Architectural Record 2015-04

112
ARCHITECTURAL RECORD APRIL 2015 BUILDING TYPE STUDY RECORD HOUSES
Shulman Home & Studio | Los Angeles
Raphael Soriano/Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects
3,&785(
3(5)(&7
A photographer’s midcentury
house, little changed over the
decades, is sensitively
restored for a young family.
BY SARAH AMELAR
:hen the Shulman House, high in the
Hollywood Hills, was designated a Los Angeles
Cultural-Historic Monument in 1987, its
nomination came from none other than
critic Esther McCoy, doyenne of Southern
California Modernism. She cited the
1950 home as the last surviving unaltered
example of Raphael Soriano’s prefabricated steel-frame buildings.
Originally with grounds by landscape architect Garrett
Eckbo, the house was also significant for its longtime owner—
legendary architectural photographer Julius Shulman—
who captured the work of Richard Neutra, the Eameses, and
many other talents, beginning in the midcentury period.
For Shulman’s own 2,200-square-foot house and separate
1,000-square-foot studio, it’s unknown exactly why he chose
Soriano—a Case Study architect, though not among the
most famous. Certainly the two had become colleagues early
on. “And I suspect my father knew there wouldn’t be the
great clash of wills that he would have had with Neutra,”
speculates the photographer’s daughter, Judy McKee, who
was 6 when she moved into the new house with her parents.
Her father remained there for 59 years, until his death at age
98, in 2009, keeping the design—a cluster of glassy singlestory,
rectangular volumes—largely intact.
In the intervening decades, the natural backdrop also saw
little change. Overlooking a land conservancy, Shulman’s
0.8-acre lot retained unspoiled views of the rugged mountains,
where he fondly remembered camping as a Boy Scout.
But deferred maintenance took a toll, and by the time the
property’s new owners, a young couple, hired Los Angeles–
based Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects (LOHA) in late 2010 to
undertake the house’s first renovation, it had frayed significantly.
Its plywood interior paneling was peeling, the cork
lining its entry area was brittle, the bathrooms and kitchen
were tired, and the heating system flagged, raising essential
questions about how to bring this Modernist work undiminished
into the 21st century. “We just wanted the house to be
respected,” recalls McKee. “We were very careful about
whom we sold it to. There were people who wanted to turn