The ‘70s, Still Alive And Well In Sierra Madre, $6M

The 1970s were a boom time in Southern California. A period when prosperous business people were willing and able to build new dwellings that reflected their success. Often ego-driven, the results varied; not all have survived either the tests of time and/or insensitive updating when fashions changed. One notable exception is John Andre Gougeon’s 1975 Heflin House in the hills above Sierra Madre. Gougeon was mentored at USC by the great Calvin Straub (thought of by many as the father of Post + Beam architecture) and Don Hensman, whose firm Buff, Straub + Hensman had by the 1970s brought into synthesis a variety of influences—ranging from Japanese wood structures to Le Corbusier—resulting in a very California version of a timber-inflected Brutalism.

Setting up his own practice in Pasadena shortly after graduating from USC, Gougeon had considerable success designing substantial residential projects for a prosperous clientele, and his most important religious commission, the Pasadena Presbyterian Church, is a sweeping, Expressionist essay in poured concrete.

At the Heflin house, Gougeon created a massive stone structure to support a post and beam enclosure in timber and glass– recalling a variety of inspirations ranging from Greene + Greene’s Gamble House in Pasadena to the medieval fortresses of Japan’s Shogun period—with views extending to Catalina Island. At over 6,700-square-foot, the 5-bed, 5-bath on 2.6-acres, there’s nothing reticent about the Heflin House, and with its beautifully finished redwood and fir interiors and still in superb original condition, it is the definition of a time capsule.

The primary suite features a spectacular skylit bath in travertine and throughout they home there is immaculately fitted woodwork, glass, and stone.

Go to the listing for additional images, a floor plan plus a virtual tour. An outstanding opportunity to acquire a superb example of ’70s Modernist domesticity in stone and wood, represented by luxury specialist Ashleigh Rader at Compass.

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