About

“Jacobson House”

Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #674  (2/25/2000)

Eduard H. Fickett, Architect, FAIA

Significance Statement: The Jacobson house is an important example of the work of Edward Fickett commissioned by Dr. and Mrs. George Jacobson in 1965.

A fourth generation Angeleno, Fickett was the recipient of numerous local and national awards for both residential and commercial designs, including AIA Honor Awards, City Beautification Awards, and four years as recipient of the National Progressive Architectural Design Award. His contemporaries repeatedly elected Fickett to serve the profession, including presidencies of the Southern California and California chapters of the AIA. He was a planning commissioner in Beverly Hills, a member of Governor Edmund G. Brown’s Housing Board, an advisor to the U.S. government on housing and building codes, and the architectural advisor to President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The Jacobson house embodies the distinguishing characteristics of Fickett’s work, and thus meets the criteria of Sec. 22.330 of the Los Angeles Administrative Code. The lot on which it sits, on the same hillside street with the landmark Lovell Health House, overlooks eastern Hollywood and Barnsdall Park. Fickett oriented the house to make maximum use of the broad panorama. Because the clients had an interest in fine landscape design, and planted black pine, Sego palm, and Bonsai, Fickett extended the brick wall of the facade into the garden. By integrating the interior with the exterior, the house becomes a pavilion which extends into the landscape.

As the eleven foot high front door opens, visitors see walls of floor to ceiling windows, skylights, and Asian inspired landscape. The house exemplifies what have come to be known as “Fickett details.” Among these are: custom-designed light fixtures, clerestory windows, room partitions, walnut paneling, built-in amenities such as bar and music storage, aggregate stone paving, large wrap-around decks, doors framed with painted black surrounds, and a variety of building materials, in this case brick, wood, stone, and glass. Medicine cabinets and Formica countertops in bathrooms were designed by the architect.

According to the Los Angeles Times Home magazine, a hallmark of the Jacobson home is a variation in the quality of light. Deep eaves allow filtered light to reach the interior, while providing a pattern of light and shadow reminiscent of Asian homes. Fickett liked to say, “Every window has a purpose, to bring the outside in.” This philosophy is depicted in the interior window of the master bedroom dressing room, with its vista of the striking two-story interior atrium.

Fickett’s sensitivity to the possibilities of light is evident in that atrium, which extends the full height of the home. As the slats on the eaves provide strong repetition of solid and void, the interior stair risers continue a light-dark contrast so essential to good design. Together the features make the Jacobson house a notable work of a master builder and architect. Thirty-four years after its completion, it stands intact, a testament to Fickett’s mastery of residential design and the Jacobsons’ pride in their home.

From Historic Places LA:

Significance Statement: The property meets the criteria for HCM designation because it embodies the “distinguishing characteristics of an architectural-type specimen, inherently valuable for a study of a period style or method of construction,” as an example of Mid-Century Modern architecture. It is also associated with the “notable work of a master builder, designer, or architect,” as a work by master architect Edward H. Fickett.

Periods of Significance:  From: 1966-01-01

See article “Home Sweet History” in Los Angeles Independent,1/12/00, p. 1.