Landmarking possible
All is quiet in a sleepy upscale neighborhood just north of San Vicente Boulevard on Monday, the tranquility only slightly disturbed by the crackle of the leaves on the giant fig trees that line the block.
All was anything but in the weeks prior when several residents along a stretch of La Mesa Drive began raising concerns about construction work taking place at an historic house designed by the famous late Santa Monica architect John Byers.
The issue centers around a single-family home at 2101 La Mesa Drive — among four on the street designed by Byers from 1917 to 1925 — and whether the property owner, who received a permit to partially demolish the roof of the garage, exceeded the amount of construction he was allowed to do by City Hall.
One neighborhood said over 50 percent of the home’s “exterior surface” has been demolished.
Now the matter will go before the Landmarks Commission in the next few months as the semi-judiciary board could determine whether the 84-year-old home, which is listed on the Santa Monica Historic Resources Inventory, will be designated as a historic landmark.
Linda Brown, who lives next door to the Byers-designed home, filed the landmark nomination application last week. The matter will be heard within 65 days of the filing of the application, according to Associate Planner Roxanne Tanemori.
Under the Landmarks ordinance, any pending demolition for a building over 40 years old is referred to the commission, Tanemori said.
Brown, who was unavailable for comment on Monday, contacted her neighbors, along with City Hall and the Santa Monica Conservancy when she noticed the amount of work that was being done on the house.
“The neighbor has called everybody and brought everyone to alert,” Tanemori said on Monday. “City staff is taking a careful look at the situation.”
Strang declined to comment on Monday.
Doris Sosin, who founded the North of Montana Avenue Association and the Santa Monica Conservancy, was notified by Brown about the amount of construction that was taking place at the home and said she was dismayed at the news.
“The people who owned the house didn’t realize what a valuable house they had and didn’t appreciate the great history of this house,” Sosin said on Monday.
While Byers designed homes throughout the Westside, including in the Pacific Palisades and Brentwood, the homes along La Mesa Drive were the best examples of his work, Sosin said.
Among Byers’ works is the Chez Mimi restaurant on 26th Street, the site of the architect’s old office, and the Miles Memorial Playhouse. Byers, who once taught at Santa Monica High School, died in 1966.
There have been attempts to landmark several of Byers’ homes in the past. Barbara Schnitzler, who lived in a Byers home at 2034 La Mesa Drive, tried to create an historic district consisting of several of his properties in Santa Monica. The efforts failed when Schnitzler, who served on the Landmarks Commission in the earlier part of the decade, couldn’t receive consent from all of the homeowners who resided in the homes.
Schnitzler was able to landmark her house before she sold it and moved to New York in 2004.
The house at 2101 La Mesa is perhaps the most unique of all the Byers homes because it is the only one made out of adobe, Schnitzler said Monday from her home in New York.
“I was always afraid it would be torn down,” she said.
The architect was known for his affinity for the Spanish Colonial Revival style and the incorporation of metal workings into his projects. The ceilings in many of the homes designed by Byers were also relatively low, a result of the architect’s short 5 foot stature, and many had multiple fireplaces, Schnitzler said.
“My house had five fireplaces,” she said.
Richard Corlin, who lives across the street in what is known as the oldest house on the block — the former residence of real estate developer C.L. Bundy, said the house at 2101 appeared to be in poor condition and needed a lot of rehabilitation. The former resident of the property under question used to joke that the house is a monument to deferred maintenance, Corlin said.
Corlin was among the neighbors that received a letter from Brown alleging that the construction at 2101 La Mesa exceeded the scope of work permitted by City Hall.
“You’ve got so little heritage around, we should protect what there is (left),” Corlin said on Monday.
Corlin used his house as an example of rehabilitation with an eye toward historic preservation. When Corlin purchased the house 12 years ago, very little construction had been done on the house since it was built. Along with some of the changes includes an addition to the western wing of the house, using the old copper shingles and old brick from the home.
“People have to have some respect when they buy a house with some historic nature,” Corlin said.
Jump hedline: Partially demo’d house could become landmarked
Suggested pullquote: “The people who owned the house didn’t realize what a valuable house they had and didn’t appreciate the great history of this house.”
Doris Sosin
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 4, 2008. Read the original PDF.