The Perfect Angle

About six months ago, Robert Imber was out driving when he stumbled across the answer to his dreams: a vacant multi-hexagonal commercial building here known as Alto Capistrano.

“I drove by it on a weekend and my ‘architect magnet’ went off,” said Imber, 47, of San Clemente. “There it was in front of me. I turned the corner and boing! It was as though it came to me.”

What better place to house an International Museum of Architecture?

The 6,000-square-foot building was built in 1966, the design of architect John Lautner--once a protege of Frank Lloyd Wright, the father of contemporary architecture.

Lautner, who died in 1994, is known for Chemosphere, or the 1960 Malin home. It looks like a UFO overlooking Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles.

A three-member committee, headed by Imber, is planning fund-raisers to establish a permanent collection at the museum. Volunteers have organized exhibits, including a tribute to another Wright student: the late Sim Bruce Richards. His widow, Janet Richards of San Diego, has loaned models, drawings, photographs, Aztec and watercolor paintings, woven rugs and furniture.

After months of small, private gatherings, the once-neglected building is set to emerge as Orange County’s first museum dedicated to architects and their works as the public is invited to an open house today and Sunday.

A couple years ago, the building was barely visible from the street, overgrown by weeds and shrubs after years of extreme neglect. The pond, now under an organic cleaning process, is a thick cloud of algae.

“I couldn’t sleep at night thinking that the building might be torn down or someone might fill in the pond, or change it, or alter it drastically. Or ruin it,” Imber recalled.

Originally, it was intended to become headquarters for a planned community project called Alto Capistrano, Imber said, an ambition never realized by Lautner: a city within a city, an attraction including homes, apartment buildings, parks and entertainment. The building has a hexagon nucleus, surrounded by six hexagon-shaped rooms; skylights; gardens and a cascading waterfall.

The building was purchased in 1995 by Brian Boyajian, who said he bought it in a foreclosure sale for $2 million.

Neither Boyajian or Imber knew one another then. Neither is an architect. But both are fanatical about architecture.

After discovering the building, Imber found Boyajian and told him about his plans. They discovered their joint love of architecture and the museum idea started to become real. Although Boyajian had had numerous offers for the site, he agreed to let Imber rent it at a substantial discount because he felt the 2.5-acre site was special.

“I want to give him a shot at it,” Boyajian said. “Robert is a dreamer and he has something. I guess I am a dreamer too, and people have supported me in my dreams.”

As an administrator at the Orange County Philharmonic, Imber began research and planning for the museum 10 years ago. But the discovery of Alto Capistrano changed everything. He couldn’t concentrate on work, so he took time off. Still the museum project was too overwhelming. It was time to make a decision: the job or his passion.

“I jumped off a cliff,” Imber said, “took a leave of absence from work and then resigned four months ago.”

Joseph Rosa, chief curator at the National Building Museum in Washington, said the museum should be especially interesting because the structure is significant.

“Many of these buildings by Lautner and others you can’t get into,” said Rosa, explaining the homes he had designed are privately owned. “This [museum] allows someone to go see a building that has details and explore them.”

Unlike exhibits held at the venues such as the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art, both in Los Angeles, this facility will be dedicated solely to architecture.

Other significant buildings in the Los Angeles area include Wright’s 1917-1920 Hollyhock and 1924 Freeman houses and the 1908 Gamble House designed by Charles and Henry Greene; they’re open for tours only.

The architecture experts say the only facility in Southern California that’s similar to the new museum in Orange County is the 1922 Schindler House in West Hollywood, designed by Rudolph Schindler.

It is home to the MAK Center, sponsored by the Austrian Museum of Culture.

“We don’t have a permanent collection, but we show everything related to contemporary art and architecture,” said Carol McMichael Reese, MAK director.

The Alto Capistrano open house will include models of buildings designed by local students, winners of the Orange County American Institute of Architects design competition. Volunteers will conduct tours of the facility.

Visitors are invited to the open house from noon to 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Tours will be at 1, 3 and 5 p.m. Information: (714) 443-5288.