Rebuilding Crestwood Hills
I grew up in a very special part of West Los Angeles called Crestwood HIlls, where homes by Craig Ellwood and A. Quincy Jones dotted the hillside and brought joy to me even as a youngster. These were homes designed with simple materials and accessible, thoughtful, modern and organic architecture. When a fire ravaged the area last October, many Angelenos and architecture lovers all over the world mourned the loss of several landmarked homes in the famed enclave. But here in California, we know what it means to get back on our feet after devastating wildfires, so we’re delighted to share this article from The Wall Street Journal highlighting the innovative efforts to restore the neighborhood and the lost homes to their former glory. While it won't ever be the same again, we are hopeful that the rebirth of these homes will celebrate the area’s original carefree and beautiful spirit. Read on below for the full article.
At 2 a.m. on Monday, October 28, 2019, Melanie Regberg woke to the smell of smoke. That wasn’t necessarily alarming—it was the height of Southern California’s fire season, and the scent of brush fires would often travel for miles to her home, perched on a hillside on North Tigertail Road in Brentwood, Los Angeles, with unobstructed views over the canyon and straight across to the Getty Center.
This morning was different. “I pushed aside my window shade and saw a glow,” Ms. Regberg says. “I woke my oldest son to start packing, ran next door to tell my neighbor, and by the time I got back, we could see flames.” She grabbed her two sons, 4 and 14, her dog, two kittens and any valuables that she could find and got in her car to drive to her parents’ house in Glendale, Calif., just north of downtown. “I was having a full on panic attack by the time I arrived,” she says.
The burned remains of the Zack House, owned by Melanie Regberg. PHOTO: MICHAL CZERWONKA FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
At 3:30 a.m., Ms. Regberg received a call from ADT security that there was smoke in the house and the fire alarms were going off. By 9 a.m., her friend called, sobbing, saying that the house was gone.
The blaze—now known as the Getty Fire—tore through 745 hillside acres, destroying 12 homes and damaging countless others before being contained by the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Ms. Regberg’s residence was no ordinary home: Named Zack House after its original owner, the 1952 modernist post-and-beam structure was designed by influential architect Craig Ellwood. And the close-knit neighborhood of Crestwood Hills, where most of the destruction occurred and ten of those 12 homes burned down, is no ordinary neighborhood. It “was the only successful cooperative housing venture in the postwar years,” says Cory Buckner, author of the book “Crestwood Hills: the Chronicle of a Modern Utopia,” and an architect who has restored numerous homes there.
Initially established in 1946 as a cooperative community called the Mutual Housing Association (MHA), Crestwood Hills was the brainchild of four World War II veterans, all working as studio musicians, who came up with the idea to buy one plot of land to build homes for their families with a shared swimming pool, according to Ms. Buckner’s book. The concept evolved as a response to Los Angeles’s severe postwar housing crisis, and soon there were 500 families interested in creating a progressive, sustainable and socially responsible neighborhood consisting of affordable yet architecturally innovative residences. The founders discovered an 800-acre parcel in the hills above what would become Brentwood, which they purchased for $400,000, or $500 an acre, and got to work.
Barton Jahncke, a midcentury restoration specialist, in the remains of the Zack House. PHOTO: MICHAL CZERWONKA FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Emerging talents A. Quincy Jones and Whitney R. Smith were hired as the lead architects, with structural engineer Edgardo Contini, who specialized in hillside construction. Much like Los Angeles’s Case Study Houses—a famed experimental program launched in 1945 to showcase new ideas in residential design, featuring commissioned homes by some of the biggest midcentury architects—the goal was to create modestly sized, cost-effective residences showcasing groundbreaking details like open floor plans, indoor/outdoor living, sliding glass doors and unadorned materials such as plywood, Douglas fir and concrete. The lots were intended to be built into the slopes, with the flat land in the middle designated for communal facilities such as a park and nursery school, which still operate today.
The original Zack House, completed in 1952 by architect Craig Ellwood. PHOTO: JULIUS SHULMAN / © J. PAUL GETTY TRUST. GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE, LOS ANGELES
There were 9 basic home models to choose from, averaging 1,200 square feet. Each lot cost $2,000 to purchase, with an additional $9,000 to $15,000 estimated to build. However, the construction ended up going significantly above budget, and as a result, only 85 of the proposed 350 lots were ever built. MHA was overcome by financial difficulties, and eventually disbanded in the early 1950s, according to Ms. Buckner. But the neighborhood remained architecturally controlled and became a hotbed of experimentation, attracting modernists like Richard Neutra, Ray Kappe, Rodney Walker and Mr. Ellwood, who all worked there in the subsequent years.
“We were personally drawn to the community by the scale and design of the houses,” says Ms. Buckner, who moved to Crestwood Hills with her late husband, fellow architect Nick Roberts, in 1994. By this time, Ms. Buckner says that only about 40 of the original MHA homes were left—nearly half had been wiped out in the Bel-Air Fire of 1961, while more were demolished by developers, or remodeled beyond recognition, in the following years.
After completing work on her home to make it more “sympathetic” following modifications by the previous owner, Ms. Buckner noticed that many of the surrounding properties were either falling into disarray, or were being sold at prices that only reflected the land value. She says she began a preservation movement, working with owners to restore or remodel approximately 24 original MHA homes, and helping many of them become designated historic cultural monuments by the city. This allows homeowners to receive significant property tax reductions with the incentive to rehabilitate, restore and maintain the properties.
Cory Buckner lives in one of the first structures built in Crestwood Hills. PHOTO: NATASHA LEE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
In 1999, Ms. Buckner and Mr. Roberts sold their first home and purchased their current one for $1.495 million. The former MHA Site Office, it was the first structure built in Crestwood Hills, and it had been converted from an office to a residence in 1951, using one of the MHA models as a guide. The striking post-and-beam construction features exposed redwood siding, concrete masonry block and a tongue-and-groove ceiling, and sits on 2 acres.
Once Ms. Buckner moved in, she made meticulous enhancements to bring back the home’s original integrity—adding authentic Kentile flooring, replacing the roof with gravel and stripping paint as needed—and filled the home with period furniture such as Eero Saarinen Womb Chairs and George Nelson Bubble Lamps. Such restorations aren’t inexpensive. “An entire house remodel or restoration today varies from $1 to $2 million depending on the size of the project,” Ms. Buckner says of her work.
Ms. Buckner made enhancements to bring back the home’s original integrity, and filled the home with period furniture. PHOTO: NATASHA LEE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The surrounding areas of Brentwood have grown increasingly tony— LeBron James lives less than a mile below where Ms. Regberg’s house once stood, and tweeted about being evacuated during the Getty Fire. Yet Crestwood Hills has retained its tightknit, low-key culture, with younger families and creative types increasingly moving in.
“More and more people are coming here because they know its history,” says Kate Blackman, president of the Crestwood Hills Association. In 1997, she and her husband Adam Blackman, co-founder of Los Angeles design showroom Blackman Cruz, paid $610,000 for the Stein House, an original MHA
The Getty Fire stopped just 20 feet from the home’s guesthouse. PHOTO: NATASHA LEE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
“We’ve been here for 22 years, but it took us a long time,” says Mr. Blackman, of the restoration that included hand stripping nearly all of the interior surfaces, returning to the original footprint and updating the kitchen and bathrooms in a way that respected the midcentury design. “I think two or three years ago was when we finally said, ‘We’re good.’” The 1,988-square-foot home is now historically designated and valued at $2.673 million, according to Zillow.
Nearby, the 1950 Kalmick House is owned by Elise Loehnen, chief content officer of actress Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle brand Goop, and Rob Fissmer, who works for furniture brand Vitsoe. “At first we thought Brentwood couldn’t possibly be for us, but Crestwood Hills is its own unique gem,” says Ms. Loehnen. The couple paid $1.495 million in 2012 for the three-bedroom, historically designated house, according to Brian Linder, the real-estate agent who represented both the buyer and the seller for the deal. “Today, this home would sell for around $2.5 million or more,” he says.
Although close to the path of the fire, both the Stein House and Kalmick House suffered smoke damage but were spared. “As we watched the news in the early morning from the hotel, we were convinced that our house would be gone,” says Ms. Loehnen, who added that the smoke damage was easily remediated by ServPro and some air scrubbers. The Blackmans also worried about their home, which sits on a ridge at the end of Stonehill Lane overlooking Tigertail, just down the street from the Zack House. During evacuation, they anxiously observed their property via Nest cameras, and could see embers falling in front of the house. “A few minutes later, they cut the power, and I really thought that was it,” Mr. Blackman says.
While she was evacuated, Ms. Buckner also watched over her property via Nest cameras. Flames crept down the hillside, stopping only 20 feet away from the guesthouse. “At one point, I could see two firemen step back to study the house and its architecture,” she says. “The day after I was able to get back in, I went down to the fire station with my book and said, ‘Thank you. This is what you saved.’”
Elise Loehnen and Rob Fissmer paid $1.495 million in 2012 for the three-bedroom, historically designated Kalmick House. PHOTO: MICHAL CZERWONKA FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Tales abound about other homes that benefited from the firefighters’ tireless work—most dramatically, Neutra’s 1960 Sale House, which was surrounded by flames on three sides yet survived. The 1,632-square-foot home was purchased by chef and restaurateur Daniel Humm, of New York’s Eleven Madison Park, for $3.2 million in December 2018, according to public records. “The fire burned right up to it,” says Battalion Chief Mark Curry of the Los Angeles Fire Department, who was leading firefighters on Tigertail during the blaze. “The age of these homes and the nature of their construction make them so vulnerable. I can’t believe that house is still standing.” Mr. Humm declined to comment.
A few doors down, flames also came within feet of another Ellwood-designed residence, the 1952 Johnson House bought by Julie Simpson in 2010 for $1.966 million, according to records, and painstakingly restored. Ms. Simpson was in the process of adding a swimming pool to the house, which was nearly complete.
Instead, the jewelry designer has cleared out all of her art and furniture while she awaits insurance estimates and begins the lengthy process of cleaning up extensive smoke damage and soot.
‘As we watched the news in the early morning from the hotel, we were convinced that our house would be gone,’ says Ms. Loehnen. PHOTO: MICHAL CZERWONKA FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Although normal life has resumed for many residents, a drive through the area most severely hit reveals the seemingly random nature of the fire—some homes, including the Zack House, were burned as the result of flying embers, even though they were not in the fire’s direct path. It also reveals how much work is left to be done. Perfectly untouched houses sit next to a tangled mess of charred rubble and debris. A few sites are still adorned with Halloween decorations, an eerie reminder of that fateful October week.
With fires in Southern California becoming an increasingly frequent occurrence, what happens to the real-estate market in a high-risk neighborhood like Crestwood Hills after it has been hit? “For those who lost their homes, it will be a challenging and difficult couple of years to rebuild,” says Tregg Rustad, estates director with Rodeo Realty who has worked in the area for 15 years. “But Crestwood Hills is such a small, desirable community, I don’t expect the fire will have any negative impact on values beyond the short term. The biggest challenge is fire insurance.”
Ms. Loehnen and Mr. Fissmer. PHOTO: MICHAL CZERWONKA FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
After careful consideration, and with the support of her neighbors, Ms. Regberg has decided to rebuild. “I can’t imagine living anywhere else,” she says. “It’s the house and the views and all of that, but really it’s the community.” Her late husband, Scott Regberg, bought the home in 1976 for approximately $175,000.
In 2012, two years after Mr. Regberg’s sudden death, his wife oversaw a $250,000 renovation of the 1,507-square-foot structure. Work included updating flooring, windows and lighting and painting the home white—she says Mr. Ellwood once told her husband that the house should be “light and bright.”
Right before the fire, Ms. Regberg was about to begin work on the back landscape design and deck, overseen by Barton Jahncke of Previous Partners, a midcentury restoration specialist known for Ellwood homes. Now, Mr. Jahncke will be designing and constructing what he refers to as “Zack House 2.0.” “We are trying to make the 21st century midcentury house—the house that Ellwood would have built if he was working today,” says Mr. Jahncke, who adds that he will be incorporating many fire-safe features and materials. “When we are done, it will be the most futuristic home in Crestwood Hills. A literal phoenix rising from the ashes.”
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