Santa Monica, Calif.\u2014\u00a0On a breezy spring afternoon, trial attorney Otto Haselhoff stood halfway between his house\u2014a circa-1926 English Tudor\u2014and a contemporary glass railing at the edge of the backyard. \u201cRight around here, it stops being landmarked,\u201d he said, drawing an invisible line with his hand.<\/p>\n
Any changes to the house, designed by the Beverly Hills Hotel architect Elmer Grey, require approval from the city\u2019s Landmarks Commission, Otto explained. \u201cYou can\u2019t change the facade,\u201d said Otto, who paid $16 million for the home in 2018 with his wife, Lara Haselhoff. But the back of his roughly 1.2-acre property on La Mesa Drive, overlooking the Riviera Country Club golf course, isn\u2019t landmarked. For that reason\u2014and because it is hidden by the house\u2014a prior owner was able to create the cantilevered backyard, which is supported by concrete caissons drilled into bedrock.<\/p>\n
More so than its neighbors, the juxtaposition of old and new at the Haselhoff property reflects the nuances of historic-preservation guidelines on La Mesa Drive, a locus of historic homes designed by noted architects including Paul R. Williams, J.R. Davidson, Oscar Niemeyer and Lloyd Wright, son of Frank Lloyd Wright. The street is a rare concentration of architecturally significant properties, with four out of about 60 on the street designated as landmarks. Over the years, it has attracted Hollywood icons like Mel Brooks and Julie Andrews.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With mountain views and a canopy of century-old Moreton Bay fig trees, La Mesa Drive is a coveted enclave in the heart of Santa Monica, where prices have climbed steadily in recent years. In December, OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder paid $22.95 million for a newly built home, according to property records and people familiar with the deal. The record for the street was set by a circa-1925 home designed by William W. Ache, which Seagram heir and affordable-housing developer Jeremy Bronfman purchased for $29.35 million in 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Haselhoffs renovated the backyard of their property, which has an infinity-edge pool and a poolhouse connected to the main home via a breezeway.Adam Amengual for WSJ<\/p>\n
As prices rise, so does the tension between deep-pocketed buyers drawn to La Mesa\u2019s prime location and those who want to preserve the street\u2019s historic homes as they are. In 2019, Otto unsuccessfully sued the city in an attempt to remove the landmark designation on his property. \u201cAnything you want to do requires approval,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are constant questions. Is it your property if you can\u2019t change it?\u201d<\/p>\n
When the lower court ruled against him, he petitioned the\u00a0California<\/a>\u00a0Supreme Court. It declined to hear the case in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n Others argue that the restrictions are a positive thing for the neighborhood. \u201cA lot of people at this price point don\u2019t want to be restricted by what they can do with their home,\u2019\u201d said Jeremiah Eden of Sotheby\u2019s International Realty, who has done several deals on the street with colleague Wendi Woods Chandler. \u201cIt\u2019s counterintuitive, but these restrictions increase property values.\u201d<\/p>\n A newly built house purchased by Ryan Tedder has a skylit atrium. The grounds have a pool, fire pit and cabana, as well as a detached guesthouse. Adam Amengual for WSJ<\/p>\n Southern California<\/a> has many architecturally significant homes, but they are in danger of being destroyed by those who want to renovate extensively or tear them down to build new houses, said Alan Hess, an architect and preservation advocate. Across the region, \u201cwe have lost quite a number of excellent houses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The ultimate address<\/p>\n La Mesa is a curving, eight-block street shaded by trees, whose intricate root systems erupt through sidewalks covered in sticky figs. The picturesque enclave is walking distance to the historic Brentwood Country Mart shopping center.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s sort of the ultimate address on the West Side,\u201d said David Offer of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties. In 2023 Offer brokered the sale of a circa-1926 Spanish Colonial Revival designed by George Elmore Gable and Stanley Wyant on La Mesa for $14.3 million. The buyer was Daniel Stern, co-CEO of Reservoir Capital Group, who declined to comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n It is known for its Moreton Bay fig trees.Adam Amengual for WSJ<\/p>\n La Mesa Drive dates back to the early 1920s, when Santa Monica\u2019s founders divvied up parcels of land to build grand country homes, said Nina Fresco, vice president of the Santa Monica Conservancy, a preservation nonprofit. The lion\u2019s share of homes on La Mesa were built between 1920 and 1940; at least seven were designed between 1924 and 1926 by the architect John Byers. The fact that so many have been preserved, Fresco said, \u201chas to do with the status of the people and architects who built those buildings.\u201d<\/p>\n Around 1924, the Santa Monica Land & Water Co. built the first spec house on La Mesa: a Tudor Revival designed by William W. Ache. Dr. Richard Corlin, a retired gastroenterologist, and his wife, Catherine Corlin, were the home\u2019s third owners when they purchased it for $1.2 million in 1995. It had never been remodeled, Richard said, and they expanded the kitchen, opened up the family room and finished the attic.<\/p>\n Dr. Richard Corlin\u2019s brick house has a copper roof. In the backyard, the Corlins added a pool and freestanding fireplace.Adam Amengual for WSJ<\/p>\n They kept original arched doors and stained glass. \u201cI love all the intricacies,\u201d said Catherine, who grew up in Quebec and had walked by the house for years before they bought it.<\/p>\n The late film director Roger Corman and his wife, Julie Corman, moved to La Mesa in the 1980s after paying about $1.2 million for a circa 1938 J.R. Davidson house. \u201cThey needed another bedroom because they found out they were pregnant with me,\u201d said their daughter, artist Mary Corman, who said the curved lines of the International-style home inspired her paintings.<\/p>\n In 1997, Corman\u2019s friend and mentee, film producer Brad Krevoy, and his wife, Susanne Krevoy, bought a nearby home from Andrews and her husband, the late director Blake Edwards. The Spanish Colonial Revival-style house was designed by Franklin Harper. Houses on the street are like \u201clittle museums,\u201d said Krevoy, the CEO of the Motion Picture Corporation of America, whose movie credits include 1994\u2019s \u201cDumb and Dumber.\u201d \u201cAll these great architects who lived here and worked together and were peers and contemporaries, and set the tone for architecture for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n John Byers\u2019 Monterey Revival-style residence was built around 1924.Adam Amengual for WSJA Modern house designed by Lloyd Wright.Adam Amengual for WSJA Spanish Colonial Revival purchased by Jeremy Bronfman.Adam Amengual for WSJA J.R. Davidson International-style home.Adam Amengual for WSJ<\/p>\n Around 1964, Niemeyer, a Pritzker Prize-winning Brazilian architect, designed a Midcentury Modern house on the street for the late director and producer Joseph Strick and his wife, writer Anne Strick.<\/p>\n Designer Jill Wickert, whose late husband was TV producer and Warner Bros. executive Jim Paratore, bought the Strick house for $11.295 million last year. Wickert, who lives in Manhattan Beach, said she used to bring her Brussels Griffon, Ruthie, to play in the nooks and crannies of La Mesa\u2019s fig trees. When the landmarked property\u00a0hit the market<\/a>, \u201cI just knew I had to have it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She has since hired architecture firm Marmol Radziner to do a careful restoration, which requires approval from the city. \u201cSomewhere in the purchasing process it dawned on me that there\u2019s a responsibility attached to this house,\u201d said Wickert.<\/p>\n Jill Wickert’s Midcentury Modern house was the only U.S. home designed by Oscar Niemeyer.Adam Amengual for WSJThe \u2018rim\u2019 side of the street<\/p>\n The most valuable homes on La Mesa are on the \u201crim side\u201d of the street, overlooking the Riviera Country Club golf course, said Sotheby\u2019s Eden.<\/p>\n They can fetch twice as much as houses on the opposite side of the street, which abut busy San Vicente.\u00a0<\/p>\n In recent years, homes without historic designation have fetched the highest prices, in part because they allow owners more flexibility. Vitamin mogul Andrew Lessman is currently renovating a 1981 Peter Choate-designed house on the rim side, which he bought for $22.5 million in 2023. It previously sold for $16.1 million in 2016.<\/p>\n Older homes are still in demand. \u201cEvery week or two, people ring the bell and ask if we\u2019re interested in selling,\u201d said Corlin, whose 1924 house isn\u2019t landmarked. \u201cWe\u2019re not.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Haselhoffs\u2019 house is on a double lot that is roughly 200 feet wide. \u2018It\u2019s the best lot on the best street,\u2019 Otto said.Adam Amengual for WSJPreservation protections<\/p>\n