Los Angeles Modern Auctions will offer the 1939 home, which has a business appraisal of $2.5 million to $3 million, on Feb. 21. The four-room wood-and-brick structure, with levels of decks, is cantilevered over a downhill side in the city's Brentwood area. In 1967, performer, writer and librettist Jack Larson and his friend, James Bridges screenwriter and director, bought the property for $60,000; they renovated the old building, making sure to save the old in-house furniture and living with its problematic roofing problems.
The partners dealt with the house in a joint effort with the Southern California planner John Lautner, who managed the development for Wright's customers, George and Selma Sturges. The couple have already passed away, Selma in 1993 and George in 2015.
Los Angeles Modern is placing the house with two unique eating seats, different built-ins and Mr. Larson's Wright and Lautner archival materials on auction. Whatever is left of it will be auctioned separately; stools with X-formed bases, square shaped tables, pyramidal floor lights and armchairs designed by Wright or Lautner. Each separate item will be starting with at least a few thousand dollars.
There has been negative comments against the separate auctioning of the house and some its furniture. Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy executive director Janet Halstead agrees with the statements and says, certainly contribute to the context of the house, and the conservancy would strongly urge that the house and the furniture remain together." She proposes that whoever wins the house in the auction should go after all the furniture that will be separately auctioned.
Elizabeth Portanova, the action house's director in marketing, said that the revenues would be donated to the Bridges-Larson Foundation, which funds and supports creative projects. Since the house will be the first item in the auction, she included, the winning bidder will have an opportunity to get the furniture as well.
