Modern 1950s Queensland gem sells

A striking 1957 two-level Toowong brick house – designed by immigrant architect Vitaly Gzell – has been sold.

Exuding 1950s style, the refurbished house retains its original solid structure.

It has had a contemporary renovation of the kitchen and bathrooms.

Set on 658 square metres, it was sold by McGrath agent Gabrielle Trickey for $1,135,000.

"It was spacious, quiet and generous," she said.

Listed in October last year with $1,265,000 hopes, the Herbert Street house had last sold at $1.1 million in 2010.

It had previously sold in 2000 at $320,000 and $235,000 in 1993.

The marketing says the house appeared in the 1959 book, Buildings of Queensland, published by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects, Queensland chapter.

It doesn't, however, appear with the collection of papers relating to 47 projects by Vitaly Gzell held by the University of Queensland.

Writer David Malouf once wrote that "Gzell was largely unknown on the world stage but contributed many distinguished buildings."

"Working within an honest everyday modernism which was both appropriate to the terrain but also nudged architecture forward here, within a very conservative climate," he blogged.