Restored: Jonathan Lautner's Harpel house
PRESERVATION
The 1956 home near the Chemosphere had been remodeled beyond recognition. It took current owner Mark Haddawy two years to get it back to the architect's original design.
ASK the most ardent John Lautner fan about the architect's Harpel house, and you may get a shrug. After all, the house sits in the shadow -- if not quite literally, then figuratively -- of Lautner's landmark Chemosphere, one of Los Angeles' most famous residences. What's more, Harpel was significantly altered by previous owners, one of whom added a second story and another who installed stucco walls, track lighting and aluminum window frames, all ill-suited for Lautner's 1956 design. To some architecture aficionados, the house was a Lautner no more.
"The place was just weird," says Mark Haddawy, who bought the house in 2006. "It looked like the owners had taken every opportunity imaginable to turn it into something completely conventional. But Lautner was about as unconventional as you can get. So why would you do that?"
It's a puzzling question indeed, especially when you see what Haddawy has done. After two years of renovation, the house has been brought back close to its original design, he says, the second story peeled off and interior details studiously re-created, right down to custom light fixtures and doorknobs.
Set on about an acre off Mulholland Drive, Harpel appears to be a simple 2,600-square-foot home laid out in an L-shape, with a pool and entry courtyard. But once you step across the threshold and descend into a skylight-topped living room, that simplicity gives way to a complex design full of Lautner trademarks.
The living room is almost cave-like, made of earthy materials and opened to jaw-dropping views of the distant San Gabriel Mountains. Go farther -- through the dining room, kitchen, den and two bedrooms in back -- and you understand how Lautner blended inside and out with uncommon precision.
A bookshelf in the living room carries the eye into the dining area, through floor-to-ceiling glass and beyond the pool deck -- a perfect line toward the horizon. Stone walls at the back of the house emulate the nearby hillside, merging homescape with landscape. The entire affair has the eloquent yet forceful poetics that define Lautner's best homes.
"He's a very significant architect, especially at this moment in time," says Wim de Wit, head of the architecture collection at the Getty Research Institute. "We're seeing a lot of contemporary architects who are very interested in creating highly sculptural buildings that are also highly functional. And of course, Lautner was doing that a long time ago."
