Super-dramatic climax to the preservation saga of the Richard Neutra-designed Kronish House in Beverly Hills: the LA Conservancy has put out a press release saying that escrow has just closed and the house has an unnamed new owner who "intends to restore the home." Redfin puts the sale price at $12.8 million. And this is coming only a few days after a deadline for destruction set by the owners. The 1955 house, which is nearly 7,000 square fit and sits on a flag lot next to Madonna's house, came on the market in the spring as a teardown. It had sold in a foreclosure auction in January for $5.8 million and the new owners were asking $13.995 million. In July, word came that the owners wanted to clear the lot and were working toward a demolition permit.
In early August, we toured the house. It's rundown and has some crappy additions, but a Neutra preservationist who had visited told us he thought it could be saved and brought back for $1-2 million. A lawyer for the owners said others had estimated preservation at $8 million.
Beverly Hills notoriously has almost no preservation rules, and after seeing so many good buildings torn down, preservationists rallied around the Kronish and appealed to the BH city council. In August, the council voted to start work on a preservation ordinance and a rep for the Kronish House owners agreed to postpone demolition until October 10.
Today it's October 14 and against all odds the house will keep standing. According to the Conservancy's release: "As the October 10 deadline passed, the preservation community grew increasingly concerned about the likely imminent demolition of the home. Fortunately, final talks were under way with a buyer who had come forward with an interest in restoring the highly intact home."
· Kronish House Archives [Curbed LA]
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