Stucco in the Middle : Architecture: The historic Grokowsky House lies in the path of proposed freeway expansion, but preservationists say it--and others--have already fallen into disrepair at the hands of landlord Caltrans.

It’s not your average tenant-landlord dispute, the beef that Michael Burch has with the state Department of Transportation.

At his South Pasadena house, the garage roof leaks. The steps are cracked. The structure suffers from dry rot. . . . And Caltrans wants to build a freeway right on top of where it sits.

Burch’s small stucco home, built by internationally known architect Rudolf Schindler, is one of 569 houses that Caltrans owns along the 6.2-mile stretch of the proposed extension of the Long Beach Freeway.

The 65-year-old Grokowsky House, named for its original owners, is one of the most significant of the scores of historic houses along the path. And preservationists say it is one of the most extreme examples of Caltrans’ neglect as a landlord.

An architect trained at Yale and UC Berkeley, Burch, 40, stumbled upon the house seven years ago when he was looking for a place to rent and a friend told him that Caltrans had rental houses.

When he saw the two-story house, he excitedly recognized that it was designed by Schindler. Perched on a hill, it illustrates what Schindler--a Viennese who worked most of his life in Southern California until his death in 1953--was known for: solving the sticky problem of building on slopes, making the most of a site and doing it all with a sense of style.

Burch is proud that he lives in such a special place, and this makes him all the angrier that Caltrans isn’t maintaining the structure the way he wants.

The house desperately needs new gutters and downspouts, Burch said. The water-damaged foundation needs reinforcing, and the cracked stucco-and-wood garage needs shoring up.

The Grokowsky House, preservationists say, is one among scores of poorly maintained Caltrans houses. And all along the proposed path from the Los Angeles-Alhambra border to Pasadena, 72 of the agency’s houses are vacant and boarded up, many of them large and historic.

The boarded-up structures, surrounded by well-kept privately owned ones, create a negative feeling in neighborhoods, said South Pasadena City Manager Kenneth C. Farfsing.

“It’s basically state-sanctioned slum and blight,” said Farfsing, expressing concern that the Grokowsky House and other Caltrans houses will remain in a state of disrepair for years. Under even the most optimistic plans, it could be five to 10 years before the freeway project might get under way and Caltrans attempts to move the building.

Last week Farfsing wrote a letter to Caltrans seeking action on the dilapidated structures, in response to a complaint from an angry citizen who recently told the South Pasadena City Council about two vacant houses.

Critics say Caltrans has failed to adhere to state and federal laws that require the agency to maintain--at a high level--the historic properties it owns.

“It’s completely unconscionable,” said Burch, who pays Caltrans $725 a month to live in the 1,310-square-foot house.

In January he began firing off letters to state and federal highway officials. Since spring, Caltrans has assured him repairs would be undertaken. Virtually nothing has been done, he said, except some roof repair and termite treatment.

Caltrans has identified $54,000 in repairs needed at the Grokowsky House. The problem is, the money isn’t there.

But Caltrans deputy director Joe W. Boyd promises that the agency will complete the work before the end of next year. In response to the complaints about the Grokowsky House and others along the proposed freeway’s path, Boyd said the agency has undertaken a survey of its historic homes and developed a plan to restore 69 historic structures it owns.

To meet the state and federal preservation standards, Boyd said, $3.5 million of restoration work is required. The agency is still looking for money for this, too, but plans to complete it by next year.

Boyd acknowledged that Caltrans “may not have paid historic preservation as much attention” in the past. “But we are sincere in this effort now.”

Since Caltrans bought the house in 1975, Burch said, maintenance has been lax, complicated by the fact that some previous occupants seemed insensitive to the house’s value.

Earlier tenants, he said, parked a motorcycle in the living room where journalist David Grokowsky and his wife, Fae, had a baby grand piano. On top of the red oak flooring, Burch said, somebody installed shag carpeting. He has removed it.

Against the dictates of the original design, he said, woodwork, window casements and doors--all once stained with clear lacquer--were painted white.

In spite of the problems at the Grokowsky House, much of Schindler’s original design is intact: so much so that visitors from afar come to see the house at 816 Bonita Drive.

The other day, Burch spotted three people taking photographs and scrutinizing the house, which is listed in guidebooks.

As he invited them in, Margaret Griffin, an architect who teaches at Syracuse University in Upstate New York, marveled at how the house is balanced on a precarious hillside: “Schindler is my favorite. I don’t know of any other architect that had more strategies to deal with slopes.”

Griffin, 30, and her friends, both of them artists, Andrea Lewis, 28, of Inglewood and Sebastian Clough, 29, of Altadena, made their way past the garage with its rotting roof where remnants of a recent rain dripped through cracks.

They entered the airy living room whose two-story wall of southern-facing windows illuminated the space. A balcony-loft overlooks the living room. Underneath the loft, there is a cozy space with built-in bookcases and a fireplace.

They walked up narrow wooden stairs to the loft and looked out the windows.

“This is why you can’t just plunk this house down someplace else,” Burch said, referring to the possibility that Caltrans will move the building to make way for the freeway. “The views were very carefully considered. When it’s clear, you can see all the way to Saddleback Mountain in Orange County.”

Caltrans has said it will do its best to move most historic houses in the path.

Diane Kane, architectural historian for Caltrans who studied under Gebhard at UC Santa Barbara, said that although she considers the Grokowsky House “not one of Schindler’s major works,” it would be wise to preserve it by moving it.

Community correspondent Richard Winton contributed to this story.