The City Council will decide Tuesday whether to designate an iconic Naples house as a Long Beach historic landmark.
Built in 1961, the two-story residence at 82 Rivo Alto Canal was designed by renowned local architect Edward Killingsworth.
Also known as Case Study House #25, Killingsworth designed the home for former Wilson High School classmate and furniture merchant Edward Frank.
Its entrance, highlighted by a 17-foot-tall front door made of seamless aluminum, is designed for guests arriving at the home’s 40-foot dock on the canal.
Once guests exit the canal, rectangular stepping stones lead over a reflecting pool to the towering front door.
The water features don’t end there, as stepping stones and an L-shaped pool also accent the two-story interior courtyard.
The 2,307 square foot house with three bedrooms and three bathrooms features Killingsworth’s recognizable rectangular design along with an L-shaped interior plan.
It also contains windows without trim, allowing for an abundance of glass inside the home and uninterrupted views of the canal through four front-facing windows.
Edward Frank, the original owner, ran Frank Bros. furniture on Long Beach Boulevard along with his brother Maurice. In 1938, the pair decided to rededicate their father’s furniture outlet to exclusively Mid-Century Modern design.
It became the go-to store for Mid-Mod furniture throughout the 1950s and 1960s, with Danish and Scandinavian pieces aplenty.
Between 1945 and 1962, the Frank Bros. styled half a dozen projects published in Arts & Architecture magazine, including Case Study House #25.
Arts & Architecture magazine ran the Case Study House project from the late 1940s through the early 1960s, resulting in 36 unique homes throughout Southern California. The magazine commissioned many of the period’s finest architects to design inexpensive and efficient model homes for the post-war housing boom.
Case Study #25 sold for $3.25 million in 2022. In 2015, it sold for $1.99 million.
Killingsworth’s residential designs are sprinkled throughout Long Beach, including his own home on Virginia Drive in Los Cerritos. That house sold for $3.3 million in 2019.
Killingsworth also had a hand in designing many civic buildings in Long Beach including the old — now demolished — City Hall. He was the master planning architect for Cal State Long Beach, where he designed the CSULB Student Union.
Outside of his local impact, Killingsworth went on to a widespread career in hotel design.
They included the Hilton Jakarta in Indonesia, The Mauna Lani Bay Hotel in Honolulu and the Princess Reforma Hotel in Mexico City. Prior to his architecture career, he also served in WWII as a Captain in the Army Corps of Engineers, where he supervised the production of more than 8 million photo maps in preparation for the Allied invasion of Europe.
Killingsworth died at 86 years old in July 2004 of natural causes.
If approved as a local historic landmark, the Case Study #25 home’s owners will be restricted from demolishing, altering or relocating the iconic house.
The City Council will also vote on designating two other homes as local historic landmarks: the Dr. Paul and Dorothy Harstein House at 4210 California Avenue and the 20th Century House at 4401 Myrtle Avenue.
The 20th Century House was designed by local architect Hugh R. Davies, who also designed Long Beach Community Hospital.