Description

The Thomas & Barbara Wirick House, Calvin Straub FAIA (1958). The home was designed as the influential USC professor was merging his practice with former students Conrad Buff and Donald Hensman- establishing the influential Pasadena architectural firm of Buff, Straub, & Hensman. It is described by the National Registry of Historic Places as "one of the firm's definitive achievements in residential post and beam architecture...a composition of modules woven with lines (framing) and planes (walls)." The upper entry level overlooks the double-height living and dining area which is comprised of large expanses of glazing and slender structural framing. An adjoining office/sitting room includes a hidden door to a storage area that was developed below the carport. A more recently added elevator that travels to both the 1st floor and carport is accessed via this space. Also on this level is the primary bedroom suite, which opens out to the living room below and is privatized by curtains or screens. It connects to a walk-in closet that extends into the bathroom via sliding doors. A spacious interior staircase with clerestory windows leads to the lower level. This is the communal hub of the home- a soaring glass-walled living and dining area that embraces the surrounding landscape and distant views. A lower-ceilinged alcove beside the fireplace provides an area of more intimate shelter amid the wood and glass pavilion-like space. The kitchen is adjacent, spatially separated through lower and upper cabinets. Original finishes are extraordinarily intact- with wood and stainless steel countertop surfaces, vintage appliances, and translucent stained cabinetry. A low island and glass sliding door face the large wooden deck that extends out below a canopy of mature trees. Outdoor areas are as considered as interior- with a grid of brick patios, aggregate paving, and plantings giving way to the more untamed landscape beyond. Cork flooring and original built-in furniture carry through to the two first-floor bedrooms, with their integrated desks, cabinetry, and bunk beds. Lighting is directed from atop these built-in cabinets, which also often function to organize or divide space. The home is located within the Poppy Peak Historic District and benefits from a Mills Act contract providing reduced property taxes. System updates have been completed in recent years including electrical, plumbing, and structural retrofitting. Straub's design for the Wiricks is an important and nearly intact example of his architectural ideas and vocabulary. Dubbed "the father of California post and beam architecture" by author and critic Esther McCoy, he found inspiration in both the arts and crafts movement as well as from California's early modernists. Above all, he sought to create order and unity with a direct and honest approach to architecture.