The home was designed by La Jolla-based architect John Barber in 2008 and was completed in 2010. This home, according to the listing, is "inspired by Wallace Neff" and replaces a 1949 5 bedroom/4bath ranch style home that sits on a great 0.73 acre tree lined lot.
There is some interesting recent history to the home. Let's start at the beginning. The original 1949 home was purchased in the summer of 2004 for $1.6M by a local dentist and his wife. The owners then proceeded to completely remodel the 3,158sf "mid century" home and completed the remodel in 2006. After the remodel, it looked like this:
You can even see in the Google StreetView that they updated the garage doors with a more modern/contemporary feel. The old MLS listing shows many other photos that make it clear that the home was completely and totally remodeled, inside and outside. It had a new pool, new hardscape, etc.
Fast forward two years, and in mid 2008, the home owners put the house on the market for $2.8M - $1.2M more than the original purchase price from 2004. Records indicate that in addition to getting a completely redone home, the new would-be buyer would also get the plans for an Italian estate "inspired by Wallace Neff" as well as a complete project bid from local builder MurSol. The home sat on the market for a little over a month before the listing was removed. I'm guessing that the home owners decided it would be easier to sell a new Italian estate rather than a redone mid century in that particular market (or maybe the Global Financial Crisis gave them a scare, and they soon figured out they were ok?). Seems a shame that they would have wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars (not to mention stress and time associated with a remodel) to rebuild the home only to tear it down shortly thereafter to build a new mansion from scratch!
The 2010 home, which sits on a 110' wide and 289' deep lot, measures 7,000sf and has a pool and motor court. The windows are in scale and relatively simple. The facade registers ample whitespace - which would please GW Smith. The stone surround of the door - perfectly authentic. The roof pitch, choice of tile all in keeping with homes of the 1920s. While this home is located near Caltech on a tree-lined street with mixed housing stock, it is almost better suited on Lombardy Road or parts of San Marino with other beautiful 1920s estates.
Overall, this is a gorgeous home that I'd like to see more of - not the usual McMansion fare. What do you think?
KEY STATS
Location: Pasadena
Style: Italian
Year built: 2010
Architect: John Barber (La Jolla)
Square footage: 7,000
Lot size: 31,790 (110x289)
Year built: 2010
Architect: John Barber (La Jolla)
Square footage: 7,000
Lot size: 31,790 (110x289)