“A lot of people mistakenly associate modern architecture with coldness,” says Todd McMillan, co-founder of the Burlington design and construction firm Ben Homes. Granted, some contemporary houses with boxy interiors, high ceilings and slick finishes can feel soulless, but traditional mid-century modernism is anything but. Visit one of the great postwar residential municipalities – New Canaan, Connecticut, or Palm Springs, California – and you’ll encounter an architecture of warm materials and human-scale proportions.
The Roseland community in Burlington could almost be one of those places, although many of its ’60s houses have since been outfitted with anachronistic touches, like gaudy Greek columns or blingy metal siding. When hunting for a more spacious home than they had in Toronto, Laird Kay, an aviation photographer, and Raymond Girard, a marketer and sculptor,…
