The seven residential and commercial structures on the Oct 4 tour showcased five architects’ perspectives on bringing art and nature home.
Illustrating the best in La Jolla modern architecture, the La Jolla Historical Society put six homes and one restaurant on display Oct 4 for its third annual La Jolla Modernism Tour.
Hundreds of wristband-wearing architecture fans wandered the structures on self-guided or guided circuits through the real estate gems, noted for their adherence to midcentury modern characteristics of flat-pitched roofs; an integration with nature; and large windows.
Surrounding a shaded courtyard, a 1956 home on Avenida Mañana designed by Henry Hester has retained many of its original features, such as wood slat ceilings and exposed structural beams. The house is brimming with owner Jeff Robin’s art, making the walls a gallery of more than just architecture.
A 1946 home designed by William Kesling in Dowling Drive – one of the cluster of the architect’s “Kozy Kowsheds” – packs pops of yellow into one of the smaller tour stops. Backing up to the La Jolla bike path, the house features wooden walls, tiles and flooring in a variety of patterns.
On Dodge Drive, a 1949 Kesling-designed home is built in sharp angles and corners with a large living room to let light and air through the house. The birch ceiling ends in the ocean-facing deck, which itself overlooks a hidden, fully-landscaped garden.
A 1966 La Jolla Rancho Road residence designed by Weber & Edwards evokes a treehouse, a post-and-beam home set among the upper levels of the dozens of trees set around the property. The two-level house included homeowners’ Joan and Gary Gand’s tips for “remuddling,” or remodeling, a midcentury modern home (appreciate before you alter; respect cabinetry; and more).
On Rushville Street, the Kesling-designed home built in 1940 charmed many with its plywood siding and bricks and surprises of art throughout the small space.
The only commercial building on this year’s tour was 5680 La Jolla Blvd, home of Bird Rock restaurant Paradisaea. Designed by Kesling and built in 1946, the “Piano Building,” as it’s widely known, hosted several businesses until Paradisaea owners Eric and Zoe Kleinbub rehabilitated the space for the 2022 opening, earning a 2023 La Jolla Historical Society Jewel Award for restoration.
Though midcentury modern architecture is classified as happening from the 1940s to the 1960s, a home on Romero Drive, offered only to those on the guided Platinum Tour, was built in 1993. One of the last homes by Frederick Liebhardt, this exemplary case of bringing nature indoors stands tall above La Jolla Heights Natural Park, with wooden walls and plants aplenty.
The Modernism Tour is a fundraiser for the La Jolla Historical Society’s programming.
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