This Midcentury Home Was Designed by a Lloyd Wright Protégé. A San Diego Couple Just Freshened It Up
They say there’s never a perfect moment to buy a home, and that was certainly the case for designers Paul Basile and Jules Wilson. "We had only been dating for a year and I had just purchased a condo in a high-rise in downtown San Diego," explains Paul. At the same time, the couple had fallen in love with a midcentury residence in the La Jolla neighborhood: it had asymmetric lines, impeccable woodwork, and having been designed by a Frank Lloyd Wright protégé, echoes of the famous architect’s Arizona home. If Jules and Paul were going to make it their first home together, there was just one problem: "It wasn’t livable," says Paul.
Architectural photographer Julius Schulman, known for his documentation of midcentury modern architecture, shot the home in 1953.
"La Jolla is very hilly and doesn’t warrant this type of build," says Paul Basile, who purchased this 1951 home designed by local architect Frederick Liebhardt to renovate with his partner, Jules Wilson.
The home needed all new infrastructure—electrical, plumbing, heating, and cooling. The landscape was dead and the kitchen was outdated. "Most people would have leveled it," says Paul. But with their experience as designers—Jules has an interior design studio under her name, and Paul runs his own design, build, and fabrication company, Basile Studio—they immediately saw the potential. After seeing the home for the first time, they put in an offer that evening, in disbelief that it had been on the market for 300 days.
"We found out soon after we visited the house that Frederick and his wife, Marianne, attended Taliesin West under Frank Lloyd Wright for two years," explains Paul. Jules planted ferns on the property that create a lush barrier around the concrete and stone construction.
The 1951 home, located just south of La Jolla Heights Natural Park, was designed by Frederick Charles Liebhardt. (He and his wife, Marianne, an interior designer, worked in Frank Lloyd Wright’s atelier from 1948 to 1949.) The residence was the couple’s family home, originally containing three bedrooms, two full baths, a utility room, salon, and galley kitchen spread across 1,800 square feet. Its shed roof, long and angular form, wide overhanging eaves, exposed rafter tails, and use of natural materials like wood and stone throughout made it unusual. On top of that, Frederick built the residence himself with the help of four other workers.
In 1969, Frederick expanded the home significantly, bringing it to its current size of about 3,400 square feet. The update expanded the kitchen, added a primary bedroom with storage and a sauna, and reconfigured bathrooms for he and Marianne’s children.
The home’s pitched roof, battered stone walls, and projecting eaves made it distinctive in the ’50s, and it still is today.
In updating the home, Jules and Paul were careful "not to put our stamp on it; it’s a work of art," says Paul. They left much of the exterior alone.
The house remained in the Liebhardt family until the death of Marianne in 2014, and it sat empty until Paul and Jules’s fateful visit in 2019. "The asymmetric lines were amazing; it held a very Taliesin West appeal," notes Paul, who also loved that its indoor/outdoor plan was ideal for entertaining. It was also rare to find something like it in this good of shape, however outdated. "San Diego is not known for its architecture, unfortunately, so finding something this well preserved was a dream for us," he adds.
The living room area was designed to capture expansive views of the landscape.
Paul describes the home as "one of a kind" and "one of the better representations of midcentury modern in all of San Diego." The living area has a beamed ceiling, hardwood floors, and exposed concrete and stone walls.
Jules and Paul added a deck with a sunken living room in the backyard that’s flanked by the home’s living spaces. "We’re always throwing events," he says.
Most of the home is clad in wood, creating a dark, moody atmosphere. Paul says he wore a miner’s light to get around before new lighting was put in.
Paul and Jules approached the renovation with a light touch. "It was like restoring an old car, where we were just the caretakers," says Jules. Today, the homes spaces resemble something close to the originals. However, virtually all of the systems in the home needed to be overhauled before move-in. The residence was still on septic, so Jules and Paul hooked it up to city sewage. Because the home is slab-on-grade, to get new plumbing in and update the radiant floor heating, the couple had to tunnel under the floors. The electrical needed to be updated, so all lighting was removed and replaced with LED fixtures on a Lutron system. Two new hot water heaters and a furnace for the floor heating were installed.
A fluidity of indoor/outdoor space was a key characteristic of the home when it was completed by Frederick. The dining area, for example, had direct access to the exterior through a set of glass double doors.
The kitchen received the most updates out of any space, but Paul and Jules maintained its seamless, open design.
"It was like restoring an old car, where we were just the caretakers."
—Jules Wilson, designer and resident
The stone and wood walls create a warm, textured ambiance.
Paul and Jules see the home as a museum and wanted to keep as much original material as possible, like penny tile for some of the flooring.
In keeping with their approach to the rest of the home, Jules and Paul redesigned the kitchen to be "in kind," keeping the layout and matching the original wood and hardware, and preserving the reddish burnt-orange penny tile for the flooring. But it was in need of modern equipment, so the couple installed new appliances, a prep sink at the island, and stone countertops in place of the original plastic laminate ones.
Jules and Paul say they usually prefer bright spaces, but that the home’s dark-wood interiors are what gives it its character. The structure is Douglas fir, walls and ceilings are redwood, cabinets are teak and mahogany, and where the flooring isn’t tiled, there’s more mahogany. The wood makes the interiors especially dark at night, say the couple, but that lighting during the day brings out its grains and textures.
The home’s darker finishes and thick stone walls are balanced by natural light from multiple windows in the living space.
Nearly all of the woodwork in the house is original, with minimal restoration required, thanks to quality materials and craftsmanship.
Original tile in the bathrooms remains, including this reddish burnt-orange tile in the primary bathroom.
When Jules and Paul bought the home, the landscape was a "plant cemetery," says Jules. After removing the septic tank, the couple recontoured the terrain, creating grassy terraces that they now use for croquet and archery. Per Jules’s vision, the new plantings are something of a "fern fantasy," and the lowest tier has a fruit and vegetable garden. The large sunken conversation pit enhances Frederick’s vision for an indoor/outdoor home. Without altering its footprint, it effectively extends it, given the "amazing weather we have in San Diego," says Paul.
In 2020, the San Diego Historical Resources Board gave the home a historic designation and granted Frederick the status of master architect.
Project Credits:
General Contractor: Basile Studio @BasileStudio
Structural Engineer: J3 Products Group
Civil Engineer: Coffey Engineering Inc.
Landscape Design, Lighting Design, & Sound Engineering: Basile + Wilson
Cabinetry Design/Installation: Basile Studio @BasileStudio
Electrical: ZED Electric, Inc.
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