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When Scott | Edwards Architecture principal Peter Grimm started designing mid-century home renovations several years ago, he was immediately struck by the architectural style.

“A lot of that stuff is kind of cool again,” he said. “It’s an interesting aesthetic. It’s kind of fresh … The geometry is really serving the occupants.”

Homes in pockets of the Portland-metro area are now considered historic because they were built during the 1950s and ’60s in mid-century modern style. As the properties age, renewed appreciation for the style and demographic shifts in ownership are driving a surge in renovations. Commercial and public buildings from the era also are being renovated so that original architecture is preserved.

“It is a remarkable era, that post-war 1950s and ’60s,” Grimm said. “(Building owners) have high-quality space that is due for an update or a restoration.”

Mid-century buildings are younger than most historic properties, but Portland-area architects who’ve contributed to their renovations say they still need plenty of work. Insulation is either slim or nonexistent and single-pane windows often need to be replaced. Many properties have never had their interiors or mechanical systems upgraded. Some of the building materials were experimental and have begun to deteriorate; others, like composite asbestos panels, are now considered hazardous.

“These were the first use of these materials and some of them worked and some of them didn’t,” Hennebery Eddy Architects principal David Wark said. “Then it’s about finding an appropriate substitute material.”

The Portland-based firm’s work with mid-century buildings includes a renovation and a penthouse addition to The Reserve. The downtown Portland office building, formerly the Federal Reserve Building, was designed by renowned modernist architect Pietro Belluschi.

FFA Architecture and Interiors, meanwhile, has worked on upgrades of mid-century buildings for the National Park Service, associate partner Barbara Clement said. One, the Hoh Rain Forest Visitor Center in Olympic National Park in Washington, was built in the early 1960s during a building boom for the federal agency, she said.

“It’s a building that’s being treated as historic even though it’s considered mid-century modern,” she said.

Restoring the original building materials is much more important in renovations to older historic properties than mid-century modern structures, Clement said.

“It’s not about the material as much as the form of the architecture, preserving that modern character,” she said. “That’s been an interesting change of how we’re working as historic architects.”

Restore Oregon, a Portland-based organization that advocates for preservation, has spent a lot of time educating people about the historic value of mid-century properties, Executive Director Peggy Moretti said. It’s still rare for a mid-century modern building to be on the National Register of Historic Places, and Restore Oregon is encouraging more home and commercial building owners to get their properties listed, she said. A listing qualifies a building’s owner for federal tax credits that can help pay for a renovation that preserves historic character.

“Where we are as an organization is in that awareness mode of, first of all, think of your building as historic (and) then you can tap into historic tax credits,” she said.

More mid-century properties are receiving historic designations. About a year ago, the Oak Hills neighborhood in Beaverton was added to the national register as an excellent example of a 1960s master-planned community. In 2009, Portland’s Veterans Memorial Coliseum, completed in 1960, was saved from demolition and added to the register.

Portland architect Peter Meijer pushed for the listing for the coliseum. He is president of the Oregon chapter of Docomomo, a growing organization that advocates for the preservation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods exhibiting modernism.

“Mid-century modern is in the mainstream now,” he said. “There are several generations of modern architects who were trained in the modernist movement. There is a real surge in affinity to that type of architecture.”

Today’s architects have a much easier time relating to a modernist’s building than a much older historic one, Meijer said.

“The spaces themselves lend themselves to current architecture, so that’s why you’re seeing a renewed interest (in renovations),” he said. “When you get mid-century modern where the lines are clean, the renovations are much more compatible.”

Grimm said he’s designing several mid-century home remodels in the Portland area. He expects more such work as aging homeowners sell the structures to young families.

The open floor plans and airiness of mid-century modern homes remain desirable, Grimm said. They’re also easier to expand than are houses from other eras, he said.

“I’ve done a couple additions where we were able to do some fun geometry,” he said. “It’s hard to add onto a Cape Cod or a colonial (home).”

Work with mid-century homes has enlightened Grimm.

“It’s so different to live and work in a mid-century building than a prewar building because they really released the structure,” he said. “For me as an architect, it’s a great lesson.”