Exploring John Lautner's Restored Pearlman Cabin in Idyllwild, California | House Tour

[Music] the beauty of Idol wild is it's focused on families family camps that is what Idol wild was famous for not a ski resort not for other kinds of generalized vacation activities Idle Wild is coint it doesn't have chains everything's M and PAW they have family activities a delightful Place plus you have the Wilderness you have the parks it has the beauty of Nature has the beauty of intellectual exchange the artart it's a fantastic place I am Nancy Pearlman here in the Pearlman cabin which I inherited from my parents Carl Kenneth and Agnes Branch Pearlman who had this lace designed by the very famous architect John lner my mother worked collaboratively with the architect because she found the quote unbuildable lot here in Idol Wilds it's a beautiful place that they wanted to come to because they were very active in the music art dance plays and everything else to bring intellectuals to the beautiful nature of these Sant asento mountains in the San berardino National Forest my mother was an interior designer new modern architecture she wanted some other architects who were too expensive or too busy they recommended lner who was just getting going this was basically his first roundhouse the concept of the circle was my mother's she had a 100-year-old antique round table that she wanted a house designed around she wanted the windows the view to be open cabin is in many many many many books of architecture about John lner and other mid-century modern Architects I don't know how many he designed but this was definitely the first roundhouse that he designed and is on the national register of historic places when my parents decided to build their vacation home here in the mountains which is really reflective of my mother's upbringing in West Virginia in the appalaches dad was a city boy from Brooklyn New York they wanted to be up here and mom was very involved in modern architecture modern interior design and she did think of some other famous architects of the time who were either too expensive or not available they recommended lner who was just getting his practice going he was needed the work he was affordable he could work collaboratively with my mother I considered this a joint project in terms of what was designed she worked with him came up was involved in the construction because my Uncle Bill Branch her brother actually did it there were only two variations one is Uncle Bill was living living in a tent and when it got winter time with the snow and cold he turned the closet into a bedroom so he could live there while he finished building the rest of the cabin mom and dad were just starting a family in the ' 50s they wanted the vacation home which was common among middle class couples at the time so some of the furniture here was actually brought up from our Santa Ana home where I grew up she bought some very unique designer pieces of furniture from the Mattison chair to other items she brought up her baby grand piano that fit perfectly here the couch it's been re upolstered but that was in our living room the table she liked having a desk in every room in every house but to have an ordinary desk that was rectangular would have been not according to the circular design of the house so she actually designed the desk and had her cabinet maker make it to fit this place to make it look right in the ' 50s rooms and homes were separate but here's a vacation home kids are playing in here adults are conversing she didn't mind working in the kitchen but she wanted to be part of the action so she had the open kitchen coner ccept we still have the 1957 one unit stove oven and refrigerator it's still working and it's still there but it's an open concept and she'd like to see some of the open bookcases with the China and the books but on the other hand the walls with the canned goods and so forth look like just an ordinary wall but you press them they open up its closets surprises a lot of people I was 10 years old at the time it was being designed so I don't know too much about the design process I do know for the construction it took about one year and I did meet lner I had him on my environmental directions radio show back in the '90s mom and I went to his uh funeral they stayed in touch lner periodically would come up here other people in his architectural firm would come up here and it was ongoing friendship I have restored the home in terms of anything that needed repair but I haven't changed anything in terms of look I have tried to maintain this place in the original for multiple reasons one is I come up here to enjoy myself why do I want to be changing it the logs that hold up the windows are the original the deck with the big big door which surprises people it's a door that opens we go out on the deck it's the original we built it around an oak tree but it did start rotting so I had it rebuilt exactly the way it was the paint job when I saw posting by some Dutch architex saying oh that's a beautiful yellow color I said wait it was never yellow that was fed I said it was time to repaint it the original colors so everything has been repainted the original Green so that it looks like it was growing up in this cabin I simply enjoyed it and it wasn't until some Pomona college students decided to submit it for recognition on the national register of historic places I'm pleased that it's recognized nationally as a very Unique Piece of architecture it doesn't matter to me I come up to enjoy it regardless however I do believe that unique places that are first or special in many different regards should be saved and preserved there was a big debate when I needed the new roof many years ago my brother had done all the repairs over and over year after year he says I can't p catch the leak anymore it's time for the new roof mid-century modern architecture was not really designed for the snow so we have the roof coming down to a flat lots of leaking very common among Frank lloy Wright buildings lot buildings it's common my brother said let's put an angle on the wing like this I said Phil no that's not in the original design so we had a little family interaction and I kept it as original as possible because I think it's important that places like this stay to the original concept what saddens me is that when somebody buys an historic place a famous place by a famous architect and destroys it or changes it so significantly from the original that we lose that history as long long as I'm alive this stays original I was privileged to inherit this beautiful place so that I can have my getaway from the craziness of Los Angeles this is the Pearlman cabin and it will go down to the family to my nieces and nephew and to my great nieces and nephew so that it stays in the family [Music]

Channel: OPEN SPACE

Views: 43,049

Keywords: open space series, architecure, design, preservation, case study home, neutra, gregory ain, frank lloyd wright, rudolph schindler, schindler, post and beam, house tour, home tour, los angeles, richard neutra, john lautner, Pearlman Cabin, House Tour, Idyllwild

Id: HA5TwBnvJdk

Length: 9min 11sec (551 seconds)

Published: Wed May 08 2024