Christopher Caparro and his wife, Susanna Musotto, had been waiting for a chance like this.

After years of searching for a midcentury-modern fixer-upper in Los Angeles’s Laurel Canyon neighborhood, Christopher got a tip from a coworker, whose neighbor was about to list her 1964 residence designed by acclaimed architect Doug Rucker. Born in 1927, Rucker is part of the generation including Richard Neutra, Charles and Ray Eames, and A. Quincy Jones who helped define Southern California modernism.

“When we first saw the home, my eyes lit up,” recalls Christopher. Though the house keeps a low profile in front, spilling an extra story down the hillside, it was still clear that it hadn’t been altered from its original design.

Before: Exterior

After: Exterior

“It needed a lot of work,” admits Christopher, a creative director; Susanna is the CFO of a nutrition company. The dwelling’s worn-out carpet and linoleum would have to go. Various renovations over the decades had created many mismatched details. And the residence didn’t dazzle at first glance with its entry dominated by a carport and the lower level hidden down the hillside in back.

There were other drawbacks, too: The couple had just moved into their new home in Hollywood eight months earlier, and they were trying to start a family. And though it was a modest 1,800 square feet, the three-bedroom residence’s asking price was beyond their budget.

Before: Living Room

Yet with its postcard view—not to mention the immaculate, old-growth redwood siding inside and out—the Rucker design was hard to forget. After initially walking away, Christopher and Susanna made an offer a few weeks later, and to their surprise, it was accepted. Little did they know then that their restoration efforts would earn the house an official distinction as Historic Cultural Monument No. 1152.

After: Living Room

Throughout his career, Rucker designed homes for celebrities like actor Jack Warden and singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson. The original client for this particular house was actor Jack Hogan, memorable for his roles on 1960s and ’70s TV shows like Combat!, Adam-12, and Hawaii Five-O. Christopher even tracked down Hogan, who had only lived in the home a short time because of a divorce.

But the retired actor, who had studied architecture at the University of North Carolina, remembered insisting on an extra-robust foundation for the hillside residence. Despite its age, a structural engineer later told Christopher, the Hogan Residence is likely to survive The Big One while nearby houses may not.

Before: Rear Exterior

“I always had a great respect for Rucker’s work,” says Los Angeles architect and author Cory Buckner, who testified on behalf of the Hogan Residence for its inclusion as a city landmark.

“Sometimes I would drive around and search out his houses,” Buckner adds. And while Rucker had a famous client or two, “he’s not somebody I would consider an ego architect,” she says. “There’s an honesty in his work: exposing the structure, exposing the materials, and not imposing his design philosophy other than that.”

After: Rear Exterior

As though Christopher and Susanna didn’t have enough on their plate with remodeling a historic house on the eve of their son Leo’s birth, the couple decided on a DIY approach, acting as their own general contractors.

“We were basically giving the whole thing a facelift: the kitchen, the bathrooms, the flooring,” says Christopher. “There were things that kind of seemed obvious, starting with the carpet. Then it was getting colors that would match the wood walls.”

Before: Kitchen

After: Kitchen

Though they investigated high-end surface options, the couple found that some of their preferred choices wound up being the most economical: an IKEA kitchen, for example, and gray floor tiles from another big-box store. That left more budget to devote to preserving the interior’s old-growth redwood walls.

“It’s called clear-heart redwood,” Christopher explains. “There’s no knots. When the woodworker we hired saw the wood, he got excited; he said you can’t even get wood like this anymore. The grain is really tight. It means the tree was really, really old.”

Before: Stairway

After: Stairway

For this reason, one of the home’s most beautiful spaces is its stairway. After leaving the pebbled concrete flooring of the foyer, you’re enveloped by redwood on three walls, plus the stair treads. Clerestory windows and a wall of glass just beyond the stairs also spotlight the beauty of the material.

With a relatively modest total square footage, the master bedroom actually does double-duty, serving as space for a home office. The room is tucked under the great room, and thus enjoys the same views through more floor-to-ceiling glass, making the space feel expansive even after long hours in the same basic space.

Before: Main Bedroom

After: Main Bedroom

This being sunny Los Angeles, however, it’s not just the indoor space that shines. In the back, both floors have wood decks that span the length of the building. “The combination of the deck and the wall of windows makes the house feel bigger than it is,” Christopher says.

While official Historic Cultural Monument status with the City of Los Angeles brought the couple a modest tax break, it also comes with a maintenance checklist: Grouting the chimney might not otherwise have been such a high priority.

It’s a responsibility the couple have embraced along with their growing interest in midcentury modern design and Rucker’s career, however; Christopher, in particular, has become excited about their new role as caretakers.

For his part, Rucker remains passionate about design, emphasizing a holistic approach, honesty in materials, and flexibility. “You have to treat materials as they are,” he says of the Hogan Residence’s redwood panels. “As soon as you paint redwood white, you destroy the redwood. It doesn’t speak about reality.”

Rucker believes simple, post-and-beam houses are also inherently sustainable, not because of energy efficiency but longevity. “Most houses in the category I’m working in sell about every seven years,” he explains. “In 50 years, you might have seven families living there. If you’re going to build a house, you’re not really building for just that family. You’re building for a bunch of families. You’re building, you might say, for the long run.”

“Doug told me he believed there was a truthfulness to these types of post-and-beam homes because you could actually see the construction that was holding them together,” says Christopher. “He felt like you were being exposed to the soul of the house, versus covering everything up with drywall.”

And at this hillside Laurel Canyon house, Rucker’s affinity for wood has another magical effect. “We’re on a fairly steep slope,” he says, “so you really feel like you’re in this tree house in the forest.”

More Before & After:

A Faux Mountain Inspired by Disneyland Caps This Riotous Renovation in London

A “Higgledy-Piggledy” Beach House in Australia Becomes a Streamlined Retreat

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Douglas Rucker

General Contractors: Cristopher Caparro and Susanna Musotto