$3.49 million pricetag for Frederick Fisher house
By Dolores Quintana
The offbeat creation of architect Frederick Fisher as his first independent project, Caplin House, has been put on the market for $3.49 million as reported by Mansion Global. The home was designed for artist Laurie Caplin, her husband Loren Paul Caplin and their family. Fisher was known for “irreverent and whimsical” design work and with the design of this house Fisher tried to capture the nautical feeling of living on a boat in the form of a house. The LA Conservancy website says regarding the home’s design, “Fisher responded with a curved roof that looked like a boat hull from the inside and a rolling wave from the outside—an homage to the nearby ocean and the surf culture of Venice.”
The home is listed with agents Billy Rose and Natasha Sizlo of The Agency and Rose said, in an emailed statement to Mansion Global, “With its laid-back and creative expression, the Caplin House embodies the spirit of Venice and of two of its most revered architects: Fred Fisher and his mentor, Frank Gehry, who first introduced his deconstructivist style in Venice with his personal residence. It is enviably located—in walking distance to both the wildly popular Abbot Kinney Boulevard, with its renowned shopping, dining, and nightlife, and to Venice Beach, with its colorful and energetic boardwalk.”
Caplin House has three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms with a center atrium that has a double sided staircase made of wood, a skylight and exposed ceiling beams. Above the atrium, there is a library with a desk area that overlooks the stairs and built-in bookcases. There is a formal dining room with access to a courtyard and benches as seats. A kitchen sits next to the dining room fitted with Viking appliances. Another room that could be used as either an office or a screening room is steps away on a slightly lower level that is furnished with furniture made by the master woodworker of Waka Waka Studio, Shin Okuda.
The master bedroom has a bathroom with a dual shower and a seating nook next to a window. Another bedroom could have an alternate use as a studio and comes with a built in loft and has an entryway to a private balcony. A yellow ladder leads to the roofdeck and in the outdoors area you can find a carport with the recent addition of a Tesla electric car charger and two outdoor showers.
Owner Varun Soni, dean of religious life at the University of Southern California was quoted via email by Mansion Global and said of the home, “We love the many windows and skylights of the Caplin House that invite the outside natural elements in and ensure that the home is always sun-drenched with an ocean breeze. We continue to be surprised by the discovery of unique designs and architectural themes throughout the house, and by the new stories and moods it playfully evokes.”
