A Private Tour of Gregory Ain's 1952 Greene House in Silverlake/LA with Architects Ravi GuneWardena and Frank Escher
This is such an exceptional opportunity for a lucky high bidder, so if this sounds of interest, bid often and bid high! So exceptional that MW has asked around and obtained an out-of-print, highly collectable book to include.
Here’s the story. Architects Ravi GuneWardena and Frank Escher recently completed a restoration of a 1952 Gregory Ain house, in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles. The Marjorie M. Greene Residence was designed by Gregory Ain in collaboration with architects Joseph Johnson and Alfred Day, with an accompanying 1953 landscape by Garrett Eckbo, Robert Royston and Edward Willams.
A devastating fire in 2018 destroyed the residence and Frank and Ravi meticulously fully restored the house between 2019 -2021. Elements of the main floor plan closely echo the configuration of the Exhibition House at MoMA, designed by Gregory Ain in 1950, which itself was based on plans developed for Ain’s 1948 Los Angeles Community Homes development, a project that was thwarted as a result of Ain being blacklisted in the 1949 under suspicion of being a communist, essentially for designing affordable housing in racially integrated communities.
The lucky winning bidder and their guest will meet Ravi GuneWardena and Frank Escher at the Greene Residence, meet the owner there who they worked with to restore the house, and receive a personal tour of the property, along with all of the stories to be told. The tour will end with a light lunch at the house, catered by nearby restaurant, Botanica.
A Rizzoli book, published 2008, no longer in print, is included to remember this experience. Gregory Ain: The Modern Home as Social Commentary, by Anthony Denzer, with introduction by noted architectural scholar, Thomas S. Hines, is a critical reappraisal of one of the most prominent modern architects of the 1930’s -1950’s in Los Angeles. A very hard book to find these days, with a value that underscores that fact!
To have this opportunity is truly exceptional and near priceless. The Greene restoration project joins a list of lauded preservation works by Escher GuneWardena Architecture, which includes John Lautner’s 1960 Chemosphere, the 1949 Eames House, Paul R. William’s family residence, A. Quincy Jones’ 1948 Pilot House, and two currently in-process projects, Richard Neutra’s 1929 Lovell Health House, and John Lautner’s own 1940 Silver Lake home.
Things to Know: Advance booking is required to reserve a mutually agreeable time/date. Either a weekday or weekend is fine, but the private tour must take place by June 01, 2023. Expected time commitment no more than 2 hours. Soon after the conclusion of the online auction on December 11, the winning bidder will receive specific details about this experience to being planning.
Company Name : Ravi GuneWardena and Frank Escher, with Modernism Week
- If shipping required, winning bidder agrees to pay all shipping costs and will be invoiced electronically for shipping costs.
- Collection of CA Sales Tax is required for all tangible items purchased at auction and will be added to final invoice.
What is CharityAuctionsToday?