1242 W. Oceanfront, Newport Beach

• $
• 4 BD
• 4 BA

Rudolph Schindler’s Lovell Beach House, circa 1926, is now available to purchase. Located on the Balboa Peninsula, this architectural masterpiece has been in the hands of the Lovell family for 100 years, yet it looks as though it was erected yesterday. This is arguably the crown jewel of Schindler homes. (Not to be confused with the Lovell Health House in Los Feliz, which Philip and Leah commissioned Richard Neutra to build in 1927.)

“An icon of modernity at a Promethean scale.” Widely recognized as “Schindler’s second most important work,” after the home he built for himself on Kings Road. The story begins in the early 1920s. Dr. Philip Lovell, a prominent naturopath with a health column in the Los Angeles Times. Schindler, born in Vienna, in Southern California to supervise Frank Lloyd Wright’s projects in the region. For the young architect, Lovell’s corner lot became a laboratory of radical innovation. His vision is miraculously intact today.

Inspired by the “pile structure indigenous to all beaches,” Schindler lifted the house above the shore on five reinforced-concrete frames, each cast in the shape of a squared figure eight. Walls and windows hang on steel rods from the concrete skeleton. The aim, in his words, was “to assure an unobstructed outlook to the ocean,” with enough privacy for “an informal life behind open windows.” From the garage, enclosed studio and surf-facing garden, two stairways rise to the heart of the house. A luminous, double-height living and dining room. Floor-to-ceiling glass. A cantilevered balcony running the length of the space, with four bedrooms opening off it to panoramic views of sea and sand. Expansive window bays echo the stepped rhythm of the concrete frames, so structure and glazing read as a single composition. Schindler’s intricate built-in furniture has been preserved, including the central form that blends sofa and storage to divide living from dining.

Published in Popular Mechanics in 1927 and Architectural Record in 1929. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1974. According to architectural historian David Gebhard, it “deserves a place” with Gropius’s Bauhaus at Dessau, Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye and Mies van der Rohe’s German Pavilion at Barcelona “as a key work of twentieth-century architecture.”

A century later, as inviting as it is impressive. A landmark and a home, waiting for a steward to enrich the “playful mood of beach life” Schindler set out to conjure.

Listing courtesy of Nate Cole, Modern California House & Todd Bousman, bouHAUS Properties
For pricing and private showings, DM us or call Brian directly at 310.622.0312.