Seidler's Thurlow House sells

The Modernist Thurlow House, Blakehurst has been sold, and now looks like being permanently listed on the NSW heritage list.

Described as a Mad Men style home, the buyer is apparently an architectural devotee who wants to restore the home back to its grandness.

Being virtually untouched, the 1952 house by architect Harry Seidler was recently marketed as one of early intact houses by one of Australia’s great architects.

"Research indicates Thurlow House as being number sixteen of eighteen houses completed by Harry Seidler within the first five years of his coming to Australia," the marketing advised.

Thurlow family members described it as a "forgotten modernist original."

The Stuart Street offering on a 1336 square metre block sold through the Modern House agency, with around $2.5 million having been tipped.

Built on a waterfront site sloping down to the Georges River, in Sydney’s south, its split-level interior offers soaring voids, textural stone and timber-lined walls.

Upstairs are two bedrooms, a study and bathroom, all looking out to the river.

On the lower level is a spacious living area, dining room and kitchen.

The retention of the single sculptural eucalypt in the front yard is characteristic of an aesthetic employed by Seidler and other Modern Movement architects.

The house is in need of repair.

It was a Punchbowl couple, David and Marjorie Thurlow who commissioned the design. He was a lawyer and his wife, a RAAF member, was the daughter of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia board secretary.

They separated in the early 1970s with Dolly, as she was known, remaining in the house until in 2011. She died in 2014.

Soon after completion the home was featured in a French magazine, l’architecture d’aujourd’hui, celebrating work by young architects from around the world.

Harry's widow, Penelope Seidler recalls Thurlow House as “a real gem”, and has encouraged its latest custodians to connect with the office of Harry Seidler & Associates to help undertake works that maintain its original design integrity.