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By Sean Mitchell<br /><br />Of more than 100 houses that Ray Kappe has designed over his long and distinguished career, the one he designed for himself and his family in Los Angeles' Rustic Canyon is the most important. "Maybe the greatest house in Southern California," Stephen Kanner, the former president of American Institute of Architects' Los Angeles chapter, said in a 2008 interview. That year, when the Home section polled architects, historians, academics and critics on Southern California's best houses of all time, the 1967 Kappe residence landed at No. 8, ranked among classics by Frank Lloyd Wright, Rudolph Schindler, Richard Neutra, John Lautner and Charles and Ray Eames.

Ray Kappe house, a natural wonder in Pacific Palisades

( Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times )

By Sean Mitchell

Of more than 100 houses that Ray Kappe has designed over his long and distinguished career, the one he designed for himself and his family in Los Angeles' Rustic Canyon is the most important. "Maybe the greatest house in Southern California," Stephen Kanner, the former president of American Institute of Architects' Los Angeles chapter, said in a 2008 interview. That year, when the Home section polled architects, historians, academics and critics on Southern California's best houses of all time, the 1967 Kappe residence landed at No. 8, ranked among classics by Frank Lloyd Wright, Rudolph Schindler, Richard Neutra, John Lautner and Charles and Ray Eames.

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WLA 1944 at 7:33 PM June 04, 2011

I had the grand opportunity to tour the Kappe home in 1969 and was overwhelmed by the architect's use of space, light, form and materials. Any suggestions that Mr. Kappe "highjacked" ideas from Frank Lloyd Wright are pure nonesense. Neverthelss, it must be noted that those of us making a living as creative souls, have certainly found inspiration from those who came before us. Whatever tangential directions to which we evolve are all part of the creative energy within.

Mr. Kappe remains extraordinarily creative as a founder of SCI-ARC (Southern California Institute of Architecture) in Los Angeles where he has inspired some of the most expressive architects of this era. Furthermore, to see more examples of Mr. Kappe as a source of rethinking the concept of living spaces, readers should see his take on pre-fab homes built by Santa Monica-based LivingHomes. Visit www.livinghomes.net.

Thus, let it be writ large in stone that Ray Kappe will forever be a Los Angeles treasure as one of our nation's great architects.

Times_Reader1 at 6:21 PM February 24, 2011

One wonders what will happen to the value of the property if new owners are required by law - bolstered by architects' opinions - to preserve the green shag carpeting....

lejelmsdale at 10:41 PM January 24, 2011

I'm glad opportunities allowed Kappe to design this house. All architecture is borrowed (not hijacked), and is a reflection of any particular culture. FLW may have been unique, but certainly was part of a general paradigm in architectural thought—transitioning from the eclectic to a more rational, and generally more humane architecture of the 1950s and 1960. As an architect who has designed many houses, more modest than grand over the last 35 years, and as an architectural historian who appreciates that little period of time that allowed such wonderful houses to be built on the West Coast, I applaud this beautiful artwork. It reflects the aspirations of its time, now fading away.