Welcome to Team Haverkate Real Estate, specializing in Mid Century Modern Homes.

California Modernism is alive and well, with numerous major exhibitions throughout Southern California starting in October that celebrate and explore architecture, design, furnishings, art and those who created California’s unique lifestyle.

The Pacific Standard Time initiative is a collaboration of more than 60 cultural institutions across Southern California coming together to tell the story of the birth of the L.A. art scene.  An initiative of The Getty Foundation, this comprehensive scope intends to highlight the work of Los Angeles artists during the dynamic period following World War II.  Concurrent Pacific Standard Time exhibitions will run from Fall 2011 to Spring 2012 throughout the Los Angeles area and from Santa Barbara to San Diego and Palm Springs.

www.getty.edu/news/press/center/pacific_standard_time_2010.html.

The first major study of California’s influence on Mid Century Modern design, California Design, 1930-1965: , debuts October 1 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art with more than 300 objects – furniture, ceramics, metal work, fashions and textiles, and industrial and graphic design.

The exhibition examines California’s role in shaping the material culture just before and after World War II, and the roots of California Modernism.  Through its four thematic areas, the exhibition hopes to  elucidate that California design “is not a superimposed style, but an answer to present conditions…it has developed out of our own preferences for living in a modern way,” from a statement made back in 1951 by émigré designer Greta Magnusson Grossman.

www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/californiadesign

According to Collectors Weekly, the exhibition begins in the 1930s with the development of a distinctive California Modernism, primarily through the contributions of iconic architects Kern Weber, Paul Frankl, R.M. Schindler and Richard Neutra, all émigrés from Europe where the Bauhaus and International style movements began.

The exhibit also explores design innovations that arose from technology invented during World War III such as fiberglass, plywood and steel.  In particular, Charles and Ray Eames’ work for the US Navy that resulted in their famous molded fiberglass and plywood chairs after the war.

The largest section of the show focuses on the modern California home characterized by open floor plans and seamless indoor/outdoor living, inspired as much by California’s temperate climate and casual living as post war optimism and prosperity.

www.collectorsweekly.com/events

“The economic and demographic changes that followed World War II profoundly affected California,” wrote Eudora Moore, director of California Design. “The population expanded as people emigrated west lured by the promise of employment, warm climate, optimistic outlook and growing prosperity.

As the state emerged from the postwar years, its artistic community flourished.  Freed from the constraints of Europe and New York, California became the preeminent and influential center for design.”

www.ackermanmodern.com/modernism.html

Created for a casual lifestyle, new types of furnishing were often produced by designers whose work, still largely unknown, will be seen for the first time by museum audiences, according to the LACMA  website.

The exhibition’s last section demonstrates through other exhibitions, magazines, shops and film how “The California Look” was disseminated throughout America and the world.

One of the most influential vehicles for promotion of California Modernism was the series of California Design exhibitions held from 1954 through 1976.  Eudora Moore became executive director in 1962 expanding the size of the shows and instituted juried awards.  Most were held at the Pasadena Art Museum; The final show took place at the Pacific Design Center.

California Design 1930-1965: Living in a Modern Way will be in the Resnick Exhibition Pavilion at the Los Angeles County Museum, 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, October 1, 2011 – March 28, 2012.

www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/californiadesign

Another exhibit, Eames Design: The Guest Host Relationship, also debuting October 1 at the Architecture and Design Museum in Los Angeles,  focuses on the words and designs of Charles and Ray Eames.

“The role of the designer is that of a very good, thoughtful host, all of whose energy goes into trying to anticipate the needs of his guests,” said Charles Eames.

This theme will be explored through a display of Eames’ quotes shown typographically and on film alongside key related objects – from tumbleweed, to bread, to a keg of nails and vintage furniture.  It will examine the relationship between these objects and the ideas that flow from them, according to the A+D website.

A+D is located in the Bradbury Building, one of downtown Los Angeles’ premier landmark buildings located on LA’s Museum Row.

www.aplusd.org

San Diego’s Craft Revolution, October 16, 2011 – April 15, 2012, at the Mingei International Museum in San Diego is also part of the Pacific Standard Time initiative.

The exhibition will reveal the important contributions of San Diego Craftsmen to the post-war Southern California art scene as it progresses from sleek modernism to unconventional handmade objects of use such as furniture, doors, jewelry and ceramics.

The more than 50 artists include Toza and Ruth Radakovich, Rhoda Lopez, Jack Hopkins, Arline Fisch, Ellamarie and Jackson Wooley, Larry Hunter, Kay Whitecomb and James Hubbell.

Many of the these San Diego-based artists received national attention and participated in major Los Angeles exhibitions, including the California Design series held in Pasadena and Los Angeles.

www.mingei.org/exhibitions

Starting December 11, 20121 through April 1, 2012, the Palm Springs Art Museum participates in the Pacific Standard Time initiative with Backyard Oasis: The Swimming Pool in Southern California Photography, 1945-1980.

This exhibit “examines the Southern California swimming pool as depicted in photographs.  The backyard pool as a private setting, became a space to participate in various sub-cultural rituals and to enact clandestine desires.  As a medium, photography became the primary vehicle for the circulation of post- WWII imagery.  The exhibition will trace the integrated history of photography and the iconography of the swimming pool, bringing to light many aspects of this rich interaction,” according to the Getty Museum website.

www.getty.edu/news/press/center/pacific_standard_time_2010.html

Palm Springs is the heart of California’s Desert Modernism, creating a vernacular all its own.  From containing one of the largest collections of Mid Century Modern homes and architecture in the county to dozens of important design stores in its Uptown Design District, explore Palm Springs and environs  for an inspiring, in-depth education.

Now that you are ready to own your own Mid Century Modern home in the desert, contact Ralph Haverkate for a personal tour of notable Desert Modern homes currently for sale designed by some of the world’s most respected architects:  Ralph@RHaverkate.com. or visit www.HaverkateRealEstate.com

– Pamela Bieri

In the Palm Springs area, the only homes that are selling are at 30-50% discounts.  Many would-be home buyers seem to be holding back in fear (or hope) that prices will fall some more.  If you believe in Buy Low you should be wary of trying to buy at the bottom – that is very hard to do.  It’s better to get most of the benefit of the low, than to miss it altogether.  Median prices were actually lower last year than now.

It does look as if prices may fall again, but I may be wrong .  In the opinion of some, we saw prices rise last year due to various government stimulus programs, and they could rise again if private investment increases.  We have seen unemployment increase and that will increase the number of foreclosures.  The impact of new foreclosures should be minimal because we have seen the banks meter them onto the market about as fast as they are selling, which has kept prices stable.

Could a meaningful drop of 20% or more still happen?  If a Mid-Century Modern home was $500,000 at the peak, it is possibly worth around $300,000 now (a 40% drop).  I don’t believe it can go down to $200,000 (down 60%).  Could it go down 15% from $300,000 to $255,000?  It is possible, but a slight market improvement could keep the price steady or slightly increase it, as happened over the last year.  Meanwhile the buyer is still looking and we are getting closer to the time when prices will definitely increase.

Some sellers are waiting too.  If they need to sell, there isn’t much point in waiting for the return to high prices.  That won’t happen for many years.  They are likely better off selling now to start a new financial or housing base rather than dealing with an uncertain future.

For both Buyers and Sellers, there is a financial risk of doing nothing, and you may miss the chance of finding that perfect Kreisel Alexander or Walter S. White.

- Wayne Longman

Web blog 9/1/10

The Landmark Kaufmann House Still Makes News

This month’s Palm Springs Life’s home feature, “The Road to Fame and Fortune,” by Greg Archer (www.palmspringslife.com) opens with one of the area’s most famous homes, the Kaufmann House, a 1946 glass, steel and stone landmark designed by architect Richard Neutra.

The home has twice been at the vanguard of new movements in architecture:  First by helping to shape postwar Modernism and later, as a result of a painstaking and expensive restoration in the late 1990s, spurred a revival of interest in mid-20th century homes, according to a New York Times review by Edward Wyatt (www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/arts/design).

This house continues to make news as an important landmark.

One of the best-known icons by Viennese émigré Neutra, who moved to the United States in the 1920s, this unusual pin-wheel plan house was designed for Pittsburgh department store magnate Edgar J. Kaufmann.  It was the last domestic project by the architect, and arguably his most famous.

The house became part of cultural history thanks to a 1947 photo by Julius Schulman that shows Mrs. Kaufmann reclining by the pool, the house glowing in the sunset.  The photo also became one of the most reproduced architectural photographs ever (www.eichlernetwork.com/desert_chron7.html).

Its striking silhouette, mix of airy lightness and sandstone weight, combined with the delicacy and precision of its detail, the house is considered one of the most important examples of International Style architecture in the United States and is the only one still in private hands (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaufmann_Desert_House).

The work represents a special moment in the Neutra canon when the architect was able to blur the distinction between inside and outside to an unusual degree, according to architectural historian Barbara Lamprecht (www.palmspringslife.com/Palm-Springs-Life/May-2009)/revisiting-The-Kaufmann-House).

“It’s not so much a house with an indoors and outdoors.  Rather it is a setting with transitions in which Neutra honed both nature and the functional aspects of living so that Eros, sensuality, the senses are subtly and/or overtly available to the whole arc of day and night and the whole spectrum of being,” she wrote in an essay commissioned by Crosby Doe, who was then marketing the home.

“The Kaufmann House … moved in the direction of the pavilion, which is Neutra’s last development in domestic architecture.  Horizontal planes resting on horizontal planes hover over transparent walls.  The material loses its importance — magnificent as the dry-joint stone wall are in themselves — the gist of the house is weightless space enclosed.  The victory over the front door is almost complete; it is reached by slow stages, like the Mexican house whose entrance on the street leads through a garden to an unemphasized door,” writes Esther McCoy in her book on Richard Neutra, page 16-17 (www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Kaufmann_Desert_House, html.).

The five bedroom, five bathroom home emphasizes connection to the desert landscape.  A combined living and dining space lies at the center of the house.  On an east-west axis, four wings extend in each cardinal direction from the living room, like a pinwheel.  Large sliding glass walls open the living spaces and master bedroom to adjacent patios.  Larger rooms at the end of each wing defines adjacent outdoor rooms, circulating both indoors and out.

After Kaufmann died in 1955, the house stood vacant for several years, then had a series of owners including singer Barry Manilow and San Diego Chargers owner Eugene V. Klein.  Several renovations seriously altered the house, enclosing some of the open areas, and damaging Neutra’s original blond cabinetry, wall surfaces, and the Douglas fir ceilings.

It had been on the market another few years in 1992 when a couple, Brent Harris, an investment manager, and his wife Beth, an architectural historian, bought it for $1.5 million with the intention to restore the house to its original design.  At the time, the house was not a candidate for restoration — Neutra’s Modernism “wasn’t the prevailing style” — and was almost razed.

“No one wanted it.  And so it was a gorgeous house, an important house, and it was crying out for restoration,” said Harris in the New York Times interview. (www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/arts/deisgn)

The couple hired Los Angeles architects Lee Marmol and Ron Radziner and Associates.  As Neutra’s original plans were lost, the team searched for clues through extensive Neutra archives at UCLA, Columbia University, and also with photographer Schulman who allowed them access to unpublished photos of the home’s interior and exterior.

They sought out original providers of paint and fixtures, and purchased a metal crimping machine to reproduce the sheet-metal fascia that lined the roof.  The team even and had a long-closed section of a Utah quarry re-opened to mine matching stone to replace what had been removed or damaged.

The Harrises bought additional land around the 3,200 square foot home to help restore the desert landscape buffer Neutra had envisioned.  They rebuilt the pool that serves as a viewing pavilion for the main house, and kept a tennis court that was built on one of the parcels added to the original Kaufmann property.

The house was subsequently sold in May, 2008 for $15 million at auction by Christie’s as a part of a high-profile sale of contemporary art.  However the sale fell through, and was later listed at $13 million in October that same year.  The restored house had a pre-sale estimate of $15 to $25 million.

The Harrises “were visionaries in their own way,” said Joshua Holdeman, a senior vice president at Christie’s.  With the renovation, “they created a whole new public awareness of mid-century modern architecture.” (www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/arts/design))

The Marmol Radziner + Associates restoration was critically acclaimed.  The team’s sourcing of original products, fixtures, and building materials helped launch the revival of the Modernist movement, creating a new niche and demand for Mid-century homes, fixtures and furnishings.

Today, many critics place the Kaufmann House among the most important houses of the 20th century with the likes of Fallingwater, Robie House, Gropius House and the Gamble House (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaufmann_Desert_House).

Palm Springs Preservationists say the Kaufmann House inspired other owners of Mid-century modern houses to restore them, and credit this among several other important restorations for spurring renewed interest in Palm Springs’ Mid-Century Modern heritage. (www.eichlernetwork.com)

To see more quality Mid-Century Modern homes available for sale in the Palm Springs area, contact Ralph Haverkate at www.HaverkateRealEstate.com.

– Pamela Bieri

Haverkate Real Estate Recommends Dwell On Design: The West Coast’s Largest Design Show Celebrates the Best Modern Projects, Products and People.

Welcome to www.HaverkateRealEstate.com , Palm Springs’ premier site for Mid-Century Modern Real Estate and design resources.

If you can’t get enough Mid-Century Modern, do not miss Dwell On Design (www.dwellondesign.com ), the West Coast’s largest design event, returning June 25-27 to the Los Angeles Convention Center. It’s only a short two-hour drive from Palm Springs.

Curated by the editors of Dwell Magazine, this three-day extravaganza features more than 200 brands on exhibition with design-forward exhibits, competitions, East and West side home tours, and over 80 presentations and panels by design industry  leaders and influencers.

“We’re thrilled to see how the creative community in Los Angeles has taken cultural ownership of Dwell on Design, making this show the premiere event on the design calendar,” said Dwell Media President Michela O’Connor Abrams.

It’s no wonder that Los Angeles has taken an active role in this major design event:  also called California Modern style, Los Angeles and Palm Springs offers a wealth of residential  Mid-Century Modern architecture, furnishings, and designs.

While in LA, take a look at some prime examples on the self-drive home tours into areas that most visitors don’t see.  From Larchmont to Silver Lake and Atwater Village to the east, and a “surf and turf” drive from West Hollywood to the beaches, explore Mid-Century Modern homes like the Walnut and Skywave houses in Venice Beach, the Los Feliz residence or Auburn 7 house in Silver Lake district.  The landmark Stahl House tour (by Architect Pierre Koenig, 1960) in the Hollywood Hills is sold out, however.  Planning and engineering company Latitude 33 ( www.latitude33.com ) is the tour sponsor.

Check out Room & Board (www.roomandboard.com), a respected American purveyor of “all things domestic,” who will be on the Design show floor offering sensible and affordable Mid-Century classics.   A bevy of small Southern California-based brands will also join their international counterparts.

Gleaming rows of low-flow faucets, fixtures, toilets, bathtubs, and kitchen designs by Kohler (www.kohler.com), CB2 (www.cb2.com )  Holdit (www.holdithome.com), Miele (www.mieleusa.com) and Ecofabulous (www.ecofabulous.com) offer eco-friendly, sustainable innovative products.

Exhibits run the gamut of building materials and systems, from the bright lights of design-forward Lutron (www.lutron.com) to the cozy environs of Napoleon fireplace.  A lush landscape of planters, prefabs, shrubs and sheds with solar panels, outdoor carpet, and patio furniture, Dwell Outdoors explores exterior spaces with a focus on greenery and green energy.

Los Angeles’ AIA design conference,  MOBIUS LA ( www.aialosangeles.org ), offers  multi-day professional development seminars, lectures, panel discussions and special events like the Restaurant Design Awards Ceremony. More than 100 of leading design, sustainability and culinary thinkers will be presenting live on the Design Innovation and  Sustainability stages.

During the Ideas Conference, The New Face of Affluence seminar turns brands toward a new generation of high value customers who spend $303 billion annually on discretionary purchases from apparel and autos to home furnishings and travels.  Speakers include Rose Marcario of Patagonia (www.patagonia.com), Michela O’Connor Abrams (www.DwellMedia.com)  , Chris Chamberlin of Paine PR, Richard Whitehall of SMART Design (www.smartdesignworldwide.com), advisor and social media expert Dale Larson, and Betsy Burroughs of FocusCatalyst (www.FocusCatalyst.com).

In Palm Springs, be sure to contact www.HaverkateReal Estate.com/resource.php. for the most comprehensive listings of Mid-Century Modern homes and estates for sale in the California desert area.

We’ll see you at Dwell on Design June 25-27! By Pamela Bieri

We see a lot of news about home prices, both good and bad.  Nobody can predict the future, but we might find clues about it in the past.  The Case-Shiller Home Price Index, captured the California home price collapse in 1990, as shown in the first chart - for high-tier Los Angeles homes.  Then the prices had increased by about a factor of two, just like our last bubble, as shown in the second chart.  The scale in the first chart has been expanded to show they were very similar bubbles, even to their relative size, shape, duration and the false recoveries in 1991 and 2007.  Maybe we can use the 1990′s experience to project our current recovery. 

If so, the blue bars show that it took seven years from the peak to just get to the point where prices began a true recovery.  Our price recovery may not start until 2013, and this is a worse economic situation than in the 1990′s. In between now and 2013 we may see still lower prices.  It is difficult to tell if the small peak we see today is a false recovery or the reaction to an overshoot in the drop, but from the last bubble it is not likely the beginning of recovery.  Again historically, that increase around 2013 will be at the rate of inflation, which in the long term is around 2.5% a year.  If so, this is relative price stability and isn’t bad news – volatility in home prices is the bad news because neither sellers or buyers know what to expect.  – Wayne Longman

Case-Shiller LA High Tier 1990 Bubble

LA Case-Shiller High Tier 2006 Bubble

You can spend a leisurely morning shopping up and down El Paseo, the Deserts own Rodeo Drive.  On El Paseo, you can shop in The Gardens, an upscale shopping and dining treat. You’ll find  Sullivan’s Steak House (great for martinis), Pacifica, Saks Fifth Avenue, Tommy Bahamas, Ralph Lauren, Veneto, Williams & Sonoma, and more. Tiffany’s is across the street from the locally-owned Jeweler, Frascas.  Luis Vuitton is going to be open by end of the year. There are high-end doggie boutiques, pastry shops, Italian markets and specialty stores and more restaurants.

The most recent Case-Shiller index shows the average price of all home sales in Los Angeles from November through December increased by about 0.3%.   When you dig a little deeper,  over the last three reports it shows  a slight decrease for high tier homes (those over about $500,000), and about a 5% increase for homes below that price limit.  On the face, it means healthier low-end market activity, with supply perhaps slightly lagging demand, resulting in higher prices.

On the other hand, other and more recent-activity factoids are the national 20% drop in February consumer confidence, and an 11% drop of new home sales in January.  Freddie Mac now reports that a record 4 percent of its borrowers are at least three months delinquent on their loans and in danger of foreclosure. 

Our own Desert Area MLS shows a 20% drop in closings in January, while the inventory of bank-owned and others has remained fairly constant.  Those listed above $500,000 are significant in numbers – about 1/3 of the total, but they sold only about 1/7 of the total in January.  The number of new listings above $500,000 jumped from about 260 in January to over 400 in February.

All this may indicate a stronger Buyers’ market in the high end with more supply and less demand resulting in lower prices.   The overall lower buying activity and consumer confidence may further serve to weaken prices in all tiers.  – Wayne Longman

Bank-owned properties (aka REO’s) are known to affect surrounding property prices.  This effect might be seen in past sale prices in the well-defined Palm Springs community of Vista Las Palmas.  This graph shows a decrease in the long term price trend of Non-REO homes at about the time the REO homes were sold.  The effect isn’t that great because REO’s are generally priced low, but close to the market.  There may even be early signs of price strengthening as they fade into the past.  As always though, prices are determined by Buyers.  – Wayne Longman

When it comes to mid-century modern architecture, there’s no better place than Palm Springs to view some of the very best homes ever built in this iconic style. Mid-century modern homes in Palm Springs have, in fact, become a significant tourist draw in recent years, attracting just as much attention as the city’s famed resorts, golf courses and spectacular natural setting.

Due to its extensive and well-preserved collection of mid-century modern homes, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named the city to its prestigious annual list of “America’s Dozen Distinctive Destinations” in 2006. “Palm Springs,” said the Trust’s president, Richard More, “is not a city of architectural re-creations or approximations of previous eras. Instead, it is a remarkably intact and authentic expression of its architectural heritage.”

Mid-century modern homes in Palm Springs were built by many of the movement’s most renowned names – Richard Neutra, Albert Frey, William F. Cody, John Lautner, Donald Wexler, and the builders/developers George and Robert Alexander, among others. What is arguably the most famous piece of residential real estate in the city, the Neutra-designed Kaufmann Desert House, is a premier example of the streamlined, light and airy designs that are characteristic of mid-century modern architecture.

If you’re interested in mid-century modern homes in Palm Springs, it’s best to work with  Palm Springs real estate agents who understand this particular niche of the Palm Springs, California real estate market. Passionate about real estate and mid-century modern architecture both, Ralph Haverkate and Wayne Longman are your guides to architecturally distinctive Palm Springs mid-century homes. Contact them today for more information.

A significant drop in the number of sales of large homes over $3,000,000 can be attributed to falling sales prices, fewer buyers, or both. There is no doubt prices have fallen at the high-end, so many have dropped out of this niche, but it also shows that high-end sellers should attempt to price below this no-man’s land.

Home Sales Over $3,000,000

Sale prices could drop more in any given development if they haven’t returned to circa-2003 levels that deflate prices back to their non-bubble growth rate. This has happened in several local high-end communities, so there are some good deals around, but not all.

Those holding out for a return to the top, may wait a long time. It took LA ten years to recover from the 1990’s housing decline. Housing appreciates at the inflation rate, around 2.5%, so it could take even longer than that. This applies to all price ranges. If you want to sell, price to market. Most buyers are then confident that they can buy safely.