Koebel, Charles J. and Ingrid V. (Frendberg), House

The Koebel House is significant under Category C because it is one of only two houses that were designed by the father-son team of Eliel and Eero Saarinen outside the Cranbrook Educational Community in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where they lived and worked at the time. Both Saarinens were important architects of the early and mid twentieth century. The house is an excellent example of their philosophy that the architect should consider the total environment, with as much careful attention given to the interior design and furnishings as to the architectural structure. Commissioned by Charles J. and Ingrid V. Frendberg Koebel and built in 1939-40, the house was occupied by two generations of the Koebel family until 1985, when it was acquired by the current owners, James A. Kelly and Mariam C. Noland.

The Koebel House is a well-maintained, two-story, 5,363 square foot brick house designed by Eliel and Eero Saarinen in a Modernist style, with modifications and final plans by J. Robert F. Swanson. Viewed from Cloverly Road, the front of the house appears as a plain contemporary brick building, with a solid, massive almost unbroken brick wall on the left anchored to its right by the strong vertical mass of a brick chimney, then extending out to the right in horizontal lines that step down to the one story high garage. Strong horizontal lines are accentuated by a flat roof with 18" deep eaves faced in copper. The deep eaves are repeated above portions of the front and rear first level. The main two-story part of the house has a rectangular shape. At the rear of the house behind the garage, the garden room, with one side wall angled so that the room tapers to a rounded end, projects into the back yard. The house is sited close to Ridge Road, one of the streets bordering a 154' by 173' flat corner lot in Grosse Pointe Farms, an older middle and upper middle class suburb of Detroit close to Lake St. Clair. The houses on the neighborhood's quiet tree-lined streets, mostly built in the first half of the twentieth century, reflect a variety of architectural styles, mainly traditional Tudor, French Chateau or Colonial. Some neighbors protested the modern style of this house when it was built. The front landscaping has been restored to look very similar to pictures that were taken around the time the house was completed. The remainder of the landscaping is altered from the original, but an original serpentine brick wall remains in the back yard and a row of over twenty pre-existing Norway spruces lines the Ridge Road side of the property. There are three original wrought iron gates. The interior of the house has many original features with built-in furniture designed specifically for the house, and, except for the kitchen, remains essentially unchanged.