Beautiful Brazilian design transposed to Southern California Oscar Niemeyer, a Pritzker winner whose curved oeuvre helped define modernism, will always be associated with his homeland ofBrazil. But had this unbuilt home, created for a private client in Santa Barbara in 1947, been realized, he may have also been part of the revolution in residential architecture that made California an epicenter of midcentry design.
Niemeyer was propositioned by art collecting power couple Burton G. Tremaine, Sr. and Emily Hall Tremaine, prolific supporters of modernism who eventually owned a treasury of 20th century work from the likes of Kandinsky, Pablo Picasso, Warhol, de Kooning, and Lichtenstein. Their interests also carried over to architecture. They?d hired both Philip Johnson and Frank Lloyd Wright to draw up sketches for potential projects. Early admirers of Niemeyer?s work, the couple asked him to design a home on an oceanside lot in Montecito. While Niemeyer was never able to visit, since his Communist Party membership complicated U.S. travel, he did pair up with a landscape architect and frequent collaborator Roberto Burle Marx to create sketches and a grand vision for the Tremaines.

The architect envisioned a two-story residence divided between a rectangular upper floor, positioned to capture the Pacific breeze and offer panoramic views from the master suite and guest room, and a curvaceous lower level for entertaining and socializing. A writer at the time called it...