Bart Prince

A New York hedge fund manager's plan to demolish an eye-catching steel-and-glass home in Malibu and build a two-story California Mission-style residence has neighbors in a lather over the potential loss of ocean views and what some decry as the waste of a perfectly good house. Once described as among the most significant new structures in Malibu, the building slated for destruction was designed by architect Bart Prince and hugs the slope in a neighborhood of private tennis courts, swimming pools and lush lawns.

It was late December, and architect Bart Prince was paying one of his regular visits to the site of a residence he was designing in Los Altos--a house that looks strikingly like a Viking ship. He was approached by a man from the local building department, who handed him a package. "We decided to pitch in to buy you a Christmas present," the man said. "I don't suppose you know how to operate this." Inside was a level, a simple instrument that determines whether a surface is exactly horizontal.

Architecture aficionados sometimes liken Bart Prince's soaring, layered residential designs to the work of John Lautner and Frank Lloyd Wright, but drive by one of his projects in a pleasant, tree-lined South Pasadena neighborhood, and you'd never suspect what hides behind the unassuming exterior. Perhaps the biggest clue is the entrance, set at the far side of the house, recessed under the roof and tucked behind an elegant curved-stone planter filled with blossoming bird of paradise.

When architect Bruce Goff died in 1982, his grand and highly unusual plan to house patron Joe D. Price's art collection was still in its design phase. It was Goff's longtime colleague and former associate Bart Prince who translated Goff's designs into the $13-million, 32,100-square-foot Pavilion for Japanese Art opening Sunday at the County Museum of Art.

Architecture aficionados sometimes liken Bart Prince's soaring, layered residential designs to the work of John Lautner and Frank Lloyd Wright, but drive by one of his projects in a pleasant, tree-lined South Pasadena neighborhood, and you'd never suspect what hides behind the unassuming exterior. Perhaps the biggest clue is the entrance, set at the far side of the house, recessed under the roof and tucked behind an elegant curved-stone planter filled with blossoming bird of paradise.

A New York hedge fund manager's plan to demolish an eye-catching steel-and-glass home in Malibu and build a two-story California Mission-style residence has neighbors in a lather over the potential loss of ocean views and what some decry as the waste of a perfectly good house. Once described as among the most significant new structures in Malibu, the building slated for destruction was designed by architect Bart Prince and hugs the slope in a neighborhood of private tennis courts, swimming pools and lush lawns.

Angled steel beams, walls of glass and polished concrete floors create an intricate series of geometric shapes in a contemporary-style house that's designed to follow the slope of the Malibu hillside it sits on. The home is in Point Dume, known for its panoramic ocean views, and for being an enclave for celebrities such as Julia Roberts, Kenny G and Martin Sheen. It was designed by New Mexico architect Bart Prince.

It sprinkled on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Edo Gala, but few seemed to mind. After all, said one guest, rain on such an occasion means good luck in Japan. The black-tie dinner was a fund-raiser and preview for the Pavilion for Japanese Art, the museum's new free-standing building for the exhibition and study of Japanese paintings and sculpture.

To the thunderous beat of huge, barrel-shaped taiko drums, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art opened its Pavilion for Japanese Art on Sunday, finally allowing the public a good look at the provocative edifice that's been under construction beside the La Brea tar pits for two years. "The drums are an important part of Shinto festivals," Robert T. Singer, the museum's Japanese art curator, said above the roar. "They're used to summon the gods and the gods' blessings."

It was late December, and architect Bart Prince was paying one of his regular visits to the site of a residence he was designing in Los Altos--a house that looks strikingly like a Viking ship. He was approached by a man from the local building department, who handed him a package. "We decided to pitch in to buy you a Christmas present," the man said. "I don't suppose you know how to operate this." Inside was a level, a simple instrument that determines whether a surface is exactly horizontal.

When architect Bruce Goff died in 1982, his grand and highly unusual plan to house patron Joe D. Price's art collection was still in its design phase. It was Goff's longtime colleague and former associate Bart Prince who translated Goff's designs into the $13-million, 32,100-square-foot Pavilion for Japanese Art opening Sunday at the County Museum of Art.

You could call it the would-be miracle on 34000 Via de Agua: the hopeful beginnings of Orange County's only museum of architecture, housed in a 6,000-square-foot hexagonal building designed in 1966 by idiosyncratic Los Angeles architect John Lautner as the architecture and engineering center of a never-realized city called Alto Capistrano. The potential miracle is in need of some angelic help, however.

A $500,000 gift to the County Museum of Art from Toyota Motor Sales USA will be used for the museum's planned Pavilion of Japanese Art, projected to become an international center for the study and exhibition of Japanese art. "We are pleased to support an endeavor that so strongly promotes the cultural understanding between the United States and Japan.