There are trophy houses and then there are icons. California is liberally scattered with the former but also has more than its fair share of the latter. Now another example of a prototypical modernist residence has gone up for sale, a house that helped set the template for what was to come.
The Lovell Beach House was the first property commissioned by a far-sighted, forward-thinking couple, in more ways than one. Built for Leah and Philip Lovell, the house was designed exactly a century ago by the architect RM Schindler (1887-1953), with Richard Neutra, no less, working on the landscaping.
Philip M Lovell wrote for the Los Angeles Times. A committed naturopathic health advocate, as well as a vegetarian and a fanatic advocate of naturist sunbathing and avocados, although not necessarily at the same time, he wrote a column called ‘Care of the Body’. In many respects, he is the prototypical modern Californian, healthy, wealthy, and committed to natural wellness with a light side order of eccentricity.
Happily, his wife, Leah Press-Lovell, shared his enthusiasms. The couple had met through her work at a private progressive school in East Hollywood, on land owned by the heiress Aline Barnsdall, whose own residence was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and finished in 1921: the Hollyhock House (now open to the public, and having survived recent threats of closure).
One of the architects working with Wright on the Hollyhock House was Rudolph Michael Schindler, a Vienna-born architect who had arrived in the US in 1914, having studied under such luminaries as Adolf Loos and Otto Wagner.
Although Schindler was to ultimately fall out spectacularly with Wright, as well as have a fractious relationship with Neutra, his fortuitous place in this creative and somewhat cultish milieu led to a connection with Lovell – both men’s wives taught together at the progressive kindergarten.
Together, the Lovells commissioned Schindler to design them a new house in Newport Beach, a shining piece of concrete and glass modernism that fulfilled their love of the open air, freedom, light and health.
The Lovell Beach House was completed in 1926 and appeared to tick all the boxes for the Lovell’s radical lifestyle, with sleeping porches on the first floor that could be opened up to the Pacific air and floor to ceiling glazing.
The Lovell’s unconventional living requirements allowed Schindler to experiment, using reinforced concrete – still a relatively new material, especially in private residences – to raise the house high up off its plot. This created spectacular ocean views from the terrace, while the thin but strong structure allowed for the ribbons of glazing that illuminate the double-height living space in the heart of the 2,741 sq ft house.
As originally conceived, the ground floor contained only a garage and an open area between the angular concrete pillars, with twin staircases leading off in two directions from a central plinth. The first floor contained the double height living room, alongside a dining area, kitchen and breakfast area.
Upstairs, four identical bedrooms were reached off a galleried landing, with an appropriately private roof deck on top. The chilly Pacific fogs quickly put paid to the open sleeping areas and the balconies were enclosed by the end of the decade.
Neutra’s contribution was the modest landscape plan, overlooked by a balcony reached from the sitting room, which in turn had the beach and ocean in the distance. Featuring a curvaceous raised flower bed and semi-naturalistic planting and seating, it’s enhanced by the house’s excellent position on the last building plot before the beach.
Remarkably, the Beach House has stayed in the Lovell family ever since, a focal place where key family gatherings and celebrations have been held over the past hundred years.
The last Lovell to live there, Philip and Leah’s daughter-in-law Barbara, died in 2025, prompting the family to finally sell a place that has been so integral to their life for so long. Over the decades, changes have been sparse and sympathetic, with almost all Schindler’s original built-in furnishings retained.
Philip and Leah went on to commission Richard Neutra to design their next house, the equally famous Lovell Health House, completed in 1929. Ultimately, they chose to spend more time at the beach residence, even though it was initially the Neutra building that won more plaudits and attention from the world’s architectural press.
Taking on such an icon – in such a prominent spot – is not for the faint-hearted. We reported recently on the struggle to sell the Stahl House (Craig Ellwood's Case Study House #22), another slice of American architectural history that comes with caveats as well as kudos.
Although the Lovell Beach House is a veritable antique by Californian standards, it’s still a monument to the kind of innovation and thinking that defines the state today.
Lovell Beach House, 1242 West Ocean Front, Newport Beach, California, is for sale at $18.8m, co-listed by Nate Cole of Modern California House and Todd Bousman of Bouhaus Properties, TheLovellBeachHouse.com