living in los angeles We must regularly remind ourselves that much of what surrounds us is ephemeral. As the deadly fires reminded us this week, it most fundamentally concerns human life and the natural world. But at the same time, both important everyday buildings and cultural monuments that have helped record the amazing achievements of this place, tell the story of its citizens, and embody an amazing blend of talent, originality, and freedom. It also affected.
Several treasured landmarks, from the city's early history to experimental mid-century modern to modern times, fell victim to the deadly wildfires that swept through the area.
On Wednesday, news broke that the historic ranch once owned by popular Hollywood cowboy and comedian Will Rogers has disappeared. Rogers bought several hundred acres of land in the foothills of the Pacific Palisades in the 1920s.
This land, now a California state park, offers spectacular views of the sparkling ocean within a 10-minute walk of the trail. Built in 1926, Rogers' rustic clapboard home, with its wide porch and open courtyard perched on a hill, felt like a place in a rural time warp. It's a hybrid of authentic country living and enhanced Los Angeles style. Wagon wheel chandeliers, barn-style rafters, a heavy stone fireplace with a prize longhorn head attached, and countless Western paraphernalia, including saddles, Navajo rugs, and sepia-toned family photographs. There was.
Rogers welcomed Walt Disney here, along with Clark Gable and Charles Lindbergh. The adjacent wooden stables just off the courtyard were equally stunning. Rogers' visitors went there to saddle their horses on their way to the adjacent equestrian range and polo field below.
Venice, Calif.-based architect Victoria Yust called it her “happy place” when we visited about a year ago. “There was something very magical about it,” she said Wednesday. “It felt like old California. You could just imagine this wonderful way of life.” She was especially drawn to the rotunda in the center of the stable. Its intricate radial rafters quietly took my breath away. It was an architectural gem, hidden in plain sight as hikers climbed back up the canyon.
“This is an absolutely devastating blow to all of us,” said Adrian Scott Fine, chief executive of the Los Angeles Conservancy, the region's leading conservation advocacy group. “It's just a touchstone. You can't talk about Southern California history and the Pacific Palisades without mentioning this cultural folk hero, Will Rogers.”
Fine said he and his colleagues are committed to tracking the destruction of cultural heritage in the region.
“This is a significant loss,” he said. “There is no other place where you can tell a story like this.”
Another major loss in the Pacific Palisades is Ray Kappe's Keeler House, built in 1991 and considered one of the hallmarks of this talented but often overlooked Los Angeles architect. (Kappe, who passed away in 2019, was the founder of the avant-garde Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc).)
The home's owner, Ann Keeler, 68, is safely out of town. She said a neighbor confirmed to her that it had been destroyed. “It's gone,” she said.
Cantilevered into a steep hillside and overlooking the ocean, the mansion symbolized Kappe's courage and intuition. The building opened out onto the site through a central staircase illuminated by skylights with a long gabled roof, and was connected to the landscape below through oversized windows. Flanked by floating staggered floors and oversized balconies, this ethereal building was kept on the ground by the weight of exposed redwoods and smooth, thick concrete.
The house's dramatic views and monumental form beguiled visitors, but Keeler, who had lived there since its completion, was particularly fond of details such as the silky redwood surfaces. “When the tree arrived, we were all petting it. It was so beautiful,” she said. She noted that the exposed redwood beams on the upper floor are formed from stacked planks, giving them surprising texture and presence. “It was really fun to sit at the dining room table and look up and see the amazing joists and their shadows,” she said.
Crosby Do, a real estate agent specializing in architect-designed properties, was working with Keeler to sell the home, which was listed for sale at $8 million. “I've been looking at important homes from Frank Lloyd Wright to Frank Gehry for over 50 years, and this is one of the 10 most creative pieces of architecture I've ever seen. I think so,” Doe said.
Two people who visited the scene confirmed that Bridges' wooden-sided house, which sits on concrete stilts on a winding stretch of Sunset Boulevard not far from the Keeler house, was also burned. Robert Bridges, an architect and now professor emeritus at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business, built the house in 1974, and it has stood as a monument to the bold structure of the region's buildings ever since. “It may seem shaky, but it's not,” Bridges told the Times in a 2014 article. “From an engineering perspective, this makes perfect sense.”
These losses are being felt far beyond the Palisades. In Altadena, the Eaton Fire has already destroyed two cultural properties. Zane Gray Estate, a Mediterranean-style mansion built in 1907 and owned by one of California's great Western novelists. and the 1887 Andrew McNally House, a Queen Anne's jewel that was the home of the cartography magnate who co-founded Rand McNally.
Gray, who wrote adventure novels such as Riders of the Purple Sage, Wildfire, and Rainbow Trail, turned to Myron Hunt, the prolific architect who designed the Rose Bowl and the Ambassador Hotel. Ta. “It was just a huge landmark,” Ms. Fine said of the Zane Gray estate, adding that the conservancy planned to hold its annual philanthropy there again this year.
The McNally House, designed by architect Frederick Roerig, is notable for its bell-shaped roof, blue-green shingles, Gorgeously eclectic period rooms, with seven fireplaces and luxurious Turkish-style rooms.
Not all of the buildings destroyed were architectural monuments. There were also a few neighborhood establishments, including Malibu's run-down Reel Inn (and seaside favorites like Gladstone's and Moonshadow's) and Altadena's cozy red-hotel Fox's. The bungalow-style Topanga Ranch Motel was built in 1929 by none other than William Randolph Hearst. There was Altadena's Bunny Museum, which houses more than 45,000 rabbit objects, and Pasadena's Jewish Temple and Center, which is more than 80 years old.
So now we wait anxiously to find out what else has fallen and what is still falling. We're updating the fire map, inching closer and closer to beloved landmarks with their red outlines. Some of the world's greatest buildings sit helplessly on the edge.
Palisades is home to Kappe's own famous mansion on the slopes of Rustic Canyon. The concrete tower supports a series of floating platforms and is integrated with the exterior through huge windows.
Of course, there's Charles and Ray Eames' innovative Eames House, whose colorful prefabricated panels are a symbol of midcentury experimentation. It is home to many monuments of modernism, including Rodney Walker's Case Study House #18, Richard Neutra's Case Study House #20, and Eero Saarinen's Entenza House. Evacuation areas include Frank Gehry's new home on Adelaide Drive, the Schnabel House (1989), and Frank Lloyd Wright's Sturges House (1939).
The devastating fire highlighted Los Angeles' spectacular architectural heritage, which is often taken for granted or ignored. These photos show that this city has long been one of the world's great laboratories of residential architecture, and that while its best buildings are proud works of art, they are equally vulnerable to the ravages of nature. It reminds me of that.
Los Angeles will not be able to regain what was lost and people may not even be allowed to build in some of these places again. But it is possible to think more deeply about what we want next and how it can live up to such extraordinary achievements.
