Grab a Speedo from the Cabana
“Sit right here and see it from this angle,” the modernist pool connoisseur beckons. “It looks like it goes on forever.”
It doesn’t go on forever, of course, this pool--can you call this a swimming pool?--in the backyard of architect John Lautner’s celebrated Silvertop residence. Designed to echo the lines of the Silver Lake reservoir spread far below, the water overflows at one edge, drops out of sight and silently returns, keeping the pool at its 40,000-gallon capacity.
Water--why we covet it, the ways we play in it, the places we steal it from when we think we’ve run out--is a theme of the Society of Architectural Historians’ first “Reflections on Water: Cool Pools Along Sunset Boulevard” self-driving tour. “They’re sexy, inviting, lush, bold, historic, modern, refined,” says organizer John Ellis, at no loss for adjectives. His criteria for choosing the nine pools spotlighted? “When you see the pool for the first time, it says, ‘Swim in me.’ ”
That come-hither is screamed out at subsequent destinations: a multilevel 1970s affair inspired by the builder’s childhood memories of frolicking in Texas rock quarries; the spectacular basin overlooking West Hollywood and points beyond at oft-photographed Pierre Koenig’s Case Study House No. 22; and the once-dull ‘50s pool-and-garden that was torn up and redesigned to match the lush ‘30s house that encircled it.
Naturally, there are those busybodies who use the tour as an excuse to take a sanctified peek into the yards--and windows--of some remarkable places. “I’ve never seen this house published before,” says one connoisseur, with his nose pressed against the two-story-high glass walls of a postmodern edifice. Umm, people, you’re here to check me out, remember? says the mid-century kidney-shaped pool that was retained in the home’s redesign.
“No, you can’t jump in,” more than one of the docents stationed at each house must advise during the tour. The threat of that is small at “The Outpost” pool in the Hollywood Hills, with a diving platform high, high above the small swimming area. I ask Larry Luchtel, who owns the home with partner Del Kolve, if anyone ever has dived in.
“Oh, yes,” he answers. “Greg Louganis.”
No wonder the pool whispered, right after “Swim in me,” something like, “And, by the way, use me in a Herb Ritts photo shoot.”
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Society of Architectural Historians, (800) 972-4722.
