Friday, August 5, 2011 at 9:48AM When will Beverly Hills start protecting its heritage?
© J. Paul Getty Trust. Used with permission. Julius Shulman Photography Archive, Research Library at the Getty Research Institute (2004.R.10)
Thanks to the LA Conservancy and an outpouring of public concern, the threatened demolition of a major Richard Neutra house has been postponed until after October 10 and—if a buyer can be found—averted. The 1955 Kronish house, located at 9439 Sunset Boulevard, is the last survivor of the three this modern master designed in Beverly Hills. Soda Partners, a greedy speculator that wants to clear the 2-acre site of its “encumbrance,” bought the 7500-square-foot house in a foreclosure auction for $5.8 million, tried to sell it as a tear-down, and now wants to flip an empty plot for $14 million. In a more civilized neighborhood than this, a major work by a 20th-century giant would add value to the property and command immediate respect. Here, as in Rancho Mirage where Neutra’s Maslon house was flattened before anyone could protest, the threat was off the radar until two weeks ago.