Hot Property: Robbie Conal lists Mar Vista home for $1.15 million
Los Angeles poster artist Robbie Conal and his wife, movie and television title designer Deborah Ross, have listed their Gregory Ain-designed home in Mar Vista for $1,149,000.
The 1,857-square-foot house is one of the largest in a development of 52 so-called “Modernique Homes,” which strove to combine good design and low-cost housing in the postwar years. Conal and Ross were both interested in the Ain homes before they met in 1987.
“They were designed with a romantically progressive ideal of everyday social interaction, including contiguous — shared — lawns,” Conal said.
The couple increased the size and functionality of the house while retaining such original details as the sliding room dividers, clerestory windows and floor-to-ceiling windows.
Houses in the tract follow variations of similar footprints that can be configured to suit the owners’ needs.
“The thing I love most about the floor plan is that it is completely laid out for ‘Mom’ … a true matriarchal design — in 1948,” he said. The kitchen is in the front of the house with the sink looking out the front window. “Mom can see anyone approaching the house, as well as the kids, if they happen to be playing out front.”
The pair added bamboo floors, a new kitchen and an art studio. The house has three bedrooms and two bathrooms.
“Each bedroom has built-in closets and dressers,” Conal said. “It’s almost designed like a boat for efficiency of usable space.”
Conal is known for his depictions of political figures and guerilla street posters that blanketed cities overnight. His work has been featured in major newspapers and national magazines. He has a painting in the Museum of Contemporary Art’s new show, “The Artists’ Museum,” opening Oct. 31 downtown and will talk at the Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art Nov. 8 at an exhibition of 45 of his street posters.
Ross did the title designs for films including “Michael Clayton” (2007), “The Talented Mr. Ripley” (1999) and “The English Patient” (1996). She also designed Conal’s three books.
Scott King and Brian Linder of Deasy, Penner & Partners have the listing.
