Note to owners of Ferraris produced between the years 1980 - 2008:
Your car is a piece of crap because it was made during the time that Yugos were in production.
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I understand your point but older cars are generally pieces of crap…Ferrari or no
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Which is beside the point. Historical preservation is about that, not about what YOU (or me or anyone else, for that matter) likes.
Historical preservation isn’t really an opinion, it’s a thing cities do to preserve the past.
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Yea, that’s not really true. Certainly as it pertains to this particular house.
Also - one can make changes to the interior of homes built then to in fact make them meet today’s lifestyle even if they have historical protection. I have a friend that owns a house with Mills Act protection and they completely remodeled half the first floor to open the kitchen up a bit and add a full bath.
Every house I have lived in since I was born was built before 1964 including the one we own right now that was built in 1947. Our last house was built in 1950. We gutted the old kitchen in that one. The previous owners of our current house extensively remodeled the kitchen, put in new windows, added solar and they updated the bathrooms and added a bathroom. The quality of the construction otherwise is excellent - all the original HW flooring is still intact, the plaster walls plumb, etc…
My mom still owns the house I grew up in. And while they remodeled parts extensively on the inside - kitchen, laundry, bathrooms - it’s otherwise still the same place and in excellent shape.
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Today’s lifestyle, where we require more than two electrical outlets per room, where kitchens are larger than a walk-in closet, where there’s air-conditioning, bedrooms are larger with attached en-suite bathrooms, and garages big enough for two cars, where there are more than a single bathroom in the entire house, where TVs are bigger than 20 inches, where we have high-speed internet accessible everywhere, inside and out, and possible additional storage, and since it’s in California and seismic upgrade, probably the plumbing and electrical upgrades too, etc… the list is endless. This home was designed for living in the 1950s, not the 2020s.
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I’m not attached to the analogy. How about this instead: highly-regarded wines of a certain vintage must be crap because Ripple wine and Mission Bell Muscatel were produced at the same time? Or whatevs…
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As you’ve noted, these older homes require extensive upgrades to make them liveable and bring them into the 21st Century, but you’re likely making compromises even then. You can also tear them down and start anew, building exactly what you need without compromise, which is probably cheaper, easier, and more reasonable.
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Most of those “requirements” are just luxuries for privileged people.
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Yugos were crap because they truly were crap. However, older cars, similar to older homes, aren’t practicably designed for the 21st Century. Even a car that’s five years old is now technically old, with significant advances in safety and mileage.
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Are you seriously suggesting that there is no point to ever preserving anything? Because that seems to be your point, that things YOU find ugly aren’t worth preserving, but in general nothing that isn’t up to “modern standards” should be torn down and replaced with new things… never mind the absolute nightmare that would cause for our already overfilled landfilsl, many, many things are worth preserving as they speak to a shared past. And your personal aesthetic view isn’t a good measure for deciding historical preservation. That’s why we have preservationists and historians on these boards to make such judgement.
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No, I’m not suggesting that there is no point in ever preserving anything, but just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s worth preserving.
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Just what you like?
That’s why we have professionals make those judgements.
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The issue with that line of reasoning is the house has likely had most of those upgrades made already. it is likely not a mid century home exactly as it was built, especially at that price range in that area. It probably has all the modern comforts you’d expect with the original styling.
The design decisions can be limiting in some ways (turning a single-story home into a three-story would be tough) but high speed internet, airconditioning, power outlets, and ability to fit a tv aren’t really ‘its cheaper to demolish the house’ issues
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It is absolutely not cheaper to tear down and build a new house compared to making changes as one lives in it.
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No home in Los Angeles, private or otherwise, requires a permit from the city. Thus, the “professionals” judged that this home was not worth preserving.
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Do you not have the equivalent of UK’s “Listed Status” for important, interesting, significant or otherwise worth preserving buildings?
In my hometown this was given such status a few years ago - it’s not to everyone’s taste, but late 50’s/60’s brutalist building are a vanasihing breed.
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Such remodels require compromises, possibly extensively, and adding additional stories and other such changes would be challenging. It would be easier to demolish and build exactly what they wanted, and they could afford it at the price they paid for that home.
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https://planning.lacity.gov/preservation-design/program-overview
Not sure what you mean here?
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Let’s stick with the car analogy for a minute as it’s actually pretty apt (although I don’t understand the Yugo reference and what that has to do with the argument).
Consider the 1981 Ferrari 308 GTS. Arguably, this is THE quintessential 80’s Ferrari. This is the Magnum PI Ferrari…a world famous icon and instantly recognizable to anyone who grew up in the 80’s. This is the car that brought Ferrari back from the brink of collapse in the 1970’s. This is the poster that every 80’s American boy had on their wall. (Also see: Testarossa but the point is the same.)
Is it a beautiful car? Absolutely. Does it have style and flash? Most definitely. Does it instantly scream iconic “Italian sports car!” - without a doubt. Would I love to own one? You bet.
Is it a ‘good’ car by any objective modern standard?..ermm…not so much. It’s underpowered, slow and not very comfortable. It lacks most basic modern safety features and costs a fortune to maintain. Does any of this matter? Maybe…maybe not - depends on your point of view.
The point is the same with this house. We can argue it’s aesthetics all day and as an example of classical mid-century modern architecture, it’s a beautiful example of the period. But as a house suitable for a Hollywood actor and millionaire living in Brentwood, Los Angeles? It’s pretty much disposable by modern standards. We may not like that fact but it’s a reflection of our times and American values where old things are replaced by big, modern, gaudy monstrosities all the time. And where the rich and famous are allowed to do pretty much anything they want.
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There’s apparently no board of historical preservation in LA County. The city is as much to blame for this loss as Pratt is.
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