#23 w-report LA ON OUR MINDS
A house is not just a house, and the City of Angels is more than just a city.
Just a quick note from our Berlin desk:
It’s been endlessly heart wrenching to watch the ongoing devastation of one of my favorite cities. Both Gisela and I know several people who have had to evacuate their houses and apartments. We even know those that have lost them.
So many childhood homes and cherished mementos lost. Schools and doctors offices burnt to the ground. Important historical monuments and beloved local hangouts up in flames, all now just ashes and smoke.
Just two years ago, I visited the Kappe Residence in Pacific Palisades to interview Shelly, the widow of legendary architect Ray Kappe. It was a Berliner, Lars Triesch, who put me in touch with her because he had the fabulous idea to produce a small collection of Kappe's furniture. He is still now selling those pieces and build his own Kappe Residence in Kleinmachnow, Berlin.
As I learned from my friend Esma, the person I often stay with when I’m in LA, (she herself lives in a renovated house from the 1930s in SLV with the most beautiful pool - all good in East LA) Los Angelenos talk about houses as if they were people, with a backstory, and a trajectory. Some become legends, known beyond their neighborhoods, carrying with them a sense of myth and identity. Ray Kappe's house, which he built for his family in the mid-60s, and which contains the prototypes of his furniture, is just such a house. It has a magical atmosphere; once you have visited it, you will never forget it. I am relieved that it was spared from the fires that are still raging. The family has been evacuated and 96-year-old Shelly is safe. But another of his gems, the 1991 Keeler House, has been burnt to the ground.
Two other important cultural sites located in the Palisades—the Thomas Mann House and Villa Aurora, the home of the exiled writer Lion Feuchtwanger and his wife Marta—have been spared—at least for now—from the flames. During World War II, the properties served as a refuge for important intellectuals in exile from Nazi Germany. Today, they are transatlantic meeting places for cultural and political exchange.
As I write this, the California wildfires are still burning. For some thoughts on hope in dark times, we turned to one of our favorite writers, Rebecca Solnit.
“Horrible in itself, disaster is sometimes a door back into paradise, the paradise at least in which we are who we hope to be, do the work we desire, and are each our sister's and brother's keeper.”
STAY SAFE
WW
Beautifully said.