[Photograph courtesy of Los Angeles Modern Auctions; original photograph by Julius Shulman of the J. R. Davidson Kingsley residence, to be sold with the corresponding lot on Sunday, May 19, 2013]

On Sunday, Los Angeles Modern Auctions is selling off the custom-built furniture from the Kingsley Residence in Pacific Palisades, designed by JR Davidson, the underrated architect who designed three houses for the Case Study House program (Numbers 1, 11, and 15). Why? Because the 1947 house has recently sold and the new owner is planning to demolish it very, very soon, according to the seller (members of the Kingsley family). Boo! Hiss! According to a LAMA press release, this is “One of the last remaining Davidson houses in its original form … The Kingsley residence was never altered in terms of the structure, and aside from minor updates by the architect in the 1950s, the interior of the home remained almost identical to the [Julius] Shulman photographs for over 60 years. While the fate of the house is still unknown, it seems likely that it will be torn down to build a larger structure.” It came on the market in February asking $ 4.2 million and sold in early April, above asking, for $ 4.56 million. It sits on .43 acres.

The Kingsley was built for Joseph and Lore Kingsley on the site of an old lemon grove on Amalfi Drive. Like Davidson, the Kingsleys had fled Germany (Davidson left in 1923; the Kingsley, who were Jewish, didn’t get out until the early 1940s). According to LAMA, they met with Richard Neutra to discuss building a house on their sloping lot, but Neutra refused to give them the breakfast room they wanted and they moved on. Davidson built a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house and returned nine years later to add a poolhouse, mural, and updated furniture. (He also designed a neighboring house for Grandmother Kingsley.)

Davidson also designed custom furniture for the house; items up for auction “include a biomorphic occasional table, two coffee tables (one a nod to a K.E.M. Weber design), as well as an articulated wall light, and dining suite comprised of a table and ten chairs.” (More on the coffee tables here.) They’ll each come with a vintage print of one of Julius Shulman’s photographs of the house.

[Photographs courtesy of Los Angeles Modern Auctions; original photographs by Julius Shulman of the J. R. Davidson Kingsley residence, to be sold with the corresponding lot on Sunday, May 19, 2013]
· Fate of J. R. Davidson House In Peril; Furniture to Go to Auction [LAMA]
· Mid-Century in Brentwood by Case Study Architect JR Davidson [Curbed LA]

Curbed LA

Open House: Sunday, May 5, between 2 PM – 5 PM

11051 Wrightwood Lane, Studio City
Price: $ 1,995,000
Beds, Bath: 4, 3
Floor Area: 3,320 sq. ft.
Per the Listing: “The Thies Residence, an exemplary architectural home from Carl Maston, award winning graduate of the USC school of architecture. Modernist lines abound throughout this home evidenced by folded plate ceiling details to the endless rows of floor to ceiling glass windows. The indoor/outdoor flow feels seamless. Spend summer days taking a dip in the sparkling pool or collecting your thoughts by the koi pond. Polished cement flooring adds to the sleek luster of this light and bright home.”

We’ve called Mr. Maston underrated before, and we’re sticking by that sentiment. We want to have this house’s babies. Don’t judge! Kudos to the previous owners who did a masterful upkeep (per Redfin, it last sold in 1999 for $ 860k). Per USC’s archives: “Upon graduation, Maston worked for the offices of Floyd Rible, A. Quincy Jones, Fred Emmons, Phil Daniel, and Allied Architects before opening his own office. His homes, shopping centers, military housing units, and university buildings can be found throughout Southern California. Known for his stark, no-frills modern buildings such as the Maston (or Marmont) Residence and Hillside House, his career spanned over 40 years in public and private sectors.”
· 11051 Wrightwood Ln, Studio City, CA 91604 [Redfin]

Curbed LA

VENICE: The LA Conservancy is celebrating the oft-maligned modern architecture of the 19790s and ’80s with, among other things, a tour this Saturday of Venice highlights from Frank Gehry, Frank Israel, Brian Hopper, Steven Ehrlich and Chuck Arnoldi (including Dennis Hopper’s house). There’ll also be a panel discussion with some of the architects and there’s a related Instagram photo contest (Curbed’s own photographer Elizabeth Daniels is a judge). All the tour details are here. [Curbed Inbox]

HOLLYWOOD: Today the city was set to dedicate Highland and Selma as Carol Burnett Square. The ever-delightful Burnett went to nearby Hollywood High and “grew up in the surrounding neighborhood.” So file that away in your encyclopedic list of “Los Angeles’s honorary intersections.” [Curbed Inbox]

Curbed LA

Curbed National has gotten a look inside a tiny modern house built for the 2013 Designer Dollhouse Showcase, which will debut at the Beverly Hills Hotel next week–this specimen was designed by interior designers Jaime Rummerfield, Ron Woodson, and Chris Barrett, with landscape designer Stephen Block. (There will also be houses from Waldo Fernandez, Estee Stanley, fashion designer Monique Lhuillier, and many more; the houses themselves, which range from Georgian to Contemporary, were designed to scale by Richard Manion Architecture). In the video tour, Barrett says “our inspiration really comes from Southern California … the light, the colors.” The 10 dollhouses in the show will eventually be sold through One Kings Lane, with proceeds going to the UCLA Children’s Discovery and Innovation Institute at Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA.
· Here Now, Tour the World’s Loveliest Miniature Showhouse [Curbed National]

Curbed LA

SELLER: Pam Anderson
LOCATION: Malibu, CA
PRICE: $ 7,750,000
SIZE: 2,752 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Your Mama certainly ain’t tellin’ anybody a damn thing about former Baywatch babe Pam Anderson’s money woes, unpaid tax issues and sundry real estate meshugganuh, all of which has been covered at length and ad infinitum by others in the tabloid and celebrity real estate gossip media.

To quickly recap: In the last days of 2000 Miz Anderson coughed up $ 1,800,000 for a land-side fixer upper in the guard-gated and star-studded Colony enclave in Malibu (CA). She spent years and God only knows how many millions on eco-minded overhaul and re-imagining of the original 1959 cottage led by architect Philip Vertoch of Vertoch Design Architects and designer Josh Chrisant of Chryssanthou.

In November 2011, reportedly strapped for cash, Miz Anderson’s newly overhauled contemporary crib in the guard-gated and star-studded Colony enclave in Malibu (CA) unexpectedly popped up for rent on VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner) at twenty grand a week or $ 75,000 a month with a dozen or so over-processed photographs.  The property was up for least again over the summer of 2012 at a much more reasonable but still pocketbook punishingly high $ 50,000 per month. We don’t know if anyone actually leased the house but we’re sure one or two of the children could probably enlighten Your Mama about that if they’d so choose.

When the middle-aged bombshell finally decided to sell her financial albatross in the Colony a month or so ago—that would be February 2013—she pushed it on the open market with a $ 7,750,000 price tag with but a few—ahem—artfully staged listing photographs. One showed a Golden Retriever lounging on a sun bed, another of a pair of over-sized pillows arranged just so on the roof deck and a third an inane tableau of perfume bottles and pink roses.

However, hunties, it appears that Miz Anderson’s extraordinarily successful real estate agent has recently added a whole lotta much more customary photographs to the online listings for the teak-sided contemporary that has three bedrooms and three bathrooms in 2,752 square feet of modern splendor.

An intimate, gated courtyard planted with lavender bushes and olive trees leads to an extra wide pivoting glass door that, for all intents and purposes, opens directly into kitchen. The open concept lower floor, bisected by a muscular wood and steel floating staircase, has a media lounge area with wall-mounted flat-screen tee-vee and built-in surround sound system, a living room lounge with book shelf flanked fireplace and a galley style kitchen expensively equipped with slab stone counter tops, custom cabinetry and the sorts of high grade and extravagantly pricey commercial grade appliances that Make Your Mama swoon. Did y’all see the glass-fronted Sub-Zero? Refrigeration heaven as far as we’re concerned. A wall of floor to ceiling glass windows disappear into the walls when opened and seamlessly join the compact interior spaces to the outdoor living spaces.

Up the floating staircase two family/guest bedrooms share a bathroom. The master suite with floor to ceiling wardrobe closets hidden behind matchbook pattern wood doors, a corner fireplace and an open-plan bathroom that Your Mama hates because, seriously, who wants to wake up looking at the sink/vanity and the goddamn bath tub, even if it is a stunningly sculptural, $ 14,000 Agape Spoon Bathtub? Anyhoo, like in the living area downstairs, a wall of windows slide back into the wall and exposes the room to the elements. The bedroom spills out to a large deck and second, exterior floating staircase that climbs up to a roomy roof deck. Now, naturally we love the roof terrace with its all around mountain and ocean views but it’s a little inconvenient for the rood deck access to be through the master bedroom.

A couple more quirky details Your Mama thinks the children ought to take note of include: the flush mounted television in the sauna; the full-sized tepee set on a concrete plinth at the far end of the pool; the glimmering, disco-ball-like mirrored tiles on the wall in that aforementioned master bathroom; the direct view of Jerry Perenchio’s private golf course from the upper level decks off the master bedroom; the rather interesting collection of artworks and coffee table books; and, finally, for the love of Pete,the ebony baby grand piano that someone for some inexplicable reason put on the covered porch off the main living space where the salt air can quickly corrode everything there is to corrode on a grand piano.

To be honest, children, we’re not sure if Miz Anderson has been living up in this house in the Colony or not. The last we heard of her—which was ages ago, really—she was shacked up in a fancy trailer home in the Paradise Cove Mobile Home Park but we really don’t know if she’s still living there or no. Bueller? Anyone? Bueller?

listing photos: Coldwell Banker
The Real Estalker

This spiffy modern in the hills near the Waverly Drive Bridge was built in 1959 by architect Gilbert Leong. A former draftsman for Harwell Hamilton Harris, Leong designed Chinatown’s Baptist and Methodist churches, as well as the interior court and authentic Chinese garden of Pasadena’s Pacific Asian Museum. Located within the Ivanhoe School district, the two-bedroom residence features beamed ceilings, walls of glass, two brick fireplaces, original bathrooms (including a sweet petal-pink-tiled one), a kidney-shaped pool, and mountain views (along with a pretty good view of the icky building next door). Per the listing, the 2,031-square-foot house has been “lovingly maintained by the same family that built it.” Sited on a .37-acre lot, it’s asking $ 947,000.
· 2925 Waverly Dr [Official Site]

Curbed LA

SELLER: Jamie Kennedy
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $ 1,899,000
SIZE: 2,342 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Comedian Jamie Kennedy has (re-)listed his contemporized ranch house in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles on the market at a substantial loss with an asking price of $ 1,899,000.

Property records (and previous reports) reveal that Mister Kennedy purchased the property in July 2007 for $ 2,150,000. A few clicks and clacks of the well-worn beads on Your Mama’s bejeweled abacus shows that even if his handsome real estate agent snags a full price sale—don’t laugh, children, it could happen—Mister Kennedy is facing a $ 251,000 hit to his man purse not counting carrying costs, improvements and real estate fees.

Current listing information shows the double-gated and fully remodeled single story ranch house was originally built in 1958 and has four bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms (plus a full bathroom in the pool cabana) in 2,342 square feet of sleek interior space.

A glassy rear façade spills out to a resort-style backyard with multiple fire pits and water features, a built-in barbecue/outdoor kitchen and an elevated spa connected to the swimming pool by a river-like water channel. One of the more—ahem—interesting features is an all-glass above ground koi pond, an eye popping but utterly impractical and difficult situation to maintain—Your Mama imagines—without a part time koi pond cleaner on the payroll.

Your Mama heard through the celebrity real estate gossip grapevine that Mister Kennedy plans to decamp to downtown where his production company is located but we don’t have any specifics on the wheres and how muches as regards to where exactly he plans to live.

listing photos: Keller Williams / Studio City

The Real Estalker