Could the famous Thomas Mann house by midcentury great J.R. Davidson be the next tragic teardown in Los Angeles? The Thomas Mann house is located on a large corner lot on San Remo Drive in Pacific Palisades, just north of the Riviera Country Club and about three miles from the Pacific. The home was commissioned by novelist Thomas Mann and his wife, Katia, from architect J.R. Davidson and built in 1941 on nearly an acre of land.
The Potential Loss of Architectural History
The architect, Julius Ralph Davidson or JR Davidson, was a mid-century modern American architect known for advancing modern architecture in Los Angeles and participating in Arts & Architecture magazine’s Case Study House Program. Davidson was part of a group of European expatriate architects, which included Richard Neutra, Rudolph Schindler, Kem Weber, and Paul László, who furthered modern architecture in Los Angeles in the 1930s and 40s. His modern interiors have been noted for their warmth, fluidity, and well-planned storage space. The Thomas Mann home is not on the official Los Angeles historic-cultural monuments. It is listed as a historic resource in a larger inventory called SurveyLA. The Thomas Mann Home is a work of real architectural significance, on whose design the novelist and his wife collaborated closely with Davidson. It is not just the house where Mann wrote some of his most famous work, but many feel it is a portrait of his artistic temperament and a measure of his relationship with SoCal and the architecture’s modern movement.
Is There Hope?
Unfortunately, the Thomas Mann house is being listed as a teardown at almost $15 million, without mention in the listing of its historical significance. A new citywide ordinance requires that owners seeking to demolish houses older than 45 years provide notice to neighbors and the local city council office at least 30 days in advance. But in general there are limited protections for most residential buildings in Los Angeles, even those with notable architectural pedigrees.
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