Category: Architecture and Interiors

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Yes, Please!

Deceptively Small From Streetside

@architecturaldetective:

On the Market: 1922 Alice Lynch House designed by Harwood Hewitt and John Byers in West Adams Terrace HPOZ.⁠
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⁠Completed in 1922, today’s home was designed by noted LA architect Harwood Hewitt along with architect and adobe construction advocate John Byers for the poet Alice Lynch. The home was designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style with thick exterior walls recalling the adobe construction of the Spanish Colonial period.⁠
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The home’s large airy rooms have been thoughtfully restored and reimagined to create a world that celebrates the home’s history while also harmonizing it with the 21st century. ⁠
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I’m particularly enamored with the beamed ceiling in the living room and the expansive exterior courtyard and loggia. Located in the West Adams Terrace HPOZ, the home has been designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 621, ensuring it will stand for generations of future Angelenos to enjoy.⁠
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2414 4th Avenue, a 4 bedroom, 3 bath, 2,560 square foot home located on a 9,386 square foot lot, is currently listed for $1,849,500.⁠
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Source: MLS, Year book of Architecture & Allied Arts, Southern California Chapter American Institute of Architects, Los Angeles Architectural Club 1922⁠, Dwell.

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I Could Live There

But I’d have to do something about walking through one bedroom to get to another.

architecturaldetective – Designed for Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Stephenson, today’s home is yet another Marston, Van Pelt & Maybury-designed French Norman Revival style home located near the intersection of San Pasqual Street and S San Marino Avenue. The home, like the other Marston, Van Pelt & Maybury-designed French Norman Revival style homes around it, were built by the firm of Thomas & Stephenson, hinting that this may have been the home one of the builders built as his the personal residence for himself and his family. ⁠
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From the street, the home recalls a long and lean Norman farmhouse, with it’s small enclosed forecourt creating a charming entrance garden. Once inside, we are welcomed into a small foyer that allows us access to the home’s H-shaped floor plan, which is anchored by a central living room. From the living room, we can progress into the small study or dining room and its attached service spaces, including a pantry, kitchen laundry room, and staff bedroom suite. ⁠
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The private family wing includes four bedrooms and two bathrooms with staircase access to the attic above. With its expansive single floor design, the Stephenson residence is one of my favorite Marston, Van Pelt & Maybury commissions as it begins to braid together Spanish Colonial and early Ranch style design elements with the easily malleable French Norman Revival style to create a distinctive commission that would help spread the style across the Southland. ⁠
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Located at 2005 San Pasqual Street, the home is extant, yet a substantial remodel in the early 2000s effectively doubled the homes square footage by adding a second story and an entry tower, obscuring Marston, Van Pelt & Maybury’s original design. ⁠The home last sold for $3,550,000 in 2015.
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Project: Residence of Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Stephenson, 1926⁠
Architect: Marston, Van Pelt & Maybury⁠
Location: Pasadena, California⁠
Source: Architectural Digest, Google Maps, MLS⁠

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Only 4 Million? I Could Live There…For A Hot Second! 🤣

@architecturaldetective: On the Market: Former Sunday School, Rectory, and Art Club transformed into a Single Family Home in LA’s Windsor Village Historic District.⁠
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Constructed in 1922, today’s home has enjoyed a long and illustrious life as a staple of the Mid Wilshire neighborhood community, first serving as the Sunday school and rectory for the Wilshire United Methodist Church before being purchased by the Ruskin Art Club in 1926 to serve as their club house. While under the stewardship of the Ruskin Art Club, ⁠the residence would host arts programming for their membership and “support writers, artists, musicians, architects, and thinkers who espouse Ruskin’s values in Southern California” before selling the property in 2014.⁠
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Following the property’s sale, the club house would be reimagined as a single family home by architect Scott Lander. Originally designed by architect Frank Meline, the residence combines the Mission Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival styles, serving as an excellent example of the transition from the earlier Mission Revival to the Spanish Colonial Revival style.⁠
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The home is built around a central courtyard, with the interior spaces including a large living room, sunroom, dining room, and a thoughtfully remodeled kitchen. In addition to these public spaces, the home includes 4 bedrooms and baths and a total of three fireplaces, with two boasting Batchelder tiles.⁠
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800 S Plymouth Boulevard, a 4 bedroom, 4 bath, 3,421 square foot home located on a 15,033 square foot lot, is listed for $3,995,000⁠.⁠

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I Could Live There

I rather like this one.

This is one plan I’ve seen where the Maid’s Room actually makes sense. Downstairs, I’d move the wall between the Maid’s Room and the Dining Room about a foot further into the Dining Room, adding a little extra space to the Maid’s Room because that 8-foot dimension is a very tight fit.. With it’s own semi-private entrance, that room could serve today as an in-home office or a bedroom for a (trusted) teenager or young adult returned home. I’d also punch a doorway between that back porch and the Dining Room and ditch the basement/stairs and tuck a half bath under the stairs.

Upstairs, there’s more than enough room for two full bathrooms, even if both aren’t en-suites. There’s no need for a single Jack-and-Jill bathroom to be shared between the two bedrooms..

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You Could Probably Fit Four Of These Inside The Footprint Of A Modern House

With only a few minor updates, this could be a very livable house for a single person or couple in 2026.

I mean honestly, who needs this:

And that’s only the FIRST floor!

And yup…the entire top floorplan would fit inside the Great Room/Kitchen of the bottom plan. SMDH.

WHO NEEDS THIS?!

I case you’re wondering where I’m culling these monstrosities, it’s from reddit.com/r/floorplan.

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Fabulous 50s

I don’t like the idea of having to take my laundry outside to get it into the wash on the top plan. I’d have put a door directly from inside the house, closed off the one to the carport, and ditched that room’s “storage” designation. I also would’ve made it a double carport with storage on the outside edge that runs the length of the carport.

I understand the design philosophy behind the lower plan, but it seems that entry hallway is a tremendous waste of space.

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This Was Called A “Cottage”

Convert the Dressing Room to a walk-in closet. Close off the existing closet in that bedroom and turn it into a half bath accessible from the hallway. Alternately, move the Bathroom to the Dressing Room space, turn the existing Bathroom into a walk-in closet. Seal off the existing Bedroom closet into a half bath with a door to the hall. Any number of options on the First Floor.

Upstairs Maid’s Room could be a great home office or Guest Bedroom. Likewise, the existing “Work Room” would make an excellent entertainment room—or in the vernacular—a “Man Cave.”

Overall, this is one of the favorites I’ve seen recently.

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Another Tiny Russian House

At 77 m2 (829 sq. ft.) it is indeed tiny, but not overly so. I’ve lived in what felt like very spacious one bedroom apartments that topped out at about 700 square feet and a lot of that felt wasted.

The one thing I would do is get rid of the wall separating the front entrance hall from the living room as well as the walls and doors separating that expanded space from the rest of the house. That central hallway is still wasted space, but at least you’d get the illusion of the space being much larger and open.

And as to why Russian homes have such thick walls, it’s as I suspected…

That probably also explains why the public part of the house is divided from the private area. It can be closed off to save on heating!

 

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I Could Live There

I would definitely rip out that entire kitchen/maid’s room area and convert it into one large kitchen with adjacent 1/2 bath and laundry room. Might even open it up to the Dining Room. The Sleeping Porch would make a nice home office.

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Hmmm…

 

This reminds me very much of something I saw in one of my dad’s architectural magazines in the early 70s. It was an ad for plywood manufacturers of America or something, and while that house (elevations only, no floor plans) more resembled a group of tubes capped with geodesic domes, this one definitely reminds me of it on so many—pardon the pun—levels.

This is my take on the concept:

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I’d Make a Few Changes

Seal off the maid’s room from the laundry/wash porch. Get rid of the maid’s room bath and closet opening to the bedroom. Take that space and turn it into a nice en suite and walk-in closet. Seal off the existing bath that connects to the bedroom and turn it into a nice half bath that opens to the entry hall. Remove the wall between the kitchen and dining room and make it an “open concept” area.

The second floor seems to work as it is. Wouldn’t touch a thing.

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I Suppose It Makes Sense For The Era In Which It Was Built

The garage, if it had one, would be at the back property line, accessed from the alley or via long driveway at the right side of the house. That makes most sense with the location of the kitchen door.

I don’t like the idea of guests having to traverse either of the bedrooms to get to the bathroom. Perhaps they were expected to use the Maid’s Room’s Bathroom?

In fact, the more I look at it the more convinced I am this floorplan would take a major reorganization to make it livable for anyone in 2026.

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