Archinect - News

Home owned by late Sea Ranch architect George Homsey lists for $2.45 million

2024-11-15T12:15:00-05:00

The home once owned by one of the leading late-modernist figures in Northern California—the EHDD co-founder George Homsey’s exemplary Third Bay Tradition style former personal residence in San Francisco—is now for sale for $2.45 million via Superstructur.

The online brokerage, which claims to focus "solely on architecture and design with integrity," has the listing in the Liberty Hill Historic District. They say: "The house is in very original condition and now requires a custodian who is sensitive to the building's architectural importance and to the Homsey family's wishes that it may be carefully restored and preserved for the enjoyment of future generations."

Homsey passed away at the age of 93 in April of 2019. Last month in the region, we also highlighted the listing of Julia Morgan's original 1908 home in Berkeley for $1.9 million.

Preservation group completes purchase of Marcel Breuer's 1949 Cape Cod home

2024-08-02T17:43:00-04:00

The fight to save Marcel Breuer’s former home on Cape Cod, the 1949 Wellfleet Cottage, has reached its conclusion after The Cape Cod Modern House Trust completed its purchase following a successful $1.4 million fundraising campaign. Breuer’s son Tamas was the homeowner at the time of the sale.

The house had reportedly degraded into what The Art Newspaper describes as “not in the best condition.” The Modern House Trust's spokesperson told the outlet: “Work begins on the restoration immediately.”

Marcel Breuer's 1950 Marshad House is on the market for $1.8 million

2024-05-01T12:23:00-04:00

Marcel Breuer’s restored 1950 Marshad House in the Hudson Valley has been listed with an asking price of $1.8 million. The residence at 204 Cleveland Street in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, is a three-bedroom design with 1.5 bathrooms and has an interesting history from the original owner's affiliation with Look magazine and relation to the influential sculpture garden installation that was exhibited 75 years ago at MoMA.

Image: Dot Record Media/Julia B. for Sotheby’s International Realty

Sotheby’s International Realty has the listing. Galerie noted it includes a 290-square-foot converted art studio in the former garage.

Image: Dot Record Media/Julia B. for Sotheby’s International Realty

Sotheby’s (the art auctioneers) recently bought Breuer’s brutalist landmark Whitney Museum of American Art building in Manhattan for $100 million.

Image: Dot Record Media/Julia B. for Sotheby’s International Realty

Chris Pratt and Katherine Schwarzenegger demolish Craig Ellwood's 1950 Zimmerman House, raising ire online

2024-04-22T18:12:00-04:00

Chris Pratt has drawn ire from architecture aficionados after news broke that the actor and his wife, Katherine Schwarzenegger, had razed a historic, mid-century modern home to make way for a sprawling 15,000-sq-ft mansion. Architect Ken Ungar, whose portfolio largely features high-end modern farmhouse-style residences, will design a home for the couple, Architectural Digest reported. The property [...] will also feature a three-car garage and a secondary unit near the pool.

As The Guardian reported, plans for a demolition went mostly under the radar until the Los Angeles Conservancy issued a warning last January. Actor Chris Pratt and his wife Katherine Schwarzenegger purchased the home later with the apparent intention of replacing it with an oft-reviled “modern farmhouse” design and have yet to respond to any other news outlets or critics, who are framing this as a loss tantamount to the destruction of Marcel Breuer's binuclear Geller I house on Long Island in January of 2022.

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Ray Kappe's Keeler House lists for $12 million in Los Angeles

2024-04-05T18:23:00-04:00

Late SCI-Arc founder Ray Kappe’s Keeler House design has hit the market in Pacific Palisades, California, for $12 million.

The split-level, 4,142-square-foot Post and Beam design was built over four and a half years using Kappe’s nearby personal residence as its model. A rich palette of redwood, teak, Douglas fir, concrete, and glass feature carefully throughout the home, which sits on a 7-acre hillside lot and is replete with a two-car garage, four bedrooms, three baths, a storeroom, and separate guest quarters.

Kappe designed the home in 1991 for a local jazz musician. Its interior layout is centered around its open-plan living/entertainment area that is cantilevered to extend over the hillside. A pleasing layered effect composes the interior, with glass inlay floor and ceiling blocks included to further incorporate the presence of natural light deeper into the structure via a vaulted skylight. Six concrete towers work to elevate the home above the tree line, allowing for a floati...

SCI-Arc founder Ray Kappe's final residential design hits the market for $4.2M in Los Angeles

2023-11-29T18:24:00-05:00

Late SCI-Arc founding director Ray Kappe’s final residential design has hit the market in Venice Beach, California, for a listed price of $4.2 million.

The 2,482-square-foot home has three bedrooms and was originally built in 1947. Kappe began the commission in 2019 (the same year he passed away), designing for the owner a two-story addition that added a garage and small recreation room to the property at 938 Amoroso Place. The renovation was completed earlier this year at an undisclosed cost. Tracey Becker of COMPASS is the listing’s agent.

Image courtesy Realtor.com

“When he came to look at the property, he was impressed with the concept of the tree fern garden and how to incorporate the house within that context,” the anonymous seller told Realtor.com. “Ray was also interested in designing a home that went beyond the normal postage-stamp-sized lot home, by continuing his signature style of getting lost in a space — where everywhere you looked, an importan...

Eric Owen Moss reveals his corner-bending A+M private residence in the Pacific Palisades

2022-07-05T19:31:00-04:00

Eric Owen Moss has shared photos of his self-designed private residence overlooking the coastline on a small 30’ by 50’ plot in Los Angeles’ beach-adjacent Pacific Palisades neighborhood.

The former SCI-Arc Director’s new A+M home is inspired by the Case Study homes published by John Entenza in Arts & Architecture magazine from the mid-1940s through the early-60s and the later direction of Barbara Goldstein, who featured Moss’ early Petal House renovation in that same publication’s pages in 1983.

Image courtesy Eric Owen Moss Architects

Per the architect, the four-story, 1,950-square-foot house is "organized around a central sky-lit atrium that makes the transformation in shape visible on the west side and provides floor-to-ceiling glazing as one makes their way up the stairs on the east side."

Image courtesy Eric Owen Moss Architects

"The perimeter walls of the building are in continuous transformation between the two plan shapes — the roof li...

Texas architects create semi-Brutalist home in Dallas

2020-06-11T18:16:00-04:00

New York and Austin-based firm Specht Architects has recently completed the Preston Hollow home, an 8,000-square-foot residence influenced by the classic Dallas modern homes of the 1950's and 1960's.

Among the defining features of the home are its heavy cast-concrete walls that extend from the interior our into the surrounding landscape, creating outdoor spaces and courtyards that help frame views from inside the home. The concrete walls were cast using a custom-fabricated formwork that creates a corrugated appearance.

"This technique, a staple of Brutalist architecture from the 1960's and 1970's, creates a play on shadows and pattern that changes throughout the day," said Scott Specht, founder of Specht Architects. "Unlike the Brutalist work from that era, however, the heavy walls here are countered by delicate steel columns, thin window frames, and the hovering edges of the roof. The concrete is a grounding element that provides a contrast to the overall lightness of the spaces."

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