The Kronish House is a 7,000 square foot

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...

Richard Neutra Richard Joseph Neutra ( ; April 8, 1892 – April 16, 1970) was an Austrian-American architect. Living and building for the majority of his career in Southern California, he came to be considered a prominent and important modernist architect. He ...

in 1955. The house is located on 9439 Sunset Boulevard in

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Bev ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The house was designed for Herbert and Hazel Kronish.

Architecture

The Kronish House features a formal, pinwheel design. Not visible from the street, the one-story house sits at the end of a 250-foot-long driveway on a 2-acre lot. With 6,891 square feet of living space, six bedrooms and 51/2 bathrooms, the contemporary home is the Neutra's largest in Southern California. The glass-enclosed garden area is visible from several rooms. The original pool was also designed by Neutra.

History

The house is one of only three Neutra designs ever built in Beverly Hills, and the only one that remains intact (one was demolished, the other completely altered). It was originally built for real estate developer Herbert Kronish and his wife Hazel, who had bought the property from actress

Shirley Temple Shirley Temple Black (born Shirley Jane Temple;While Temple occasionally used "Jane" as a middle name, her birth certificate reads "Shirley Temple". Her birth certificate was altered to prolong her babyhood shortly after she signed with Fox in ...

In an October 1953 letter, the couple stated they did not want a design that looked like a wooden box or had a flat roof, radiant heating or sliding doors — Neutra trademarks. The house was owned briefly by

Norton Simon Norton Winfred Simon (February 5, 1907 – June 2, 1993) was an American industrialist and philanthropist. He was at one time one of the wealthiest men in America. At the time of his death, he had amassed a net worth of nearly US$10 billion. S ...

and

Jennifer Jones Jennifer Jones (born Phylis Lee Isley; March 2, 1919 – December 17, 2009), also known as Jennifer Jones Simon, was an American actress and mental health advocate. Over the course of her career that spanned over five decades, she was nominated ...

, before it was sold in 1999. Neighboring estates include

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

's former Beverly Hills home.

From near demolition to preservation

In January 2011, the house was sold in a foreclosure auction for $5.8 million. During that summer, the new owners applied for a permit to cap the house's sewer line, which is often a sign of preparing a building for

demolition Demolition (also known as razing, cartage, and wrecking) is the science and engineering in safely and efficiently tearing down of buildings and other artificial structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a ...

. The home was in such poor condition that broker firm Hilton & Hyland was trying to sell it for its land value alone.Alexei Barrionuevo (May 10, 2012)
Big Deal - In Beverly Hills, Preservation Gains a Toehold
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New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. Upon the news, the

Los Angeles Conservancy The Los Angeles Conservancy is a historic preservation organization in Los Angeles, California. It works to document, rescue and revitalize historic buildings, places and neighborhoods in the city. The Conservancy is the largest membership based ...

, and other advocacy groups, lobbied the city of Beverly Hills to delay the demolition. Richard Neutra's son,

Dion Neutra Dion Neutra (October 8, 1926 – November 24, 2019) was a modernist / International style American architect and consultant who worked originally with his father, Richard Neutra (1892–1970). Life Neutra started training with his father at ...

helped to lobby assistance to save the house. Among the alternatives to demolition being considered was relocating the house off site. Stavros Niarchos Jr., grandson of the Greek shipping tycoon, eventually purchased the house in October for $12.8 million, which was originally being offered for $13.995 million, saving it from demolition. As a consequence, the city of Beverly Hills passed unanimously a local preservation ordinance, requiring a 30-day holding period for alterations to structures 45 years or older designed by a “master” architect. In 2014, the architecture firm

Marmol Radziner Marmol Radziner is a design-build practice based in Los Angeles that was founded in 1989 by American architects Leo Marmol and Ron Radziner. The firm specializes in residential, commercial, hospitality, cultural, and community projects, and offer ...

completed the rehabilitation of the historic home, restoring it to its original footprint, and also adding a guest house.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kronish House Houses in Beverly Hills, California Houses completed in 1955 Richard Neutra buildings 1955 establishments in California Modernist architecture in California