This post was originally published on artnews.com
More than 24 lives and 12,000 structures have been lost in the ongoing Los Angeles fires, among them famed houses by Richard Neutra and Ray Kappe.
Of several fires, those in the Palisades and Eaton are two of the largest blazes, exacerbated by strong winds and droughts, that have resulted in the destruction of entire neighborhoods. Increased wind speeds are expected to expand the scope of the fires.
Organizations like the Los Angeles Conservancy and Save Iconic Architecture have been tracking the status of some of the city’s most iconic and noteworthy structures, along with an official house-by-house destruction report. While many buildings are considered safe—including the Eames House and Eames Case Study Houses, the Getty Villa, and the Alfred Newman-Martha Montgomery House by Frank Lloyd Wright—others have been reduced to ash.
Pacific Palisades
The Benedict and Nancy Freedman house, constructed by Austrian-American modernist architect Richard Neutra in 1949, is one such example. Small in size, the single-story home was originally designed for two screenwriters. It boasted massive glass windows and clerestories. The home was constructed primarily of wood, but was later remodeled by local studio Nonzeroarchitecture (studio bau:ton) to become a two-level home.
Will Rogers’ ranch home has burned to the ground. The Cherokee humorist, actor, and humanitarian’s 359-acre property featured a 31-room house overlooking the Pacific Ocean, along with guest accommodations, stables, corrals, a golf course, and riding trails. Since 1944, the property has been a living museum dedicated to the memory of Will Rogers. The fire not only destroyed Will Rogers State Historic Park, but also parts of Topanga State Park; park employees, however, were able to save some artifacts, including artwork from the Rogers estate, and the horses housed on the property, from the blaze.
The Robert Bridges house, designed to cantilever over the side of a cliff, was erected in the 1980s in the Brutalist style and covered in California redwood. Though it was structurally sound, the two-story home seemed to defy gravity, hovering just above a nearby road.
Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) founder Ray Kappe built the Keeler house for a jazz musician in 1991 based on his own nearby home. It’s regarded as one of Kappe’s finest works and a prime example of California modernist design, as its treehouse-like structure and dramatic hilltop perch overlooking a canyon and ocean vistas was part of its innovative integration with nature.
Altadena
Once home to printing magnate Andrew McNally, the eponymous house contained nine-bedrooms and was designed by Frederick Roehrig in the Queen Anne style in 1887. The house was made primarily of wood and featured rotundas; however, the most notable part of the home was its Turkish room, within the tower, adorned with vibrant textiles, including an original hand-painted silk ceiling. The efforts were inspired by Ottoman design and the 1893 World’s Fair. A few years ago the house sold for $3 million and subsequently underwent meticulous renovations before it was overtaken by flames.
Dubbed Altadena’s first fireproof home and built entirely of reinforced concrete, the historic Zane Grey Estate also succumbed to the fire. The Mediterranean Revival-style house was built for Chicago business magnate Arthur Herbert Woodward and designed by architects Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey in 1907. The fireproofing was a feature requested by Woodward’s wife Edith Norton, who was a survivor of Chicago’s Iroquois Theater Fire in 1903. The estate was sold to best-selling novelist Zane Grey in 1920. He expanded the residence with an additional 3,500-square-foot library and office to accommodate his writing. In 2002, the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places list.
Scripps Hall, also known as the Pasadena Waldorf School was a three-story Craftsman-style structure erected in 1904 by William Armiger Scripps and designed by architect Charles W. Buchanan. The home, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 199, served testament to Altadena’s “Millionaire’s Row” era. Threatened to be demolished in 1979, the Altadena Heritage Association stepped in to facilitate the sale of the home, which was later acquired by the Pasadena Waldorf School.