With the restoration of a neglected mid-century Neutra home in the West Covina hills came a renewed sense of history and a revived quality of life. by Mark Morrison Photo by Cameron Carothers The first time Deborah Chumi Paul set eyes on Richard Neutra’s Roberts House in early 2014, it looked more like a drug den than a mid-century find. “There was garbage everywhere, needles everywhere. Copper had...
By Crosby Doe Two years ago, Richard Neutra’s mid-century Roberts House sat derelict, decaying and ripe for demolition when the 60-year-old property hit the market. Thankfully, wiser and more enlightened minds prevailed, and the house fell into the right hands as detailed in this issue’s cover story, appropriately titled “American Idyll.” Earlier this year, it was successfully sold to new owners...
Never one to run from a creative challenge, Rudolph Schindler proved he could conquer hillside terrain with his innovative Kallis House in suburban Los Angeles. by Nicholas Olsberg As our perspective on mid-20th-century Los Angeles grows with the passage of time, we are quicker to recognize that its experiments in modern living were as vast as they were varied and the work of its master builders was...
by Barbara Lamprecht “I have lived with over 500 women—because I have over 500 houses,” Theodore Pletsch told an interviewer in 1985 while recording his oral history. “I have learned how to dig a house out of a woman’s mind. Matter of fact, I sit down on a slope board and I draw it in front of them. We just talk and I draw. Sometimes they help me draw.” Nowhere is his claim more evident...
Breaking with tradition, more Asian buyers are discovering the value of owning vintage architect-designed and historic properties. by Alison Singh Gee David You was scrolling through the online pages of The Wall Street Journal in 2015 when something called to him. A native of Jiangsu Province, China, he had stumbled upon a story about the Millard House, a.k.a. La Miniatura, Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1923...
By Crosby Doe Okay, let me admit this up front: I am one of the lucky ones. Not only do I sell historic and architect-designed properties for a living—which I love and have been doing in Los Angeles for over 40 years—but for 35 of those years, I have been living with my wife in a two-story hilltop manse designed by architect Joseph Blick with spacious interiors that open to views of the surrounding...
With this 1968 Bell Canyon model home and its master-planned recreational surroundings, Cliff May took the suburban ranch to the next level—and further defined Western living. by Andrea Hunter Dietz Sheltered beneath ancient oaks, the low, white ranch house with the concrete tile roof does not broadcast its architectural import. Yet this unpretentious residence, set well back from the road in a...
by Pierluigi Serraino, AIA “If I had to do it all over again,” says Richard Bradshaw, “I would become an architect.” These are powerful words coming from the low-key structural engineer who, having worked closely with architectural masters such as Richard Neutra, Carl Maston, Welton Becket, Paul Williams, A. Quincy Jones, and John Lautner over many years, quietly turned 100 last September. He...
The Recent Sale of the Manola Apartments by Architect Rudolph Schindler defies the use of Standard Appraisal Techniques by John C. Carlson The terraced property at 1807 Edgecliffe Drive in L.A.’s Silver Lake neighborhood isn’t just any apartment complex. Designed by legendary architect Rudolf Schindler with broad windows and double-height ceilings, the 16-unit Manola Court apartments is a unique...
By Crosby Doe When I was in grade school, growing up in Pasadena, California one of my teachers told us the story of the destruction of the Royal Library of Alexandria in Egypt, one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world. It was beyond my comprehension, even as a child, that any civilization would deliberately burn down such a valuable center of cultural knowledge – it was...
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