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| Features |
Estates of Grace
Eryn Brown
06/01/2004
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To some extent, the
mania for architecturally significant houses is simply founded in prestige.
Owning one bespeaks quality, good taste—and yes, considerable capital. Like
buying any piece of art, the purchase of an architecturally significant home is
an investment in preserving our culture. Just as some of us donate major works
of art to museums for this reason, people who own showpiece homes often open
them to the public. They work with preservation organizations, such as the
National Trust for Historic Preservation, to ensure that the characteristics
that make the buildings special are saved for posterity. Architecturally
significant homes also are, like rare art, often very good investments. An owner
who takes care of one—restoring it and subsequently maintaining it—can usually
garner a healthy profit when the time comes to sell.
It is one thing to add
to one’s portfolio the sweeping horizontal lines of a Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie
House or the unbroken symmetries of a neo-Classical mansion. It is quite
another, aficionados say, to renovate and live in one. These treasures often
require months of painstaking research prior to purchase, and years of work and
millions of dollars of investment to restore them to their former glory.
Enthusiasts aver that these efforts are all worthwhile. “It’s fun to meet
new houses, just like it’s fun to meet new people,” says John Cottrell, a Los
Angeles-based interior designer who has been collecting houses by architects,
including Wallace Neff, William Cody and Gordon Kaufmann for 25 years. But, as
in any relationship, the labor after the honeymoon determines one’s success.
Diverse Domiciles
A house does not necessarily have to be designed by
Thomas Jefferson or Frank Lloyd Wright to qualify as a masterpiece. The works of
many lesser-known architects are also significant because of design, workmanship
or historical value. Take, for example, the suburban homes designed by
California modernist Richard Neutra; the Mediterranean-inspired designs of Palm
Beach’s Addison Mizner, which launched a Florida renaissance in urban
development in the 1920s; or the Spanish-style homes of Los Angeles’ Neff, which
have become California icons.
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