Time Capsule with Pedigree

When a time-capsule mid-century modern home with pedigree comes on the California market, we take special note.

One such residence recently caught our eye: the Jason Hailey House, a treasure designed by master architect Richard Neutra set high in the Hollywood Hills.

Let us show you around.

Completed in 1959—and now listed at $2.8 mil—the single-family residence at 3319 Tareco Drive retains its high integrity "thanks to a succession of owners who resisted the urge to alter its modernist bones," according to listing agent Kimberley Bini of Christie's International Real Estate.

Another force behind preserving the home's timeless quality was renovation project manager and architectural historian Barbara Lamprecht, a Neutra expert and author of the Taschen tome, Neutra: Complete Works, who led a sensitive rehabilitation of the home in recent years.

"Everybody who comes in can't believe it," says Bini. "The countertops are the original Formica, same colors. The only things that have been replaced are the smoky glass cabinets in the kitchen, and glass panels that were added to the balcony railing. The bar in the kitchen was designed by Barbara, and the second bedroom has been opened up and made a part of the living room."

Discussing the home's beginnings, Bini says, "This home has an interesting history, and was built for $25,000, a 50-by-25-foot home on a rectangular footprint, a classic post-and-beam with seven, eight-foot bays."

At a recent open house, Bini encountered a man who had met the home's first owner, Jason Hailey, and recalled that he was in commercial advertising and photography, and had a studio in a Craig Ellwood-designed building. Hailey taught photography at Pasadena's Art Center in the early 1960s.

Purchasing the property in 2013, creative director Patrick O'Neill is the fourth owner of the Hailey House, and he set out to preserve it from the start. "I looked at this house as an incredible piece of art," he told Domino magazine in 2018.

Utilizing archival research, Lamprecht led a rehabilitation working alongside Los Angeles-based artist and interior decorator Anthony Barsoumian and the team at Andrew Gray Studio.

The compact two-bedroom, two-bath home feels larger than its 1,129 square feet, in large part due to its modern design and neutral palette that fills the living spaces with light. Preserving Neutra's original vision was paramount to the project, dovetailed with updates for 21st century living.

Sixty-six years later, the materials and elements Neutra chose are still in use at the Hailey House: Philippine mahogany and redwood; the silver-painted wood and built-ins the architect is known for; jalousies and clerestory windows; Formica countertops and asphalt tile in the kitchen; and tempered Masonite and Marlite in the baths.