Inside an enchanting Modernist House discreetly tucked away in Long Beach, California | House Tour

the modernist scene in Long Beach is is pretty awesome we have Killingsworth he's pretty ubiquitous I believe he was the master planner for Cal State Long Beach his fingerprints are all over the university in a lot of the buildings there's also Paul Tay a little lesser known but very famous architect in his own right not far from here there's actually a Nitra there's a Lloyd Wright the son of Frank Lloyd Wright and then there's this house there's the Leopold fiser where nobody knew who he was my name is Eric Aken uh my wife who's miumi Aken and we're in Long Beach we're in the Los Altos neighborhood we're directly across from Cal State Long Beach in the shadow of the pyramid I initially would go to mid-century modern but I think that's almost a misnomer for this house because initially it was built as just a standard tract home in 1952 subsequently the room that we're sitting in right now was added on technically this is bow house inspired by the architect that did it and then we also have a studio off back which is more 1970s so it's kind of a mashup so I don't know if there's any really one word that sums up our home but I probably mid-century modern is the best place to go with it it really is three different houses and it's front middle back I joke it's kind of like a mullet it's very business up front but the parties all happening in the back the original home I believe the architect's name were popper and tacket and they fell under Palo Verity home the room that we're sitting in right now was designed by an architect Leopold Fischer and Leopold Fischer also did the studio which is out back the original own owner of the home was Dr Ward Yuri he founded the Ceramics Department across the street at Cal State Long Beach at some point he met Leopold Fischer interesting story about Leopold for inspiration for this Edition he told Ward that he was going to show up at the house unexpectedly and he wanted to sit in the corner and observe the family for hours at a time when he was done he designed this room when we first saw the house it had a grand piano right here and had some furniture towards that end of the room so I really think the room was built just for Ward without the the family's consideration because it was Ward's grand piano plus his ceramic collection which is on the shelves behind you in 1967 they asked Leopold Fischer again to design a studio which is out that way when we came to see the house for the first time they mentioned that it was owned by Ward Yuri the house had many of his ceramic works all around the place you could really feel the Creative Energy in the home something else that they mentioned but not quite as distinctly as they mentioned Ward Yuri was the architect Leopold Fischer as we were touring the home I grabbed my phone and I immediately started Googling him and who he was and lines to Frank Lloyd Wright lines to Walter gropius lines to Bow house I knew we really had something here that most people didn't know about including myself at the time so so we were eager to see more and as we moved out from this room to the studio that really is what cinched the deal we saw the design that Leopold Fischer had for that and we knew this house was ours from what I know of Leopold Fisher in somewhere around the 1920s he became acquainted with Adolf Los Adolf Los Was An Architect in Austria and many consider him as a Pioneer or the pioneer of modern architecture and two of his early students were neitra and Schindler so we moved into the house in the spring of 2019 and we realized we had some work in front of us the house was very comfortable and was utterly livable but we knew we really wanted to do something with the kitchen at that time the kitchen was really blocked off from the rest of the house and it was dark and there wasn't much air flow coming into the rest of the home so we felt that that was the first thing we had to address so we essentially gutted the kitchen and replaced it with something lighter and definitely more Airy than what was there before so this the studio is really a time capsule of the 1970s and we've always been really hesitant to overuse it because we don't want to damage it in any way we all we want to keep it pristine however we do use it for when our family visits when our son and our daughter come down to visit they'll stay there and then it also was a great place for us when we were remodeling the kitchen that we escaped to and uh rode it out out there the studio is completely original all the way down to the floors to the laminate everything's original to that room we haven't done a single thing to it it's in really good shape because we don't go out there very often it's something we we we admire from afar but it really is a treasure to us we we realize that something like that doesn't exist in many places and we almost feel it's our responsibility to keep it in that stage for as long as we can so we're lucky here in the main house there's three bedrooms one is obviously our master bedroom but the other two are for hers and my Pursuits mine is my home office to do my job and hers is where she does all of her leather goods creation she is always in there creating bags creating wallets works on mouse pads you name it she can make it she is just an incredible L creative person I feel once we finished the remodeling the house the quality of life that we experien just went through the roof this house is so comfortable we have all this warm light pouring in during the day we both have these great spaces where we can get our work done and we're not interfering with each other we have this fantastic kitchen where we can get in there and cook some great meals for dinner we've got just an abundance of space for the two of us and not to mention the outdoor it's it's right there it's We're Not only living in this room but we're living in that room that room being the patio and the lawn area one of the most unique features of this house is our Bell Tower I never had seen a house with a bell tower before I spoke of the professor UCSB previously and he actually terms this a Folly when we first saw the home they did have a large solar Bell hanging from it and we inquired hey would it be possible for us to keep that Bell there and they said well no we're taking it with us so we were kind of bummed thinking how are we going to replace that but our real estate agent Stephen me the day we moved in he found exactly the same Bell and we hung it in the same place and it's just a fantastic thing it it the sound that emanates from it on a slightly breezy day is just it's like a temple Bell it's just it's beautiful there's a saying in watch collecting that you never truly own a watch you're just a steward and I feel that way about this house I mentioned about the studio we don't want to change anything and we really feel that it's our responsibility to keep that as is as long as we can something else that was pretty interesting about this house is the front yard can't say I was a huge fan initially when I saw it but we feel that it needs to stay in place it was the design of their original owner and on certain days you'll look at it and you can see the geometry that went into it you can see the thoughtfulness you can see the art behind it so I'm really happy that we hung on to it we also have two huge trees they're pink Trumpet trees is what I believe they're called and they're they're massive and that was the one thing that the previous owner Sue who was the daughter of the original owner Ward asked us to never cut down those trees I feel they they serve as two centuries to our house they give a shade in the summer they keep us cool and in the spring they give us that beautiful pink flower to look at we were so fortunate to find this house we looked high and low for something that fit the bill what we wanted which was mid-century and we struck out trying to get a ner we struck out trying to get a cliff May and when we thought all hope was lost this house came to us I feel like the warmth and the Creative Energy that's been imbued into this home from the previous owners you can feel it it it's tangible when you walk in people walk in they just say wow and as you look out the window out onto the grass and you see the Solari Bell it's it's just it's comforting it's relaxing and we're just so appreciative that we got in here when we did and we were able to make it our own with the remodel and we hope to live here for many many years to come and maybe pass it down to our kids so they can live here as well and enjoy it as much as we did [Music]

Channel: OPEN SPACE

Views: 133,475

Keywords: Open Space Series, Modern, Mcm, Mid century, mid-century modern, case study, ceramics, leopold fischer, long beach, frank lloyd wright, john lautner, richard neutra, a quincy jones, eichler, cliff may, los angeles, vw beetle, remodel, home remodel, home tour, house tour

Id: xdEyECjPg_0

Length: 9min 56sec (596 seconds)

Published: Tue May 21 2024