525 Aurora Avenue - Tippet House

525 Aurora Avenue / Tippet House / Architect: L. Gale Abels / Style: Late Modernist / built 1976

L. Gale Abels designed this two-story modern home for CU Professor Theodore Tippet and his family. Abels was a student at Harvard when Walter Gropius was the director of the architecture program. Gropius was one of the inventors of modern architecture in Europe. The house is horizontally composed of interconnecting rectilinear blocks of spaces. The layout of the house is "U"-shaped which wraps around an outdoor living space. The exterior walls have a cubist composition of materials: white painted brick, grey stained wood and lots of glass. The large areas of windows link the exterior spaces with the interior. The building takes advantage of the downward sloping site to have a lower floor. The naturalistic landscaping provides privacy and helps to define the outdoor spaces.