Born in Athens and educated at Princeton, architect Tician Papachristou arrived in Boulder in 1954, working at James Hunter's practice before going independent in 1956. Two years later, Papachristou produced the design for this Sampson house in Boulder's Chautauqua neighborhood. The house, and Papachristou's career, was the product of surging interest in modern architecture in postwar Boulder, which converged with a demand for innovative construction on a budget...
What caused these trends? Well, for one thing, Boulder's population nearly doubled from 1950 to 1960, from 19,999 to 37,718. It came close to doubling again by 1970, to nearly 67,000. Many of the clients who approached architects were starting families and building their first homes. This was possible in an expanding middle class, but it required some innovative thinking by the young architects of their generation. In the Sampson house, Papachristou exposed the wood structure and roof decking, and allowed space to flow from room to room and level to level, as in this view from the upper level into the two-level living and kitchen space...
Another factor in the explosion of modern innovation in Boulder was the University of Colorado, whose teaching staff was forward-thinking, open to new ideas, and at the same time constrained by limited academic salaries. They were receptive to open plans (fewer walls and doors meant lower costs) with lots of light and space for books, as in the clerestory-lit, book-lined Sampson library above, and the bedroom below. From 1958 to 1962, Tician Papachristou taught design at CU Boulder, so he had a chance to meet people with these shared interests...
The garden walls of concrete masonry units are part of the original scheme. Use of concrete block is an example of deploying inexpensive materials in a new context; the stacked-bond pattern provided a modern pattern for the humble material. The Sampson house is currently being renovated, and appears to have plenty of life left in it for its present owners...
In 1958, the same year as the Sampson house, Papachristou collaborated with Charles Haertling* on a house for Mr. & Mrs. Herbert Noble in Boulder's Flagstaff neighborhood. Their assignment was to provide something out of the ordinary on a very limited budget...
When the Nobles saw a model of the proposed design, which involved linked geometric tepees with the triangular planes of their roofs touching the ground, the couple's reaction was that this was a bit too far out of the ordinary...
…but it was within the limits of their strict budget, and dealt effectively with other constraints of their site (a stream, variable ground elevations, and woods) so they proceeded.
Today the house remains in its original form, and the growth of the trees and shrubs all but conceals its presence from traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue. The slant of the roof planes presented a challenge for planning interior space, as well as an opportunity for placement of plants and art in the low-headroom zones...
In 1958 and 1959 Papachristou designed two houses on adjacent sites in the University Hill neighborhood. The Jesser house was the second of this thematically linked duet, but it's the first house you see as you approach the corner of 6th & Euclid. Here's how it looks today, a composition of linked cylindrical volumes under sloping roofs...
The photo below shows how the Jesser house looked right after completion. Note how visible the adjacent Sirotkin house is to the west, before the trees grew to such impressive height. Closer to the street, there's the addition of a privacy fence. And somebody has traded the '54 Loewy Studebaker* in the old photo for a modern Audi A4...
The interior shows how the curve of the upper level, set inside the two-story glazed wall, creates spatial involvement. As in other work by this architect, floor to ceiling glazing in the public zones of the house allows the sense of space to flow from the outside in...
The photo below shows how well the simple materials have endured. These include painted concrete block, concrete, stained wood, and glass block.
Shallow windows tucked under the eaves provide more seclusion to bedroom areas.
The neighboring Sirotkin house designed the previous year, adjacent to the corner lot of the Jesser, features a more rectilinear plan, as evidenced below in a photo taken during construction in 1959. The cantilevered roof shows its scalloped upper and lower surface. Designed to promote light transmission through the interior, the shallow roof depth must have presented a challenge to the structural engineer.
The completed Sirotkin house, shown below in a photo taken this week, shows how the architect employed curving concrete block landscape walls to anchor the house to the site, connect interior to exterior space, and link it visually to the exuberantly curved Jesser house, its neighbor.
In 1960 George Woodman, a professor in CU's Philosophy Department, moved into the Sirotkin house with his family. The photo below, taken in the early Sixties during the family's time there, shows how the scalloped ceilings transmit light across the top of the concrete block wall.
The Woodmans took the photo below as well; note the careful detailing for the light steel structure supporting the open wood stair treads. Professor Woodman liked riding his bike to the nearby university, and the Woodmans became lifelong friends with architect Papachristou and his family...
The suspended steel fireplace was becoming a standard feature of modernist houses at midcentury, but this one is suspended over a fire pit recessed into the concrete floor instead of the more common raised hearth. Note the flat skylights filling the space between the structural beam and the curving concrete block wall.
The house at on Abbey Place in the Chautauqua neighborhood is a couple of blocks from the Sampson house that begins this essay, but it was designed earlier, in 1956, the year Papachristou started his practice. Deep eaves shade the concealed entry and the windows organized into a horizontal band, while wood siding connects these upper windows with a lower one, making an "L" shape that echoes the simple plan...
Deeper eaves shade windows that extend to the vaulted ceiling, and supporting beams express the structure within. The interior was remodeled in 2005, but the exterior facing Abbey Place is as original...
The Bowman house on Sentinel Rock Lane, below, was built to Papachristou's design in 1965; it presides with pagoda-like serenity over the high foothill vistas. The linear plan and expansive, cantilevered deck makes the house seem larger than its area, which is well under 2,000 square feet...
The roof scheme stacks two parallel gables, and a linear skylight set into the lower gable casts natural light on an interior of wood, concrete and steel. Floor-to-ceiling glazing erases the boundary between the interior space and the wood deck beyond, and the cantilevered hearth echoes that deck. During this period, Papachristou was advising NCAR director Walter Orr Roberts and architect I.M. Pei* on the site location for the National Center for Atmospheric Research*, and Pei suggested that the Boulder architect could broaden his professional horizons in New York City. Papachristou left for Manhattan the year the Bowman house was finished, taking a job with Marcel Breuer's firm, where he eventually became a partner. The Bowman house turned out to be his final Boulder project, a fitting cap to his involvement in Front Range architecture, and the creation of over a dozen innovative and memorable houses.
*Footnote: For earlier photo essays on Boulder's Midcentury Modern architecture, see "The Jetsons at Home in Boulder, Colorado (Part One)". featuring Charles Haertling's Menkick and Brenton houses and posted on June 13, 2016, "The Jetsons in Boulder Part 2: Charles Haertling Masterworks", from July 2, 2016, and "The Jetsons in Boulder Part 3: Charles Haertling at Mid-Century and Beyond", from June 30, 2020, "The Jetsons in Boulder Part 4: Roger Easton's Modest Masterpiece", from October 12, 2020, and "The Jetsons in Boulder Part 5: Hidden Gems in the Foothills", posted December 8, 2020. I.M. Pei's National Center for Atmospheric Research is the subject of "Roadside Attraction: National Center for Atmospheric Research", posted on May 26, 2019. And on those Loewy Studebakers, you might visit "Forgotten Classic: 1953-'54 Studebaker Starliner---Sleeping Beauty from South Bend", posted February 20, 2021.
Monochrome Photo Credits: The Carnegie Library for Local History, Boulder, CO
Color Photo Credits:
Top + 4th thru 6th from top: Sean McIllwain of Mod Boulder
2nd & 3rd + 7th, 8th, 11th, 13th, 15th, 17th & 20th: the author
21st & 22nd (Sirotkin living room & stair): woodmanfoundation.org
16th (Jessor interior) + 23rd (Sirotkin interior): Lisa Doane Photography
Bottom: ColoProperty.com
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