has always been the same: impossible. My first bout with the site and its requirements made me aware of just how difficult it would be to put all the desired rooms and spaces on this property.” He added, “A prior architect had given up on including a pool. When I was first called in, I asked the owner to avoid telling me what he had heard, but rather to express his needs, whatever they might be. He did so, and I went to work on them.”

Lautner gave the living room pride of place on the ground floor. Behind is the dining area, raised to provide a view over the living room to the ocean beyond. He squeezed a lap pool into a slot between the living room’s glazed wall and the downward curving roof. Above is the master bedroom, its full-height glass windows overlooking the pool and the waves breaking beyond the terrace. A row of bedrooms is tucked along a passage that overhangs the lower living area, screened by a cage-like wooden structure.
Meanwhile, LaFetra still owned his non-architectural house on Broadbeach. He showed it to Koenig to see whether “his architect” considered it worthy of an upgrade. Koenig offered instead to design and build a new house on the site. Plans were drawn up, but the architect sadly died in 2004. Construction begins this spring on what will be Koenig’s last house. LaFetra is also completing a documentary on the architect.

LaFetra lives with Alison Letson, a teacher, in the Ray Kappe house in Brentwood, and often spends weekends in the Stevens House. Today, eight years after his first purchase, the 41-year-old LaFetra is regarded as an expert on restoration by local architectural historians and the L.A. Conservancy. “When I first started doing this in 1999, says LaFetra, “I was naïve about real estate, but drawn to modern architecture because I saw these houses as art that you could live in. My concern was, and is, that in certain areas of Los Angeles, the price of land far outpaces the perceived value of architecture. I don’t like to see these houses destroyed. I hope to help change public perception of this era of architecture.” A positive sign, he adds, is that “we are starting to see these homes traded and dealt with as works of art, and they are becoming increasingly valuable. My hope is that people who own these masterpieces will work to find buyers who will care for them.” While he might consider turning one of his houses into a public museum, he sees his real task as trying to protect as many houses as possible. “That was not the initial impulse,” he admits, “but that is most certainly one of the end results.”

Where to go from here? LaFetra says he is not done yet. He is having a great time learning “hands on” how these architects worked and put their houses together.

Tim Street-Porter is a photographer and author of many books including Los Angeles, Tropical House and Casa Mexicana. His new book, L.A. Modern (Rizzoli), is due out this fall.