Updated modern in Highland Park West asks $2M

This whopper of a home was built in 1950, during the midcentury-modern era, but contains (or retains, perhaps) only a few markers of the style—flat, cantilevered roofs and interior stone and brick walls, for example. (It’s also located in Highland Park West, which is known for its midcentury homes—upscale version—so the neighborhood contributes to the historic ambience.)

Still, its size (3,838 square feet) is more in line with contemporary tastes, and there’s plenty to love here. It’s hard to tell from the listing—held by Gerald Bodle of Austainable Properties—what has been added and what has been removed, but the living room’s double-height brick fireplace, flanked by narrow windows, is impressive whether it’s old, restored, or new. The clerestory and wall-sized windows looking out on the backyard, the beamed ceiling, and a second, stacked-stone fireplace have the look of late modernism pulled into whatever you want to call what came after that, in the 1970s, all updated to make them fresh and contemporary. The multileveled back yard, with a koi pond, can be considered the icing.

Redesigned by local firm Studio Steinbomer, the home has five bedrooms and four bathrooms, including a suite on the main level for live-in help or relatives. In addition to the fetching backyard patio and entertaining areas, it has a water reclamation system, a greenhouse, a stone shed, and a second-story deck from which the city skyline can be seen seasonally.