As Wright’s first L.A. project, the iconic Hollyhock House was built between 1919 and 1921 and was filled with challenges from beginning to end. Enter Aline Barnsdall, the wealthy oil heiress and arts patron who held the dream of having a live-in venue to produce her own avant-garde plays. Wright wanted to create a design that would be defined by the region and that took advantage of Southern California's temperate climate. To do this, each interior space is echoed with an exterior space in the form of pergolas, porches, outdoor sleeping quarters, glass doors, and rooftop terraces that look out to the Hollywood Hills and the Los Angeles Basin.

The Exploratorium museum, housed within the original bulkhead at Pier 15, accommodates four spacious galleries. The glass-and-steel Bay Observatory—the only new structure on the site—unites the Embarcadero with the bay. Photo by: Bruce Damonte. Original architects: G.A. Wood, H.B. Fisher, A.W. Nordwell (1930s) Contemporary architect: EHDD (2013) Preservation architect: Page & Turnbull 2013

The Cerritos sold the house in 1969, and it eventually fell into repair with its next owners. By 2007, its current owners decided to bulldoze the home and build anew on the land. Charlie Cerrito says, "That house was a classic. It's just a shame that it ended up with that other piece of crap on it." Photo by Chris Mottalini.

An example of Rudolph's trademark sun shades on the facade. Photo by Chris Mottalini.

For his recently published book with Columbia College Chicago Press, photographer Chris Mottalini documented the demolition of three midcentury houses designed by architect Paul Rudolph. The first, which appears on the book cover, is the Micheels House (1972) in Westport, Connecticut. He writes about the image, "The damage in this photograph occurred when I was away from the house, having some lunch and waiting for the light to change. The vandalism was most likely in response to preservation efforts." Photo by Chris Mottalini.

However, nothing new has been built on the site yet. "It's as if the house never existed," writes Mottalini. Photo by Chris Mottalini. Purchase a copy of After You Left / They Took It Apart: Demolished Paul Rudolph Homes here.

Built-ins and an open stair characterize the interiors of the 1972 Micheels residence by Paul Rudolph, which was torn down in 2007. Photo by Chris Mottalini.

The 1956 Cerrito House in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, was built in 1956 and demolished in 2007. Siblings Charlie and Marlene Cerrito—whose father hired Ralph Twitchell's firm, and by extension Paul Rudolph, to design the house—recall that the neighbors, who all owned Colonial mansions, hated the structure. "The house was alive," recalls Marlene Cerrito, "and we were part of the outdoors inside. Each night as I went to sleep I got to hear the sounds of the surf." Photo by Chris Mottalini.

Twitchell was said to have hosted raucous parties in the main room of the house. Mottalini writes, "The home's final owner documented the house thoroughly and preserved its building materials, including many of the wooden beams and supports, with the intention of rebuilding it at some point in the future." Photo by Chris Mottalini.

The Twitchell House in Siesta Key, Florida, was built in 1941 for Rudolph's boss, architect Ralph Twitchell. It was torn down in 2007. Photo by Chris Mottalini.

The house was located approximately fifty feet from the Gulf of Mexico, which resulted in "substantial weather- and flood-related damage" over its sixty-six year life span. Photo by Chris Mottalini.

This project sparks a conversation about the future of the relationship between urban development and the preservation of natural areas.

The former Jessie Street Substation, with its elegant neoclassical design, took on a radically new dimension in 2008 with the completion of Daniel Liebeskind’s Contemporary Jewish Museum, a lustrous blue cubic structure which transects the historic brick facade. These geometries and materials—stainless steel against traditional masonry—amplify the contrast between old and new. Photo by: Jeremy Blakeslee. Original architect: Willis Polk (1905–1909) Contemporary architect: Daniel Liebeskind (2008)

Once a derelict urban alley, Mint Plaza is nestled between the Old Mint and several historic warehouses. A simple ground plane unifies the plaza, while a steel arbor balances the towering warehouses to the north and the lower neoclassical facade of the Mint building to the south. The climbing vines on the arbor bring extensive greenery to the heart of the plaza and provide a canopy for al fresco diners. Photo by: Jeremy Blakeslee. Contemporary Architect: CMG Landscape Architecture (2008)

Web developer Rich Yessian involved local preservation groups early and often to gain permission to unite home, office, and outdoors at an aged warehouse that, according to Sanborn Maps, predates the Civil War.

The exterior of the house is clad in stucco studded with arctic quartz gravel. Photo by Chris Mottalini.

A 9,000-square-foot, two-story Krikorian Premiere Theatre will replace the 1960s bank at South Broadway and West High Street in downtown Lexington. The landowner, Langley Properties, and Krikorian have patiently waited for the move of the building, but a recent deadline of May 21 has been given to the Warwick Foundation.

Preservation Props Since the house is in a historic district, Beebe and Skidmore’s interventions were constrained by local guidelines, including a stipulation that the walls of the addition couldn’t line up with the walls of the existing house. They bumped the walls in by five feet on either side and painted the addition, clad in siding from Capital Lumber, a color complementary to the original building’s deep, bright blue. “A guy from Boise’s preservation office came by and said, ‘This is a perfect example of how we’d like people to build additions,’” says Dana. “We were pretty proud of that.” beebeskidmore.com capital-lumber.com

Built in 1953 by Richard Neutra in the city of Long Beach, Hafley House remained the family home of Olan Hafley, a General Motors executive, and his wife Aida, until her death in 2010. The property's new owners painstakingly restored the home to its midcentury modern splendor.

This garden apartment community of Lincoln Place survived a preservation battle spanning more than a decade; it thrives once again with a mix of historic buildings and sensitive new construction.

Mottalini points out the likely De Stijl influence on this home, which Rudolph designed for Dr. Louis Micheels, an Auschwitz survivor who grew up in Holland. Photo by Chris Mottalini.

SPUR describes One Kearny: "Composed of three fused-together buildings representing distinct eras, [it's] is a masterwork of sympathetic urban architecture. Through its classical composition and sensitive materials, the 2009 addition, designed by [architect Charles Bloszies], takes cues from both the original French Renaissance Revival building designed by William Curlett in 1902 and the mid-century annex by Charles Moore, yet its texture is carefully distinguished from those older buildings." Photo by: Matthew Millman.

The former luxury hotel, Rosslyn Hotel Apartments, opened its doors on Fifth and Main in Downtown L.A. in 1923, and was once one of the largest luxury hotels on the West Coast. The Beaux Arts building now provides homes and services for people in need, using preservation as a tool to integrate affordable housing into market-rate neighborhoods.

The second Neutra home to receive preservation honors this year is Kun House, a Hollywood Hills home originally built in the mid-1930s for Joseph Kun, a publisher of the Los Angeles Examiner.

Before the $17,000,000 restoration, the property had been severely deteriorated with crumbling walls and foundations, and had been named under the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2005 list for America’s 11 Most Endangered Places.

Southwest facade of the planned Marina Abramovic Institute for the Preservation of Performance Art (MAI) in Hudson, New York.

The iconic residence was designated a New York City landmark in 2010 by the Landmark Preservation Commission.

Konrad Fiedler Abroad in New York. JPMorgan Chase at SW corner of Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street. 8/4/2008

The U.S. Army’s former airplane hangars on Crissy Field posed a complex rehabilitation challenge for the Presidio Trust. Fortunately, the House of Air, a trampoline gymnasium, offered a new use that capitalized on this hangar’s large, open interior, steel trusses and slightly gritty character. New components were skillfully placed within the cavernous structure, with the architect riffing on its aviation history to produce a bright, playful interior where people can literally take flight. Photo by: Ethan Kaplan. Original builder: U.S. Army (1921) Contemporary architect: Mark Horton Architects (2011)

The former post office in Beverly Hills gained new life as the centerpiece of a performing arts complex, the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.

Villa Engels, the home of the esteemed Belgian modernist Lucien Engels (1928–2016), was falling apart when its second owners bought it in 2013. Yet due to its heritage status, any changes they planned would have to be approved by the provincial preservation office. Engels completed the elongated, cantilevered residence in 1958, the same year he finalized the master plan for Expo ’58, the Brussels World’s Fair that famously featured the Atomium.

As an addition to a listed home in Melbourne, the local preservation regulations required the alteration be distinct from the historic home. This was done through both form and materiality.

With an assist from preservation expert Lotte Van Hemelrijck, architect Thomas van Looij led the restoration, which included refinishing or replacing a wall of sun-damaged Wenge wood panels.

The standard LumiPod is clad in charred Douglas fir siding inspired by the traditional Japanese Shou Sugi Ban method of wood preservation. Clients can also choose from a variety of cladding options.

Everything has been planned with particular attention to the character of the streetscape and the preservation of the landscape. The garage door has been integrated with a timber screen, which provides visual relief and delicately mediates between public and private space.