Architecture lovers, this is your chance to snag a piece of history.
For the first time in 81 years, the Richard Neutra design built in 1937 for one Dr. Darling and his family has hit the market. And with the revival of mid-century aesthetics over recent years, this house is seriously on trend.
While Neutra's modernist work graces many an address in Southern California—including the Neutra Office Building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Bay Area is less fortunate: The Darling House is one of just four Neutra homes remaining in San Francisco; the illegal demolition of the architect's Largent House in Twin Peaks caused quite the flurry in Bay Area news late last year.
This two-story urban gem in the Inner Sunset is one Neutra's earliest redwood-sheathed houses (his other houses during that period typically employed stucco or metal), built with one-by-six-foot horizontal redwood siding and dotted with steel casement windows in a nod to its shingle-style neighbors on Woodland Avenue. The distinct house, designed with Neutra's frequent collaborator, architect Otto Winkler, sits on a small hillside lot and is made up of two intersecting cubes with a soffit canopy over the entrance.
Capture from the mid-1950's.
Inside, mirrored glass walls expand the living areas while wraparound windows flood the space with natural light and views of the city and Mount Sutro. The panoramas continue on a large deck off the master bedroom, immersed in trees overlooking the garden with meandering paths. The three bedrooms also have windows that span at least one wall and let in stretching landscapes. A bonus room can easily become a home office, yoga studio, or den, and a full basement area offers endless storage space—or an artist's workshop.
There are a few areas you may want to touch up—a new tile pattern in the bathroom perhaps, or fresh cabinets in the kitchen—but there's history here too that romantics will keep in tact (the backyard steps were built by Dr. Darling and his son and are carved with the names of friends he lost during WWII).
Give it a modern facelift or restore it fully to Neutra's vision—either way, you'll have a home for the books.
Location: 90 Woodland Ave. (Inner Sunset)
Size: 1,964 sq. ft.
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 1.5
Asking price: $2,200,000
// For more information, visit coldwellbankerhomes.com
