Long Beach home designed by the ‘father of modern architecture’ asks $3M

Hailed as the “father of modern architecture,” Irving Gill was born on a farm just outside Syracuse 150 years ago this week. In honor of the occasion, San Diego’s Save Our Heritage Organization has curated an online gallery of items showcased in the 2016 exhibit “Irving Gill: Progress & Poetry in Modern Architecture.” Included in the exhibit are historic glass slide photographs of Gill buildings taken by the architect’s firm circa 1910. Unseen for nearly a century, the slides are part of a set recently discovered inside two oak carrying cases in a San Diego garage.

There are unfortunately many gaps in the architect’s public record, but one resource that has helped fill some of them in are historic postcards. Twenty-nine of these are also part of the exhibit, depicting buildings the architect produced between the early 1900s through the 1930s, many of which have been destroyed.

One Gill structure that has managed to survive relatively unscathed is now on the market in Long Beach. Located at 2749 East Ocean Boulevard in the Bluff Park Historic District, the concrete cubist residence was built in 1918 for Dr. Samuel Raymond. According to An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles, it’s one of only a few intact houses in Los Angeles designed by Gill.

Though the 3,660-square-foot home’s austerely elegant exterior looks much the same as it did a century ago, its interior has been heavily remodeled. Surviving original features include archways, some of the concrete floors, casement windows, and a tiled fireplace.

On a .25-acre lot with views to Catalina, it’s on the market for the first time in two decades with an asking price of $2.95 million. Noelle Longmeyer and Kelly Costello of Keller Williams hold the listing.

SOHO