| State of California - The Resource Agency |
| DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| *Resource Name or #: |
House at 810 Hillside Terrace
|
Survey Title: |
|
|
| |
| B1. |
| Historic Name: |
House at 810 Hillside Terrace
|
|
| B2. |
| Common Name: |
House at 810 Hillside Terrace
|
|
| B3. |
| Original Use: |
Single Family Residence
|
|
| B4. |
Present Use: |
Single Family Residence
|
|
|
| *B5a. |
| Primary Architectural Style: |
International /Modern Style
|
|
| B5b. |
| Secondary Architectural Style: |
|
|
| *B6. |
| Construction History: |
Date Built: |
1954
|
|
The alterations to the original profile and massing of the house are most apparent at the rear, where second-floor balconies/terraces/patios have been enclosed for more living areas. A second-floor terrace at the front of the house has been enclosed and is visible from the street. The roof line of the new addition is flat and differentiated from the original hipped roof form. At the north elevation, a second-floor stepback under the roof line was filled in to expand a second floor bedroom. The addition did not alter the roof line, but did change the massing along this elevation. This addition is partially visible from the street and minor in the context of the whole facade. The c. 1963 swimming pool was recently reconstructed to include a rock water fall and faux boulders placed at various points along the coping.
Staff has determined that the alterations, taken in sum, constitute the maximum amount of change that this particular property could undertake and still retain sufficient integrity to qualify for a historic designation. The additions constitute 17% of the original floor area of the residence, and the placement of the second-floor addition does not significantly affect the roofline and original composition. The additions complement in scale and in detailing the 1954 design without mimicry. The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation stipulate that new additions “shall be differentiated from the old and shall be compatible with the massing, size, scale, and architectural features to protect the historic integrity of the property and its environment.” The original color of the residence was sage green and has since been painted white sometime during the life of the structure. The original scheme was softer and harmonized better with landscaping. In addition, the introduction of additional plantings and structural alterations has also denatured the simplicity of the original landscape design.
|
|
| *B7. |
| Moved?: |
 Yes
 No
Unknown
|
Date: |
|
Original Location: |
|
|
| *B8. |
|
| *B9a. |
| Architect: |
Harry Sims Bent
|
|
| b. |
Builder: |
R. A. Kimmich
|
|
|
| *B10. |
| Significance: |
Theme: |
|
Area: |
City
|
|
| Period of Significance: |
1954
|
Property Type: |
Single Family Residence
|
| Applicable Criteria: |
| National Register Criteria: |
C
|
California Register: |
3
|
Local Register: |
|
|
|
|
|
The property at 810 Hillside Terrance meets criterion C for historic landmark designation: The property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a unique architectural style and method of construction and possesses artistic values of significance to the City.
810 Hillside Terrance is a unique example of a Japanese-influenced California Modern house designed by architect Harry Simms Bent that embodies the principles of modern residential design and elements of traditional Japanese architecture.
The architectural design of the house has influences of Shoin-style dwellings, notably the asymmetrical arrangement of the building volumes. The architect may also have drawn inspiration from donjon (castle) architecture which date from the 14th-16th centuries. The Shoin elements are the straight (not curved) roof line and the extensive use of natural materials (teak) in the interior of the house. The brick retaining walls may refer to heavily fortified bases of traditional castles. The massing of the main block of the house set over the brick retaining wall in the main section of the house may allude to stepped roof forms of castles. Furthermore, traditional Japanese design treats inside and outside environments as continuous elements. This spatial interconnection is reflected in the design of the house by extensive use of glazing at the rear elevation which breaks down the separation between inside and outside. The glazing, in this case, is used in lieu of shoji screens of the traditional Japanese house.
In addition to the traditional Japanese architecture, the subject property is a hybrid that embodies the modern design principles of its day. California Modern residential design is known for emphasis of functionalism, environmental integration, and the dismissal of decorative, rather than functional, elements of the structure. As in traditional Japanese architecture, the Modern House does not use the wall for structural support. The post-and-beam structural system associated with both traditions is most apparent on the building elevations facing private areas of the property. Here the subject property has extensive use of glass set between posts to bring the outdoors and indoors together. Residences in the Modern Style, such as the Clark or Perkins Residences, have open, informal floor plans. The same concept in space planning is exhibited in the Hillside property where the primary living spaces on the ground floor (the living and dining rooms) are part of the same interior volume. Decorative elements of the house, such as the window screens, are also functional elements. The screens provide privacy by obscuring views into the curtainless interior or balconies on the second floor.
Nearby, there are two other properties with Asian-themed characteristics. The first is 949 S. San Rafael (1952, Smith & Williams, architects). This one-story house with asymmetrical footprint on a flat lot exhibits a restrained Shinto influence with post-and-beam construction, a straight hipped-roof line and freestanding solid screens to obscure windows. The house has no decorative details and is painted in dark, somber colors. The model for this residence is the simple, restrained structures of Katsura Rikyu, a 17th Century villa in Kyoto, which is considered the purest form of native Japanese design because of the absence of Chinese and Korean design elements. The Zen landscape elements photographed in Gebhard and Winter’s Los Angeles: An Architectural Guide have been replaced with landscaping that is more evocative of the Mediterranean than of Honshu. This change to the landscaping has diminished the synthesis of structure and setting.
The second house at 1055 S. San Rafael (1956, Arthur B. Gallion, architect) is a rambling, two-story structure with an irregular floor plan, and multiple street and side-facing red-tiled gabled roof lines. The house is finished in a smooth hard plaster and has stone window screens. The house appears to resemble Southeast Asian religious temples (Indonesian) than more traditional Japanese houses of post-and-beam construction. The walls in this house are structural elements, thus the integration between the indoors and outdoors is not part of the design. The design principles are Modernism is not incorporated into the design of this traditional residence.
In comparison to both structures, the property at 810 Hillside Terrace exhibits the strongest imprint of Japanese design. It has character, interest, and value to the heritage of the City because it exhibits a unique architectural expression of Japanese design principles applied with creativity to a single-family mid-century residence.
Harry Sims Bent (1896-1959), Architect/Landscape Architect
Harry Sims Bent began his career in the office of Bertram Goodhue where he contributed to buildings in Los Angeles (Central Library), Pasadena (Caltech-- Master Plan, the Physics Building, Dabney Hall, and other buildings for the campus of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and Oahu College and Kamehameha School, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1915-20. Bent was part of the office contingent that accompanied Goodhue to Hawaii to work on the Honolulu Academy of Art and other high profile projects.
Bent was an active part of the Honolulu design community during the 1920s and 30s. This time period is referred to as the "Golden age of architecture in Hawaii." Consideration was given to developing a strong sense of place for the Hawaiian Islands - its environment, local materials and multicultural traditions coalesced in a regional architectural movement. This Honolulu design circle included Hawaii-raised architect C.W. "Pop" Dickey, Hart Wood, Bertram Goodhue, Claude Stiehl, Catherine Jones Thompson and Harry Sims Bent.
Bent maintained an office in Hawaii where he designed over 150 residential and other structures. During the 1930’s, he served as the architect to the Honolulu Park Board. It was during this time that Bent designed the Pineapple Research Institute (now Kraus Hall, 1931) at the University of Hawaii (Manoa Campus), one of his most highly regarded projects for expressing a native Hawaiian design aesthetic. Bent returned to the U.S. mainland after WWII settling in Pasadena. His best-known work during these years was in landscape design. In 1948, for example, he prepared the landscape plan for Hancock Park, now the site of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the George C. Page Museum. In 1950, he created the Master Plan for the Los Angeles County Arboretum in Arcadia which outlined restoration work for the Hugo Reid Adobe and the Lucky Baldwin Cottage.
|
|
|
| |
| B11. |
| Additional Resource Attributes: |
HP02
|
|
| *B12. |
|
|
| B13. |
|
| *B14. |
| Date of Evaluation: |
07/17/2006
|
|
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|
|
