From Beaux-Arts to Modernism

A Journey Through Two Houses with Camera and Curiosity in Hand

Recently, I had the chance to visit two very different houses: the Fényes Mansion and the Schindler House in Los Angeles. I am no expert on architecture but I always love touring historical and/or architecturally significant homes because, like a photograph, they leave me looking at a sliver of time. What was the world like when this was built, I ask myself, and who were the people that lived here?

The Fényes Mansion, donated with its original Victorian-era décor, antique furniture, and an impressive art collection fully intact, was originally the winter home of Eva Fényes and designed by architect Robert D. Farquhar in 1906.

The Schindler House, conceived as a communal, free-flowing space intended to serve as a salon for artistically minded intellectuals, actors, and activists by Austrian-born architect R.M. Schindler and his avant-garde wife Pauline.