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Restoring a Frank Lloyd Wright home

owned for three generations
WRITTEN BY PAMELA CORANTE-HANSEN PHOTOGRAPHY BY PAUL JONASON

all in the family

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AS A CHILD, KONRAD PEARCE WOULD VISIT HIS GRANDPARENTS FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT HOME FOR SUNDAY DINNERS. IT WASNT UNUSUAL FOR HIM TO LOOK UP FROM THE DINING TABLE AND SEE A DEER GAZING BACK AT HIM THROUGH THE FLOOR-TO-CEILING WINDOWS. TODAY, PEARCE IS THE THIRD GENERATION OF HIS FAMILY TO OWN THE HOME, WHICH IS LOCATED IN BRADBURY, A LOS ANGELES COUNTY CITY AT THE FOOTHILLS OF THE SAN GABRIEL MOUNTAINS.

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When hes not at his job as an aerospace engineer in the South Bay, Pearce is putting painstaking work into restoring the home to the way he remembers it. I have vivid memories of the house when it was less than 10 years old, Pearce recalls. Everything was shiny and beautiful and new. My goal is to get the house back to where it matches my memories, and reverse the decades of life its been through. Known as the Wilbur Pearce house, the home is named after Konrad Pearces grandfather, an Akron, Ohio businessman who was transferred to Los Angeles in the mid-1940s while working for the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. The Frank Lloyd Wright connection happened before the elder Pearce and his wife left Ohio. My grandmother taught at an art school in Akron, and she contacted Frank Lloyd Wright to come lecture at the school, Pearce begins. They corresponded, he came to give the lecture, and while he was there they discussed my grandparents home in Akron, a modern-style house they put up for sale when my grandfather was transferred to LA. Wright told Pearces grandmother that he was designing homes in California, and he asked her to write to him when she and her husband got settled. His reason for requesting a letter would be music to the ears of modernday Frank Lloyd Wright fans: He said he would love to design a house for them, Pearce says. Designs for the house were drafted in 1950, but the home wasnt built until 1955. The curved shape of the residences south-facing side has a functional as well as aesthetic purpose. Wright used a term called solar hemicycle, explains Pearce. The curved south face of house allows the sun to come in at the west end in the morning, and again at the east end in the evening. This double dose of sunlight heats the homes concrete slab. A radiant-oor heating system circulates the heat throughout the rest of the homes slab oor. Pearce notes that Wrights early use of passive solar heating is used in homes today. He adds, Having a warm concrete oor is a really nice way to heat the bottom of your feet. It feels like a warm rock in the sun. Wright presented a number of drawings to Pearces grandparents, each with a different conguration. The property sits on a ridge with spectacular vistas of the mountains to the north, yet one of the renditions showed a solid wall on the north side of the house. At the elder Pearces request, Wright redrew the plan, raising the roof and adding clerestory windows to capture the mountain view. He also opened up some of the north-facing walls with oor-to-ceiling windows. On some days, you can stand in the living room and see the mountains to the north, and then turn around and see Catalina to the south, Pearce describes. The magnicent views are what he enjoys most about the house. You feel lots of openness, lots of light, and on days when there are clouds in the sky its phenomenal. Even with a roof over your head you never feel enclosed or locked inyou feel as if youre part of the environment. [continued on page 97]

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[continued from page 94] Signature Frank Lloyd Wright touches abound in the home, including a small entryway that keeps visitors from lingering there and instead draws them inside. The blurring of indoor-outdoor boundaries is accomplished through Wrights characteristic oor-to-ceiling glass doors and windows. And instead of a garage, a cantilevered, overhanging roof provides a carport, a word coined by Wright himself, if you believe everything you read on Wikipedia. But the best part, quips Pearce, is that unlike a typical garage, there are no posts or walls to back into with your car. Perhaps one of the most unique aspects of the home is that it is one of only 60 Usonian houses Wright built in the U.S. The term Usonian describes Wrights vision of architecture for the average American. Usonian houses are made with local materials and are characterized by at roofs, a modest footprint, radiant-oor heating, clerestory windows and a visual link between indoor and outdoor spaces. Most architects build small homes and get bigger, but Wright turned it around and started huge and went small, explains Pearce. Usonian homes were built from common materials designed in a way that had artistic value. Hed use grade raw unpainted concrete blocks and make an exceptional design with that. Restoring this home is the project of a lifetime, but when my father transferred the property to me, I didnt ask whether I wanted to do it, relates Pearce. I grabbed it and said this is something I have to do. No discussion. Keeping it in the family is a big part of my joy; its history and its my family history. Its always been our house. Owning a historic home, admits Pearce, does not come without its drawbacks. Its a challenge to wash 53 windows, and with glass in almost every wall, its not a home for someone who cherishes privacy, he says. Normal wear and tear can also present some headaches. Three years ago, he had to rebuild the septic tank because it had been inltrated by the roots of oak trees growing on the property. Still, Pearce feels privileged to own a home of such historic signicance. Because of the homes rare status among Frank Lloyd Wright designs, Pearce has allowed certain groups to tour his house. Many of the people who visit the house have much more experience and knowledge of Frank Lloyd Wright homes than I do, he says. As they look at the house, Ill ask them, how would you x this, or what would you do here? Im always trying to get new ideas and its a great help that theyre willing to share their knowledge.

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