Modern Patrons: Georgescu in Beverly Hills
Tour and Talk
Saturday, March 07, 2009
SAH/SCC's Modern Patrons program is pleased to present a very special opportunity to spend the afternoon of March 7th, 4-7PM, in the Pier Pasinetti Residence, designed by Romanian architect Haralamb Georgescu for the celebrated Italian writer. This event is reserved for Patron and Life Members on a first-come first-served basis. Tickets are $25 per person; reservations will be limited and the event will only be opened up to the regular membership should space be available. Recently featured in the home section of the January 17th edition of the Los Angeles Times, the 1957 Pasinetti house (first published in Arts & Architecture in January 1959) is a fantastic story of a remarkable house slated for demolitiononly to be saved by unusual circumstances and the foresight of a unique individual leading to its ultimate rebirth through a superb rehabilitation. Haralamb (Bubi) Georgescu (1908-1977) had established a 15-year career in Romania from 1933 to 1947 and was at one time the Chief Architect to the City of Bucharest. He designed office buildings, apartment blocks, hotels, department stores, restaurants, nightclubs, the King's Summer Palace, the Romanian Pavilion at Leipzig Fair, and the Aro Theatre, which is considered his most important work and remains a landmark of Bucharest today. In 1947, Georgescu and his new bride stowed away on a cargo ship bound for Argentina to escape arrest by the Communists for refusing to join the party. En route he was stranded in New York City. He eventually came to Los Angeles in 1951 and briefly worked in the offices of Paul Lazlo and Kenneth Lind. In 1957, he partnered with architect James Larson and undertook the commission to design the residence for his good friend Pier Pasinetti, a journalist and UCLA professor, who lived in the house until his death in 2006. Georgescu had an active and successful career in America and in 2008 his archives were acquired by the Getty Research Institute. Now in the process of being designated a Cultural Historic Landmark, and probably Georgescu's most important residential work, the Pasinetti house is a simple modern design for an affirmed bachelor on a dramatic hillside setting. Our late afternoon reception (to capture the changing light) will include learning about the house from real estate developer Tim Braseth, the owner whose vision changed its fate, and Aaron Torrence of Design + Construction, the project architect who undertook the effort to revitalize this spectacular piece of residential architecture. We may even have the opportunity to learn more about the writer Pasinetti from one of his close colleagues.
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