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Shusett Demo

I have been tracking this story about an endangered John Lautner designed home out in Bev Hills for a couple of weeks now. Having been away on vacation all of last week I returned on Friday to some bad news.

In the battle of architectural preservation vs. practicality the homeowners have come out on top. The demolition permits were approved and the house was demolished on September 2nd. What a damn shame.

Here's the official press release:

Beverly Hills celebrates 9.02.10 — and allows demolition of significant Lautner house

Press release from the John Lautner Foundation:

The same day that the city of Beverly Hills begins celebrating its world-famous zip code – 90210 – demolition begins on a significant John Lautner house: the 1951 Shusett residence just above Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills 90210. Months of discussions between The John Lautner Foundation, preservationist Michael LaFetra, a possible buyer, and the owners of the Shusett house failed.

John Lautner is considered internationally to be one of America’s most important architects of the 20th century. He was a student of Frank Lloyd Wright (who referred to him as the ‘second-best architect in the world’) and his work foreshadowed the expressionism of architects like Frank Gehry (who referred to Lautner as ‘a God’).

After a series of interesting, but small houses built in the 1940s, the Shusett house, where the public spaces are arranged in a crescent around an enormous, now 130 year old Canary Pine, is one of the first two major commissions in Lautner’s career (the second is the Harvey House in the Hollywood Hills). Both houses, over the course of several decades, underwent significant alterations and suffered neglect. The Harvey House was in extremely poor condition when it was purchased by the current owners, actress Kelly Lynch and writer Mitch Glazer, who rescued the house by undertaking an exemplary restoration.

The John Lautner Foundation was informed last April that a demolition permit for the Shusett house was being processed by the city of Beverly Hills. Since then, the Los Angeles Conservancy and The John Lautner Foundation have been in contact with the owners of the Shusett house, Mr. and Mrs. Enrique and Katalin Mannheim, who owned the house for 23 years, to discuss the possibilities of restoring or selling the house. Mr. LaFetra, the interested buyer, was in direct contact with the Mannheims. Once the demolition permit was issued last Friday, the city of Beverly Hills facilitated a meeting at the house between the owners and The John Lautner Foundation to discuss moving the house. Mr. LaFetra, again, was in direct negotiations with the Mannheims, but sadly, this last minute effort did not produce a viable agreement.

The city of Beverly Hills has no historic preservation laws (such as the Mills Act, which allows owners of historic and designated properties to receive tax credits for restoration expenses), or landmark ordinances which, in cases like this, would allow the necessary time to explore alternatives to demolition.

For questions please contact:
Frank Escher (author and former Administrator of the John Lautner Archive): (323) 665 9100
Christopher Carr (Vice-president, The John Lautner Foundation): (323) 462 2225
Karol Lautner Peterson (president, The John Lautner Foundation): (906) 869 6357
Or John English (director, The John Lautner Foundation and preservation law expert): (323) 807 1154

Modernism Alive and Well in NOVA

Modernism is an absolute passion of mine, but having lived in the Northern Virginia/DC Metro Area most of my adult life I have grown accustomed to the stodgy conservative architecture encompassing the region.

That is why I was stoked to stumble across an article in the Spring 2010 issue of Modernism magazine about the Hollin Hills neighborhood.

Situated a couple miles north of Frank Lloyd Wright's Pope-Leighey House, this 450 home development is anything but bland.

According to the article:

Hollin Hills got its start in the late 1940s when Robert Davenport, who had previously developed an experimental neighborhood in the same area, called Tauxemont, with colleagues from the Department of Agriculture, teamed up with Charles Goodman, one of the few modernist architects practicing in the Washington area. In Tauxemont, Davenport had drawn on his agricultural and New Deal background to build simple rectangular houses made of low-cost materials purchased in bulk and arranged to reflect the topography of the site. After acquiring a tract just north of Tauxemont that most developers thought unbuildable because it was so hilly, Davenport engaged Goodman as the architect. In Davenport, Goodman found a like-minded partner willing to build modern houses instead of the ubiquitous colonials then being constructed by the thousands across northern Virginia. The challenges of the site led Davenport and Goodman to bring modernist landscape architects into the mix. Their collaborative efforts to design, develop and market a subdivision based exclusively on modernist principles was unprecedented in the United States. The quality of their product garnered immediate attention; indeed, Hollin Hills won its first of many design awards in 1951, barely two years after the first homes were completed.

I took a short drive over to the neighborhood this afternoon and was instantly blown away by the modernist sophistication and level of care that has gone into these homes. Many of them were listed for sale, but I'm not sayin' which ones. Apparently I missed the spring homes tour by just two weeks, and instead had to settle for the stalkerish photos below. I hope to visit again soon in a more "official" capacity.
































Large floor-to-ceiling windows, some in the form of doors, were standard on all Hollin Hills houses, enabling indoor/outdoor living and making the interiors of the modest houses appear larger. The interiors were so bright that many residents painted their walls dark colors. © Robert C. Lautman, Collection of the National Building Museum

Wright in Alabama

This house was built for newlyweds Stanley and Mildred Rosenbaum of Florence, Alabama in 1939, and survives as another great example of Wright's particular Usonian style.

The Rosenbaums were the sole owners and occupants of the house until 1999, when it was purchased by the city of Florence. At that point the house was in a sad state as years of prolonged maintenance had taken its toll on the structure and foundation. The City developed a plan to save the house and it is now preserved as a museum.

I visited the Rosenbaum house in 2002 while vacationing in Alabama. Volunteers at that time were frantically preparing for its donors reception and public grand opening. I was able to snap these quick photos of the exterior and grounds.

Wright in Your Own Backyard

I had been waiting for the weather to clear up so I could take the short drive over to Woodlawn Plantation to view Frank Lloyd Wright's, Pope-Leighey House. Commissioned in 1939 by journalist and author, Loren Pope, this former home survives as an example of Wright's more modestly-designed "Usonian" houses.

The price of admission is $8.50, but for $15 you can also gain entry to Woodlawn Plantation. Each tour lasts about thirty minutes. This is more than enough time considering the floorplan is only 1,200 square feet. Interior photographs are strictly prohibited as a good majority of the furniture is original to the house.

Visit the website for more information.

NEUTRA

Richard Neutra (1892-1970) is arguably one of the most important architects of the Modernist era. He is famous for taking the needs of his clients and marrying architectural unity to nature.

He is also widely critized for being too rigid with his structural form and his use of cheap materials. I, personally, am quite fond of these natural components that ultimately meld the relative safety of the inner sanctum with the insecurity and beauty of the outside world.

Here is a slideshow of Neutra's innovative work as it originally appeared in Architectural Digest.