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Despite its age, a 1951 redwood house meets preservation test
© SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE PUBLISHING COMPANY Feb 8, 2004
Robert Mosher is an architect of passion and intelligence.
The longtime La Jollan has also earned a reputation as an outspoken defender of his principles, however controversial.
More than a decade ago, Mosher opposed historic preservationists in one of the region's most notorious battles. Preservationists fought - but ultimately failed - to save the Green Dragon Colony, a cluster of wooden cottages built in 1894 on a bluff overlooking La Jolla Cove.
Mosher then headed the trust that owned the property, originally an artists' retreat, and wished to redevelop it as a hotel. Both sides are still smarting over the controversial demolition, which occurred in two agonizing phases during the early 1990s.
Now Mosher, a vigorous 83-year-old, is central to another preservation drama, but this time preservationists - including some of the same members of Save Our Heritage Organization who couldn't save the Green Dragon Colony - are backing him.
Mosher took the bold step of nominating for local historic designation a 1951 redwood house in Point Loma, a single-story, U- shaped structure that he and local architecture experts consider one of his finest designs. It's unusual, but not unheard of, for an architect to initiate the process leading to landmark status for one of his own buildings, though Mosher has been criticized by a handful of architects for what they see as immodesty in doing so.
Ironically, what propelled the architect to prepare a nearly 1- inch-thick historical assessment of this house was not, he and his supporters insist, ego or posterity's gleam, but the threat of demolition.
The house's new owners have said they want to do a major remodel or raze it and replace it with a taller, Spanish-style home to take full advantage of the site's bay views. "We instantly fell in love with the views and large lot," owner Ronald Cohn told the city of San Diego's Historical Resources Board in November.
To their chagrin, to put it mildly, Ronald and Guadalupe Cohn learned of Mosher's nomination when they were in escrow last spring. They would not have bought the approximately 3,400-square-foot house in La Playa had they known it was eligible for historic designation, they and their lawyers have said.
Representing the owners, attorney Michael McDade said he believed Mosher began preparing to nominate the house before the Cohns closed escrow.
Despite the couple's frustration and opposition, the board voted to add the 52-year-old house to the local register.
Why didn't Mosher try to buy the house or nominate it earlier?
He said he never considered buying it because he and his wife are happy with their present house, are settled in La Jolla, and because he had no reason to think it was in jeopardy.
"It didn't occur to me that someone would consider tearing it down," Mosher said. "The idea was appalling to me."
The board's decision was a victory for preservation of outstanding mid-20th century modernist architecture, supporting a house built so recently that many people forget it has passed the 45- year threshold that makes properties eligible for historic designation.
Among design aficionados, modernist houses, especially in Southern California, and modernist-styled furniture are extremely desirable. Last fall, SOHO held its first San Diego Modernism Weekend, with a home tour, lectures, exhibits and a forum of local modernist master architects, including Mosher, Homer Delawie, Hal Sadler, Herb Turner and others. (Roy Drew, Mosher's partner in the firm now known as Architects Mosher Drew Watson Ferguson, died in January at age 90.)
Bryan Forward, who is working on a book on San Diego County modernist architecture, estimates there are 100 to 200 houses built between 1945 and 1960 in the city of San Diego that similarly could qualify today for landmark status based on architectural merit. Among the notable architects working then were Delawie, Drew, Russell Forester, Sim Bruce Richards, Lloyd Ruocco and Mosher, Forward said.
The Cohns' lawyer, McDade, said no one disputes Mosher's architectural abilities, but that he is better known for institutional and commercial buildings than residences.
"There are other Mosher houses, and many more Modernist homes by other architects," McDade said. "Designation by the architect himself, over the owner's objection, is just wrong, unless you are protecting a vanishing example of great architecture."
In essence, historic preservation aims to protect the most significant examples of a culture, time or place. The Kunzel house rises to the top of Mosher's design accomplishments and exemplifies a philosophy of living with nature by design that has enriched San Diego for more than a century.
"There are probably only half a dozen houses I've done that I really like. The Kunzel house is at the top of the list," said Mosher, who was elected to the national American Institute of Architects College of Fellows for design excellence in 1970.
It is among two or three houses "that truly express the things that I believe in," he explained. He cited the combined influences of Craftsman and Japanese architecture in materials and the way the materials are expressed and the siting that weds the house to its surroundings.
The Cohns have appealed the board's decision to the City Council, which is expected to consider the matter Tuesday.
Though this preservation story has multiple twists (see accompanying timeline), in the end the council should see straight and uphold the historic designation.
This important modernist house, which is intertwined with its remarkably lush setting that conceals most of the house from the street, exquisitely reflects San Diego's climate, waterfront setting and architectural heritage.
As the board underscored, the house meets four of the city's preservation criteria, when only one would justify designation. They found it qualifies in the categories of architecture, cultural landscape and the work of a master architect. In addition, the late Harriet Wimmer, a leading San Diego landscape architect whose firm lives on, did the original garden design, some of which remains.
The board added a fourth category to Mosher's nomination: association with a historic person. Herbert and Minrva Kunzel commissioned the young Mosher to design the house for them and their four children. Herbert Kunzel, who died in 1999, was a prominent lawyer, head of Solar Aircraft Company, and, with his wife who survives him, a generous benefactor.
One compelling reason the house should retain its designation is to preserve for everyone a small, green patch of San Diego. Formerly the Hamilton estate, the woodsy enclave is now dotted with architect-designed houses with weathered-wood exteriors. Its neighborhood is still rural in character, still cries out for leisurely walks through narrow streets, still represents the refreshing natural paradise that attracted people to the city during the Progressive Era about 100 years ago.
The house is a superb blend of airy post-war modernism, which merged indoor-outdoor living spaces, and the warmth and human proportions of California Craftsman and traditional Japanese houses. It also respects and harmonizes with neighboring redwood or cedar houses, starting with the original Hamilton house (1910 by Emmor Brooke Weaver, an Arts and Crafts master architect), a second house Mosher designed and one by Frederick Liebhardt.
House Beautiful magazine in an article titled "A Walk Through a Good House." The house's design prompted the magazine's influential, New York-based editor to invite Mosher to become House Beautiful's building editor. He took the assignment, which allowed him to travel to New York and Europe to study and write about architecture, for two years.
This experience enriched Mosher's subsequent designs throughout San Diego, which include dozens of buildings. Among them are his first office in La Jolla at the Green Dragon Colony, homes nestled into nature, stately churches, art galleries, a downtown office tower now ablaze with NBC's logo and a host of university buildings.
As a design consultant, Mosher helped coax the San Diego- Coronado Bridge into a sleek blue ribbon that swoops across the sky and lingers in memory.
The Kunzels lived happily in their house for 44 years, rehiring Mosher to make minor alterations and upgrade the kitchen and baths. All the alterations are in keeping with the house's original impeccable redwood detailing, inside and out.
The Cohns don't have much of a case for appealing the designation, according to the city's preservation code. It appears that the board made no errors in finding the house historic and no bylaws or hearing procedures were violated. The only other specified grounds for overturning the decision would be new information that significantly negates the house's historic status.
McDade, the Cohns' lawyer, said he thinks the house's public visibility was misrepresented at the board hearing. The Cohns don't intend to remove the mature landscaping to reveal the house, as the plantings are one of the reasons they bought the property, he said.
The house isn't "available and easily accessible to the public," as a landmark needs to be if it is to serve as an example, McDade said.
The Cohns are also likely to ask for sympathy and understanding, as they did before the board.
Mosher's nomination report caught them by surprise.
Board members and Mosher's lawyer correctly countered their arguments when they said that if the Cohns applied for a demolition permit, the house would be flagged for city review by virtue of its age.
Now that the owners know the house has been deemed historic, board members urged them to take advantage of the board's design subcommittee, which assists owners who wish to alter historic landmarks.
Contrary to widespread fears, historic designation does not mean a property cannot be altered. Only the facades visible from the street must be maintained in their historic condition.
While the Cohns may claim they will lose thousands of dollars if they put the house back on the market and disclose its landmark status, this is highly improbable. Architect-designed houses with bay views and mature landscaping sell for a premium.
The Cohns can find another large lot with views. But this one in a tranquil pocket of Point Loma is already occupied by a breathtaking cultural and architectural treasure. Many would find it a privilege to live in the Kunzel house.
Ann Jarmusch
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