In 1995 my father purchased a one-of-a-kind home on a small hill in Westminster, CO overlooking the neighboring city of Arvada and the plains beyond with the view only being interrupted by the Colorado Rockies. At the time of the purchase the house was so derelict that his girlfriend refused to move in. The first night I spent there was with my dad in my little sister's bunk bed which was set up in the living room because the section of the home with the bedrooms was falling away from the main house and the hallway connecting the two was collapsing. This was just one of the many problems it had. To say the least, the house was a mess.
Even though there were many repairs, unexpected expenses and septic system backups my dad still never gave up on his little architectural gem. Perhaps it was his longing to always be an architect or the fact that there just aren't homes like that in Colorado. My dad's home was built in the 1950s California modern style. Low sloped (or flat) roofs with huge overhangs, floor to ceiling windows, excellent stone and wood craftsmanship, open floor plans and an appreciation for architectural aesthetic. In my 25 years in Colorado and outside of my father's home I only witnessed great 50s architectural design once and that was almost by accident. Perhaps another time I will get into the little house (like my father's) that could but my wife refused to live there.
Anyway, I mention all of this because early into my unemployment I pulled out the copy I have of the original plans for my father's home. I just happened to get curious one day about the guys who designed it and wanted to see if I could find anything more about them. After a number of dead ends trying to use the firm name in a google search I went to the Colorado Division of Registrations where you can look up any CO licensed individual by name or license number. Here I struck gold. Even though the stamped license number on the plans circa 1954 didn't yield any results searching the last name of the second architect on the plans did!
I now had a name: J Ralph Karlberg. License first issued October 22nd, 1953!! I knew immediately this had to be the guy. In subsequent google searches of his name I found there was one address and phone number that matched up on a number of different websites so I decided to give it a call and lo and behold Ralph Karlberg himself answered the phone!
Even at 80+ years of age and in a retirement home he was still very spry and remembered desigining the home that my father purchased. Having grown up in his work I was curious to see if he had done any other homes in the Denver area and unfortunately outside of my dad's place there was only one. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Binna. He could only remember the client's name and general location of the home (Littleton). In my searches on the Binnas I found some existing phone numbers but it was also revealed that if they were still alive they'd be in their 90s. I figured that by this point I'd gone too far to quit so I called the number I found and left a message.
One month later I get a call from Mr. and Mrs. Taylor saying the Binnas are long dead but that they look after their property. Unfortunately when I got the call I was in Burbank getting terrible cell reception and couldn't quite understand what I was being told. I gathered the Mrs. Taylor had spent some years as a child in the sister home to my father's and that even though it had been long demolished to make way for apartment buildings she might have some photos of it.
I guess this was all a very long way to say that today I received those photos. I think more than anything it goes to show what you can find almost anything with a little time and effort and that sometimes you really can rely on the kindness of strangers:
