ceiling to the still-functional Fisher Stereo, Snower House is a pristine relic of mid-century modern architecture, brought up-to-date with the same level of exactitude that Breuer brought to his original design.