Lloyd Wright's Moore house demolished in Palos Verdes

Stephen Russo

The Los Angeles Conservancy says that the 1959 home by architect Lloyd Wright was torn down on Wednesday, "the day after the Palos Verdes Estates City Council denied the Conservancy's appeal of the decision to allow the home's demolition."

Flora Chou

From the conservancy website:

The Moore House was a unique, irreplaceable, and extraordinarily significant modernist residence, designed by Lloyd Wright, renowned architect and son of Frank Lloyd Wright.

The environmental impact report (EIR) for the replacement project didn't evaluate a single sincere preservation alternative that would have maintained the Moore House's eligibility for listing in the National Register of Historic Places and the California Register of Historical Resources.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is a state law that requires the evaluation of a range of alternatives. It also requires that those alternatives be analyzed with the public's interest in mind, not the property owner's -- even for a private residence.

When the EIR for this project failed to provide a reasonable preservation alternative, the Conservancy commissioned our own. It provided for a sensitive addition to the Moore House -- a standard approach to increasing the size of an existing home. We met with the owner to present this alternative, yet it was disregarded by both the owner and the City.

Coverage: Curbed LA, Patch