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A head of its time" can be more than a figure of speech. The phrase is literally true of a house designed by the architect, painter and sculptor Tony Smith in 1951. The house - which is located in a former granite quarry overlooking Long Island Sound in Guilford, Conn., and which was designed for Fred Olsen, an art collector, and his wife, Florence - is not futuristic. It displays none of the sci-fi fixations that 20th-century designers used to thrust into public consciousness when called upon to visualize 21st-century life. But the Olsen House waited nearly 50 years to acquire two owners perceptive enough to appreciate Smith's original concept and an architect sensitive enough to resurrect it from decades of aesthetic disregard. Spared at the last minute from the wrecking ball, the house has re-emerged as a model dwelling for life in the year 2005.from nyt fall design magazine