DIGS is the premiere luxury real estate lifestyle magazine serving the most affluent neighborhoods in the South Bay and Westside of Los Angeles, California.
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44 DIGS.NET | 12.11.2020 M A R K E T L I M E L I G H T | LO V E L L H E A LT H H O U S E Lovell Health House, approximately 4,800 square feet and with five bedrooms, still stands as a prototype of firsts in design, and one of the most important residential designs in America. "is was a ground- breaking interpretation of Internationalism for California," says Crosby Doe, who specializes in the sale and marketing of historic and modern architecture and is representing the home. "And it still works today in the same way. It's intimate, you can have a family there. But it can also serve for great social functions; the way it flows indoors and outdoors, and with grand, open interiors in the living room, dining room and den. e home lives large." ankfully, the residence is still intact, down to the kindergarten classroom located under the garage that Leah Lovell ran, and whose alumni included her three sons and the grandson of Harry Chandler. Since 1960, the home has been owned by Betty and Morton Topper. With the passing of Morton many years ago and more recently Betty, the home is currently being sold by the Topper siblings. Like their parents, they have remained ardent stewards of the home, permitting no changes to Neutra's design. "e family is quite unique," says Doe, who credits Mrs. Topper in particular. "She understood the importance of this house, and over the years the family left it exactly as they found it." Doe became aware of the Lovell Health House in the early 1970s, not long after repre- senting the Loring House (also by Neutra), and he got to know the Topper family. e long-term relationship has lasted decades, and came into play when the family decided to list the home. "e family contacted me and I'm very honored to be representing this house," says Doe. ough Neutra's original design remains intact, the house is in need of restoration. "It would be well worth it for the aficionado who wishes to take this on," Doe says of the restoration of Lovell Health House. With the residence fully restored, the architectural specialist points out, its value could surpass that of Kaufmann Desert House, also by Neutra. One who looks at Lovell Health House today will find its clean geometry and abundance of windows familiar elements. But in 1929 this home was a revelation, as unusual as a spaceship poised on a Los Feliz hillside. at a home's design could positively impact our phys- ical and emotional health, then causing a shift in everything else in our lives, from creativity to relationships, was a largely unexplored concept. "Phillip Lovell, as did Neutra, believed in the positive effects of light and air and space and exercise," Doe declares. "Everything that we're talking about today is what they celebrated in that time." Recent research bears this out, that better environments equal better lives. But at its time Lovell Health House was a mere master study of this idea— brilliantly executed—that would prove visionary. Today it remains as effective in shaping life as it was nearly 100 years ago for the Lovells, rightly qualifying it as one of the most historically significant modern homes in this country.