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In my younger and more malleable years, I was quite the waltzer — rather controversial, given flamingos’ affinity for tap. I miss the triple meter’s tension between rigid box step and swan-like fluidity, so I’m taking a trip to Rustic Canyon.
Latimer Road winds through tumbling hills and old growth trees with an Arcadian splendor that is perfectly duetted by the masterful eye of LA titan Ray Kappe, founder of the Southern California Institute of Architecture. Kappe’s 1980 triumph at 762 Latimer Road is a prime example of his avant-garde approach to architecture — and this dramatic structure evokes modernist music, a balanced composition of disparates, the interplay of complex geometries and manipulation of light. The triple story home harmonizes hard lines with an organic finesse: brutalist concrete impossibly curves around the exterior; tiered balconies ebb and flow into and over the garden; steel beams frame a glass dome that beckons the lush California topography inside.
When I look at the silhouette of 762 Latimer Road in dialogue with the undulating hillside, I am reminded of something my teacher used to say: to lead is to dance, to follow is to waltz.
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