Mid Century Krisel & Palmer
Here is your exclusive invitation to own a 1957 Mid Century Krisel & Palmer designed home tucked inside the Marlborough Palms Residential Historic District in Granada Hills. 16445 San Jose St awaits both your presence and prescience to steward the property into the next millennium.
At first glance the interior elicits an invitation to entertain and be immersed in the Southern California indoor-outdoor lifestyle. Palmer and Krisel designed contemporary houses with post-and-beam construction, open floor plans in which the living room, dining room and kitchen flow together, lots of glass and clean, simple lines inside and out.
The interior encapsulates many original Mid-Century features while being thoughtfully renovated, maintaining the integrity of its architectural charm. Check out the ceiling-to-floor windows! More than 20,000 houses designed by Palmer and Krisel would be built by George Alexander, Harlan Lee and other developers in Southern California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas and Florida by the end of the 1950s.
The home boasts a spacious floor plan of over 1600 square feet, four bedrooms, two bathrooms and nearly 8,000 square foot lot. Special features include vaulted wood beam ceilings, open panel walls, vintage sconces & gorgeous gleaming honey-colored hardwood flooring. Stone wall fireplace, floating alcove lighting, and a designer Viceroy Ceiling Fan.
By design this bright and airy kitchen greats you when you arrive. It’s designed not as center point of focus in the home but an elegant starting point. A place to grab an hors d’oeuvres or highball and peruse through the undivided rooms to the outdoor space. All original wood cabinetry, re-glazed tile countertops, and invigorating natural light.
Southern California Modernism
The bedrooms with vaulted ceilings and clerestory windows, imbue modernism and a charming balance between privacy, light, function and refined beauty. A clerestory window is a large window or series of small windows along the top of a structure’s wall, usually at or near the roof line. Clerestory windows are a type of “fenestration” or glass window placement found in both residential and commercial construction. A clerestory wall often rises above adjoining roofs. In a large building, like a gymnasium or train station, the windows will be positioned to allow light to illuminate a large interior space. A smaller home may have a band of narrow windows along the very top of a wall. Originally, the word clerestory (pronounced CLEAR-story) referred to the upper level of a church or cathedral. The Middle English word clerestorie means “clear story,” which describes how an entire story of height was “cleared” to bring natural light to sizable interiors. Designers who wish to maintain wall space and interior privacy AND keep a room well-lighted often use this type of window arrangement for both residential and commercial projects. It is one way to use architectural design to help your home out of the darkness.
Mid Century Modern Architecture
The hallway will lead you to three bedrooms with ceiling-to-floor windows featuring wall-to-wall closets, above-head storage cabinets, and a vintage bathroom with all the details of the 1950s. The primary bedroom offers vaulted ceilings, dual sliding wall closets, and a private entry to the 3/4 bathroom with a modern flare.
Close to restaurants, grocery stores, and top rated school districts such as Tulsa Elementary, Porter Middle School, Kennedy HS, and Northridge Academy HS. Tesla serviced solar panels will transfer to the new owner.
Complemented by mature trees create your sanctuary or perfect space for an ADU or swimming pool. If you are looking for a Mid-Century residence with historical architectural bones and modern amenities, you just found it. Run, don’t walk to this residence located on a sought-after quiet street in prime Granada Hills. This hidden gem will not last long; see it before it is gone!
Marlborough Palms Residential Historic District
“The Marlborough Palms Residential Historic District is a mid-20th century residential subdivision located in the southeastern portion of Granada Hills. The district contains 149 properties. It is bounded generally by Chatsworth Street to the north, Debra Avenue to the east, San Jose Street to the south, and Hayvenhurst Avenue to the west. The district occupies flat terrain south of the Ronald Reagan (118) Freeway. Streets throughout the district exhibit a concentric grid pattern; the neighborhood is accessed via Debra Avenue and San Jose Street. Lots in the district are relatively modest in size, with parcels generally smaller than one-quarter of an acre. Development in the district is exclusively residential, containing single-family residences which are generally one story in height. Original residences were constructed primarily from 1957 to 1958 and were designed in variations of the Ranch style, including Cinderella, Traditional, and Contemporary styles.
Features include single-story construction with low, horizontal massing; rectangular or L-shaped plans with attached garages; low-pitched cross-gable roofs; and stucco or wood vertical batten cladding, often combined with stone or brick. Homes designed in the Contemporary Ranch style feature aluminum sliding or clerestory windows and brise soleil. Homes designed in the Cinderella or Traditional Ranch styles often feature dovecotes with attic vents, scalloped bargeboards, wood double-hung windows with divided lights, and decorative shutters. Examples of more recent infill are relatively rare. District features include uniform setbacks, landscaped parkways, street trees, concrete curbs and sidewalks. Streetlights, which appear to date to the original development, have been retrofitted.Of the 149 properties, 103 are contributors to the district, or approximately 69 percent; 45 are non-contributors due to alterations or construction outside the period of significance. One property is not visible from the public right-of-way.”
Mid Century Krisel & Palmer
William Krisel is one of the few architects to fully realize the post war dream of bringing Modernism to the masses. By his own account, Krisel was responsible for designing over 40,000 Modern homes in the U.S., 30,000 in Southern California alone. Unlike many architects who sought recognition through the design of custom homes, Krisel happily pursued creating affordable, postwar tract developments. He saw the opportunity in working with developers to provide beautifully Modern and functional homes for the general public. With partner Dan Palmer, he cultivated strong business relationships with developers and, by the mid-1950s, worked with some of the largest home builders in the country. Krisel had quite an exotic upbringing. He was born to American parents in China in 1924. As a son of a diplomat, he learned to speak Chinese fluently. After the Japanese invasion of China in 1937, the family relocated to Los Angeles.
Krisel’s education at USC’s School of Architecture was interrupted by World War II, when he enlisted as a reserve and became a Chinese interpreter for an Army general. After the war, he resumed his education and graduated from USC in 1949. Between 1950 and 1966, he partnered with architect Dan Palmer. Palmer & Krisel designed custom homes and commercial projects before transforming the landscape with large-scale Modernism for the masses. In 1954, Krisel added another dimension to his work, becoming a licensed landscape architect. In 1955, Palmer & Krisel designed a tract of 287 Modern homes in the San Fernando Valley, called Corbin Palms in Woodland Hills. Also in the Valley is one of the firm’s most distinct mid-twentieth century projects, a 1959 tract in Northridge called Living Conditioned Homes.
Palmer & Krisel designed homes with efficiency and dramatic flair, featuring butterfly rooflines, stacked stone cladding, decorative concrete blocks, and horizontal orientation. With developer Robert Alexander, Palmer & Krisel created almost 2,000 homes in the Palm Springs area. After the success of the Palm Springs tracts, developers commissioned the firm to replicate them in San Diego. From 1969 to 1979, Krisel partnered with architect Abraham Shapiro, designing a range of commercial structures including high-rise apartments, medical buildings, and hotels. Krisel built what he called his “dream home” in Brentwood in 1955. It served as the Krisel family home until 2014, when it was sold to a buyer who had professed his passion for preserving it. The new owner demolished the home soon afterward. Krisel enjoyed the renaissance of interest in his work, including retrospective exhibitions, publications, and a documentary film. In 2006, he designed five new homes based on the original designs for the Palm Springs Alexander tract, unwavering in his belief that “good, modern design can make one’s life happier.”
Listing Details
16445 San Jose St Granada Hills, CA 91344 4 Bedrooms + 2 Baths 1640 Living SqFt + 7,499 SqFt Lot $854,000
