Palisades Concrete Pier House - Photo of the Week

Name: Palisades Concrete Pier House
Architect: Unknown
(Occupied by the Architect who designed it.)
Year Designed: Unknown
Builder: Unknown
Year Completed: Unknown
Size: Unknown
Location: Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, CA
(overlooking Sunset Blvd.)
Type: Residential
Style: Brutalist Concrete and Wood Modern
Status: Excellent
Photo by: Robert McLaughlin

This photo has proven to be my most popular image on Flickr, so I thought I would share it with our blog readers. I photographed this house several years back while staying with some friends who lived just a block away. It is only about a half mile from the Eames House. The home was designed by the architect who lives there and it has great views into the canyon and probably the ocean beyond the ridge. The road visible below the house is Sunset Blvd. Click Here to see the front of the house.

Ennis House by Frank Lloyd Wright - Textile Block Masterpiece For Sale in LA

We have spoke about Frank Lloyd Wright's textile block, Ennis House before when we discussed the Best Houses of all time in LA. Well it seems that the not-for-profit foundation that owns the house thinks that the restoration project before them is just too big and that the house, built in 1924, would be better served by a wealthy patron owner. The house has been listed for sale at a measly $15 million and it is estimated that it will only take another $5 or $6 million to get it into livable shape. This on top of the 6.5 million that the foundation has already put into repairs to the house. This irreplaceable house has been heavily damaged by earthquakes and soil erosion, not to mention the crumbling concrete blocks that were cast on site.

Scott is going to write some more about this house and in the mean time I will look for my photos from a visit to the house a few years ago.

Photographed by Robert McLaughlin

House for Charlton Heston by William S. Beckett, Architect

Heston poses for his wife Lydia at their hilltop Beverly Hills home, hours after winning an Oscar for his role in Ben-Hur, 1960. The house would have been only a year old at this point.

Name: Charlton Heston Residence
Architect: William Sutherland Beckett
Year Designed: circa 1958
Builder: Charlton Heston's Father, Russell Whitford Carter
Year Built: circa 1959
Size: 5,082 sq. ft. (5 bed, 6 bath)
Location: Beverly Hills, California
Type: Residential
Style: Modern
Status: Part of the Charlton Heston Estate
Photographer: Unknown

Charlton Heston on the phone in his Beverly Hills Home.

With the Martini Modern Party coming up featuring a house designed by William Sutherland Beckett, I have been doing a lot of research on his work. I have found a lot of info in old architecture magazines and recent books featuring vintage Julius Shulman Photos. One project that is mentioned in some text about Beckett is a house for Charlton Heston. None of the usual references showed any photos of this house. I was hooked and had to see this elusive home. This started my quest to find some photos of the house. Some of you may remember the house as the location of the infamous interview of Mr. Heston, by Michael Moore in the movie, Bowling for Columbine. I searched the internet high an low and was able to find a few vintage and recent photos of the house. My favorite is the image of Heston in his Jaguar in front of the house. As my buddy Scott says, a sports car in front of a "sports car house." Charlton and Lydia Heston lived in the house from 1959 until his death in 2008.

Space is limited so be sure to sign up for the
Martini Modern Party: William S. Beckett, Architect at:

Chuck and Lydia relax at home.

Mr. Heston poses in his new Jaguar in front of his new house.




William Sutherland Beckett: Architect of the Cliffhanger - Modern Photo of the Week

Name: Three Cliff-side Dwellings
Architect: William Sutherland Beckett
Born in Kansas City
(No relationship to Welton Beckett)
Year Designed: Circa 1960
Builder: Stone Fisher Constructors
Year Finished: 1961
Size: Unknown
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Type: Residential
Style: Modern Cliffhanger
Status: Still Standing
Photographer: Julius Shulman

We have a KCMODERN event coming up on Sunday, June 14 in a Kansas City residence by this same architect. So stay tuned!

Stahl Residence - Case Study House #22 - THE ARCHITECTURAL PHOTO OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY- Modern Photo of the Week

Name: Stahl Residence - Case Study House #22
Architect: Pierre Koening
Year Designed: Unknown
Builder: Unknown
Year Built: 1960
Size: Unknown
Location: 1635 Woods Drive, Hollywood Hills, California
Type: Residential
Style: Modern
Status: Good and still owned by the original owner
Photographer: Julius Shulman

As you know we love the photos of Julius Shulman here at KCMODERN. We also love the Case Study House Program for Arts & Architecture magazine and the Stahl House in particular. We have posted it here before and it was named one of The Best Houses of All Time in L.A. This particular photo of the Stahl House, also known as Case Study House #22 is arguably "THE ARCHITECTURAL PHOTO OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY." It symbolizes the optimistic feeling of the "New" Modern Architecture and certainly typified the California interpretation of the style. Shouldn't everyone in California have a glass house overlooking Sunset Boulevard and the Los Angeles basin!

For more about the making of this iconic photograph read this article from LA magazine and this article from Taschen.

via Shorpy

Modern Photo of the Week - Dodge House

Name: Dodge House
Architect: Irving Gill
Year Designed: 1916
Builder: Unknown
Year Built: 1916
Size: Unknown
Location: Kings Road, West Hollywood, California
Type: Residential
Style: Modern
Status: DEMOLISHED, 1970
Photographer: Unknown

I conclude my photo homage to the The Best Houses of All Time in L.A., with house number 9, The Dodge House by Irving Gill. The Dodge House is the only house on the list to be demolished, and while this is a tragic loss in itself, I think that overall, the fact that this is the only house on the list that has been demolished, says a lot about the state of preservation in California. They have embraced the heritage of their Modern Architecture. We could learn a lot from groups like the LA Conservancy and their Modern Committee (ModCom). One of my New Years Resolutions is for KCMODERN to become more active in the Kansas City preservation community.

There has been quite a conversation over at Lotta Living about what was the first "Modern" house and whether the Dodge House was a "Modern" house at all... I say yes... What do you think?

Modern House Tour - Eames-Saarinen Case Study House #9 For Sale

My view of the north elevation or garage face of Case Study House #9 from Chautauqua Lane


My oblique view of the west elevation and side entrance to Case Study House #9 off of Chautauqua Lane


My view over the hedge from Case Study House #8 to the south elevation of Case Study House #9

Recently I wrote about the sale of Eero Saarinen's Miller House and the fact that a Saarinen designed house was about as rare as it gets. Well it appears that the Eero Saarinen and Charles Eames designed Case Study House #9 is for sale in LA. The only caveat with this, you must buy the 9700 square foot, relatively new modern house adjacent to it. It seems that the owners of the Barry Berkus designed house have been using the Entenza House as a guest house or maids quarters, depending on who you talk to. The whole thing will only cost you a cool $14 million!

The home was designed by Saarinen and Eames for the publisher of Arts & Architecture Magazine, John Entenza. Entenza had this house designed and built for himself and documented the process in a series of articles in his magazine about the Case Study Houses.

With this house, you will be in some enviable company on Chautauqua Boulevard in the Pacific Palisades of California. The home of Charles and Ray Eames, Case Study House #8 is next door. Case Study House #18, the West Residence by Rodney A. Walker is next door the other way and Architect, Richard Neutra's Bailey House, also known as Case Study House #20 is across the lane.

For the professional Photo Tour of the Entenza house and the attached new house click here.

To see the listing for the house click here.

Bonus Modern Photo of the Week - Chemosphere

Name: Chemosphere House (Leonard Malin Residence)
Architect: John Lautner
Year Designed: 1960
Builder: Unknown
Year Built: 1960
Size: 2200 square feet
Location: Torreyson Drive, Hollywood Hills, California
Type: Residential
Style: Organic Modern
Status: Excellent, good ownership and recently renovated
Photographer: Unknown

Well, to continue our recent expos'e on The Best Houses of All Time in L.A., here is number seven on the list. At one point this home by Architect, John Lautner had fallen into disrepair as a rental property. It was then purchased by German book publisher, Benedikt Taschen of Taschen Books. The Chemosphere house was renovated by Silver Lake firm Escher Gune Wardena, who are said to have updated the windows and floors, but otherwise tried to retain the original feel of the house. This house has also had a Hollywood career as a film location appearing in the TV series The Outer Limits and the movie Body Double. Facsimiles of the house have appeared in the Simpsons, Cars and the movie version of Charlie's Angels to name a few.

See the Yanda House for the Kansas City relationship to the Chemosphere.

Modern House Tour - Cindy Epping's Eichler Home


Photos by Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times

Well, it seems like we have been looking to the LA Times a lot lately, but I could not resist adding Cindy Epping's Eichler Home, which has recently been in a both Apartment Therapy and the LA Times. KCMODERN loves seeing these original kitchen designs still being used. It appears that Cindy's dog, Ruby is the star of the Times photo shoot.

Joseph Eichler was a California home builder who built Modern homes and who's career closely paralleled Kansas City builder, Don Drummond's. Both builders used the same architect and sometimes even the same plans. But more on that later.

Click Here for the LA Times Home Section Tour

"Modern" Photo of the Week - Gamble House

Name: Gamble House
Architect: Greene and Greene (Brothers, Charles and Henry Greene)
Year Designed: 1907-1908
Builder: Unknown
Year Built: 1909 (custom furniture completed 1910)
Size: Unknown
Location: Pasadena, California
Type: Residential
Style: Bungalow
Status: Recently Restored
Photographer: Unknown

For the official website, photos and tour info about the Gamble House Click Here

For a Behind the Velvet Ropes Tour of the Gamble House by the LA Times Click Here

OK, so it may not be a "Modern" house with a capital M, but it is number six of the The Best Houses of All Time in L.A. mentioned earlier. I consider myself a modernist, but this Greene and Greene house really influenced me in my early career. And while it's plan is not Modern it does represent a movement towards a new architecture and away from the traditional styles of the day. It has been labeled as, The Ultimate Bungalow by recent authors. Movie buffs may also recognize this house and its garage from the Back to the Future Movies.

Modern Photo of the Week - Stahl Residence - Case Study House 22

Name: Stahl Residence - Case Study House #22
Architect: Pierre Koening
Year Designed: Unknown
Builder: Unknown
Year Built: 1960
Size: Unknown
Location: 1635 Woods Drive, Hollywood Hills, California
Type: Residential
Style: Modern
Status: Good and still owned by the original owner
Photographer: Julius Shulman

I was inspired by the previous post about The Best Houses of All Time in L.A. and decided to include a photo of number five from that list. This is one project that I have not visited yet, so I will rely once again on "Uncle" Julius Shulman to provide the wonderful eye candy for this house. I specifically did not use a certain famous photo of that house. Can anyone tell me what photo I am talking about?

Via Shorpy

The Best Houses of All Time in L.A.

It seems customary these days for newspapers and blogs to present all of their top ten lists at the end of the calendar year. Here is one list that I could not help but post here.

The Best Houses of All Time in L.A.
According to the Los Angeles Times panel of experts
Click here for the LA Times Article

What intrigued me most was that all of the houses were Modern or near Modern (ala Gamble House). I also could not help but notice that most of these houses were on my list of must sees when I have been in LA. So I have included one of my photographs of each of the houses that I have visited along with the list.

1: Kings Road House, Rudolph Schindler, West Hollywood, 1921-22

2. Kaufmann House, Richard Neutra, Palm Springs, 1946

3. Ennis House, Frank Lloyd Wright, Los Feliz, 1924

4. Eames House (Case Study House No. 8), Charles and Ray Eames, Pacific Palisades, 1949

5. Stahl House (Case Study House No. 22), Pierre Koenig, Hollywood Hills, 1960
I have not been here yet, but will definitely see this on my next trip to LA. More on that later.

6. Gamble House, Charles and Henry Greene, Pasadena, 1908
I love the work of Greene & Greene, but I have not made it to Pasadena yet.

7. Chemosphere, John Lautner, Hollywood Hills, 1960
Believe me I will find this one soon too, but I hear it is very hard to see.

8. Kappe House; Ray Kappe, Pacific Palisades, 1968

9. Dodge House, Irving Gill, West Hollywood, 1916 (demolished 1970)
Well, since it was demolished when I was seven, I will just have to enjoy the photos of others.

10. Hollyhock House, Frank Lloyd Wright, Hollywood, 1921

Ray Kappe Modern California House Tour

Many of the people who know me, realize that I have a real love for the work of California Architect, Ray Kappe, FAIA. So I could not resist posting this real estate slide show. You can have this house for a cool $4.95 million. Designed and built in 1966-68, this design represents the mature Kappe style. Lori and I drove by this house in Brentwood last year, which presents almost a fortress like front elevation that betrays the glass facade on the other side of the house. I also had the opportunity to meet Mr. Kappe while I was shooting photos of his own house. To me Kappe's work has historically been under appreciated and is only just now being recognized by the admirers of Modern architecture. Part of this recent recognition is due to his work with Living Homes. Enjoy the entire slide show HERE!