A HISTORIC ALL-ALUMINUM HOME GETS REFRESHED

ARCHITECT LINDA BRETTLER RESTORED AN ORIGINAL RAPHAEL SORIANO HOUSE TO ITS ORIGINAL STATE

- BY LISA BOONE

ARCHITECT Linda Brettler, left, in her home's primary bathroom.

Photographs by JASON ARMOND Los Angeles Times

EVERY SO OFTEN, Linda Brettler walks down the long walkway to her Raphael Soriano-designed home, turns the corner to the front door and thinks, “I can’t believe I get to live here.” It could be the 1964 home’s aluminum framework. Or the 28 sliding glass doors that seamlessly blend the boundaries between indoors and outdoors. Or the floating cabinetry units Soriano designed in place of walls, laminated in warm shades of lavender, mustard, orange and blue micarta. Or the yellow Formica kitchen, with its Pyrex hot plate, wall-mounted radio, original Eames barstools and drop-leaf dining table still intact — all charming throwbacks to a simpler time. Or... well, you get the picture. The 62-year-old architect’s list of things she loves about her home is long, even though the all-aluminum structure, which was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1997, was in desperate need of updating when she purchased it for $3.14 million in 2021. “I like doing projects like this where I get to have my own hand and feel but I’m still honoring what was here,” Brettler says. “I’m trying to create an idealized version of what the house would look like now.”

As an advocate for historical preservation in Los Angeles, Brettler was surprised when people presumed she would remove many of the home's original details such as the energy-inefficient sliding glass doors.

"They said, 'You're going to change that, right?" "Brettler says. "I was like, 'Are you kidding? They are the soul of the house.' I can't change the doors. It would completely ruin the effect of the house." Others assumed she would remodel the kitchen.