Before & After: After 70 Years, a Seattle Midcentury Finally Reaches Its Full Potential

SHED architecture returns a 1958 home by local legend Al Bumgardner to its rightful glory.

Mar 6, 2024 - 20:17

Before & After: After 70 Years, a Seattle Midcentury Finally Reaches Its Full Potential

SHED architecture returns a 1958 home by local legend Al Bumgardner to its rightful glory.

The original layout was very much of the time: a perfect midcentury modern flow, with a closed-off kitchen and a fire put in the floor.

Most of the time, architects renovate a house the way their clients want. Sometimes, they design it the way they want. But in the case of this midcentury gem in West Seattle—owned by Kirsten Adams and Paul Migden—the home itself guided the way.

"The house had a bunch of stuff it just wanted to be," says Kirsten. "The living room wanted to be low. The space wanted to be warm."

Before: Kitchen

BEFORE: Awkward posts closed off the kitchen.

It’s not surprising, really, that the house was so confident and assertive. It was designed in 1958 by celebrated West Coast Modern architect Al Bumgardner, and with age comes a certain understanding of oneself. And with the help of Seattle’s SHED Architecture and Design, the family helped this special house make its ambitions a reality.

After: Kitchen

Paul’s favourite spot to stand is in the kitchen looking west through the dining room windows,

But first—some background. Paul and Kirsten were living in Amsterdam with their daughter, Lark, hot off the tail of remodeling their 19th-century canal house, when a job opportunity in Seattle beckoned. Unfortunately, leaving the perfect home made finding a new one in their familiar East Seattle neighborhood a bit of a challenge. "Everything was just kind of meh," says Paul.