‘Architecture’ Houses Cater to a Special Kind of Buyer

Most homeowners think of their home as shelter, an investment and a refuge from the outside world.

For a select few, home is also a work of art. These are residences notable for their daring designs or well-known architects. It’s not just real estate we’re talking about here--it’s aesthetics. And the buyers aren’t mere homeowners, they’re connoisseurs.

So-called “architecture” homes are often harder to sell than a typical tract home, but a designer label usually helps command a 10% to 20% premium over neighboring properties.

“Generally, most buyers are looking at a home to get the best deal. Architecture-motivated buyers are looking at quality first,” said Mike Glickman, San Fernando Valley executive director for the Jon Douglas Co. in Encino. “The buyers get very emotionally involved.”

Los Angeles is rich in unique architecture and many prominent architects have been attracted here. Their homes aren’t for everyone, however, Glickman said. “It’s for a different, very limited crowd.”

Buyers in the Valley are also less interested in big-name architects than are buyers on the Westside of Los Angeles, said Connie Nelson, estates director at Fred Sands Realtors in Studio City. Most buyers do, however, appreciate good design, even if they don’t care much about the architect, she said.

Nelson is selling several “architecture” properties in the Valley, including a traditional-style Toluca Lake home built in the 1940s by celebrated African-American architect Paul Williams--known for his updated colonial-style homes. Asking price is $1.265 million.

“All buyers in this price range know who Paul Williams was,” Nelson said. But “a Paul Williams sells because of its charm and wonderful qualities first, not because it has a name tag.”

For buyers with more contemporary tastes, there’s a 1951 wood and mitered glass home on Woodbridge Street in Toluca Lake designed by Harwell Hamilton Harris. Asking price is $1.225 million. The late architect was known for his clean lines and use of expansive glass. He is also part of what scholars consider the “second generation” of architects following noted L. A. architects and Austrian emigres Richard Neutra and Rudolph Schindler.

Neutra and Schindler, who built their reputations in the ‘30s and ‘40s, helped introduce to Southern California the International Style--a sparse and very open look.

Rosemary and Kevin Burchett are somewhat reluctant about selling their Harwell Hamilton Harris, but they’re in the business of fixing up homes and selling them. The time has come to move on, they said.

“We have students that come by and look at it,” said Rosemary Burchett, and visitors always comment about all the custom touches. She recalled chatting about the house with another lady who said: “Are you the people who live in the Harwell Hamilton Harris? I wouldn’t think of living in anything else!”

The design doesn’t necessarily appeal to everyone, Rosemary Burchett said. “It’s not a chintz-curtain kind of house.”

Homes by great architects are also sometimes as infamous as they are famous.

Some of the Schindler houses have settled unevenly. Frank Lloyd Wright homes are known for their chronically leaky roofs, and many of architect Raphael Soriano’s homes were built with such large sliding glass doors that they can barely slide.

Despite these problems, any of these homes are “better than 90% of the stupid tract homes in L. A.,” said Crosby Doe, vice president of Mossler Deasy & Doe, a Beverly Hills-based real estate sales firm specializing in architecture homes and estates.

Doe started selling architecture homes in 1973. “I determined that there was a special market for these homes,” Doe recalled. “Nobody believed I could make a career just by selling architecture.” But he has.

“Houses with integrity will always bring a premium,” Doe said. But “it takes time to find that special buyer. It’s a more difficult process than selling a home built for the masses.”

Doe said the last Frank Lloyd Wright home that sold in Los Angeles brought a 200% premium. “That’s what the bank told us.” The reality, however, is that these homes command maybe a 10% to 20% premium.

“Most of our buyers are less concerned with the name than the quality behind the name,” Doe said. “A very strong element of the market is from the entertainment industry and people who are very visually oriented.”

However, lenders especially are wary of making loans on architecture homes, Doe said. “They won’t lend on something adventuresome.”

Another issue that Doe contends with in the Valley is the desire of most buyers for more traditional architecture. “There isn’t quite as much of a market in the Valley for contemporary architecture,” he said. Doe, however, is trying to sell a 1964 work in Studio City by contemporary architect J. Barry Moffit. A recent advertisement for the house reads, “horizontal and vertical integration vivifies public interiors.” What that means, Doe said, is “you get this feeling of life and drama from the home.”

And at $595,000, he added: “I don’t think it’s priced much above other homes in the area.”

The seller of this Moffit home just finished building two Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired Usonian homes in the Tujunga hills that are perched at a height of 2,350 feet--about twice the elevation of the Hollywood Hills. These Usonian homes are designed to fit “organically” into their environment, where both indoors and outdoors are integrated.

“You need a buyer who’s concerned about the aesthetics of where he lives,” said developer Duke Snider, president of Snider Washburn Inc. in Studio City. “People will pay a premium for fine architecture, but the market is still very price-sensitive.”

Snider is pricing his homes between $450,000 and $500,000, slightly more than other nearby homes, but not too much more.