The Van Sicklen House: Richard Neutra in Rancho Santa Fe
The Van Sicklen House at a glance
The Van Sicklen House is a Richard Neutra house on Mimulus in Rancho Santa Fe, designed from 1947 and finished in 1952 for Fred and Bea Van Sicklen. A long redwood-faced volume under a single shed roof, it is one of only four Neutra houses in San Diego County, and it appears in Neutra: Complete Works.
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One of Richard Neutra’s two Rancho Santa Fe houses, a redwood pavilion under one long roof in the hills of Rancho Santa Fe.
What is the Van Sicklen House?
The Van Sicklen House is one of the rare places in San Diego County where Richard Neutra, the Vienna-born architect who defined Los Angeles modernism, actually built. Fred and Bea Van Sicklen commissioned it in 1947, and his office finished it in 1952 on Mimulus, a winding road in Rancho Santa Fe. Neutra’s own institute lists it among his works, and Barbara Lamprecht includes it in Neutra: Complete Works, the Taschen catalogue of his career.
Neutra built only four houses in the county, and two of them went up in Rancho Santa Fe in the same year. The other is the Marshall House on Calzada del Bosque. Together they brought the glass and redwood of postwar Los Angeles into a town still known for Lilian Rice’s whitewashed Spanish village.
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One long roof
The design is disciplined almost to the point of austerity. The house is a long rectangle faced in redwood, and a single shed roof runs its full length, rising toward the street. The redwood carries on inside as the ceiling, so the roof plane reads as one continuous surface from the road to the garden side. It is a house organized around one gesture and the light that comes under it.
Like most work from Neutra’s office in those years, the drawings were produced by his staff under his direction. The original design is credited to F. A. Nagel, Jack F. Gronau and Robert H. Simpson, working in the Neutra office, which is how the practice turned out houses across California and beyond.
A house organized around one gesture and the light that comes under it.
What is Neutra, and what came later
The 1952 house was modest, about 2,458 square feet. In 1975 and 1976 interior designer Gerald Jerome and architect Fred Dong enlarged it to roughly 4,000 square feet. Around 1991 a west wing and a pool house were added, joined to the original by a breezeway, and the house today runs to roughly 8,300 square feet.
That history matters to anyone who owns or buys it. The Neutra house is still there, with its redwood face and its long roof, but it is now the heart of a much larger property, and knowing exactly which rooms are Neutra’s and which came later is part of understanding what the house is.
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Join the Pocket Listings listFour houses and a chapel
Richard Neutra’s San Diego County work comes to five projects, four of them houses. The Van Sicklen and Marshall houses in Rancho Santa Fe both date to 1952. The Marshall House sits on about three acres on the west side of the Covenant and is entered past a rough stone colonnade beside a shallow reflecting pool. In 1957 Neutra designed the Airman Memorial Chapel at Miramar. The Oxley House in La Jolla followed in 1958, built for a physicist and photographed that year by Julius Shulman, and the Dr. Robert E. Bond House in 1960, reportedly in Alvarado Estates near San Diego State, the same hillside neighborhood where Lloyd Ruocco built his own house.
Neutra built four houses in San Diego County, two of them in Rancho Santa Fe in 1952, plus the Airman Memorial Chapel at Miramar.
The rest of the Neutra story
Most of Neutra’s houses are in Los Angeles, and the Van Sicklen House reads best alongside them. Debbie Pisaro’s page on Richard Neutra is the place to start, and her house pages cover the Bailey House, Case Study House 20, the Reunion House and Neutra Place in Silver Lake, the Hendershot House in Nichols Canyon, the Nesbitt House in Brentwood, the Millard Kaufman Residence, and the Serulnic House in La Crescenta. Up the coast, the Moore House in Ojai is one of his country houses.
In Rancho Santa Fe the Van Sicklen House belongs to a quieter modern tradition that also includes Del Dios Ranch, the 1972 estate by Fred Briggs and Arthur Elrod, and the county picture is in San Diego architectural homes.
Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and an Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers across California. A Neutra house is a different sale from any other house on the street, which is the argument for an architectural homes specialist. Choosing who handles a San Diego house is its own question, and the page on the best real estate agent in San Diego sets out what to ask first. More of the county is in Field Notes. Debbie Pisaro is not the listing agent for the Van Sicklen House.
The Van Sicklen House, frequently asked
What is the Van Sicklen House?
The Van Sicklen House is a Richard Neutra house on Mimulus in Rancho Santa Fe, designed from 1947 and finished in 1952 for Fred and Bea Van Sicklen. It is a long redwood-faced house under a single shed roof, listed by the Neutra Institute and included in Barbara Lamprecht’s Neutra: Complete Works.
How many Richard Neutra houses are in San Diego County?
Four. Neutra designed the Van Sicklen and Marshall houses in Rancho Santa Fe in 1952, the Oxley House in La Jolla in 1958, and the Dr. Robert E. Bond House in 1960. With the Airman Memorial Chapel at Miramar, from 1957, his San Diego County work comes to five projects.
Where are the Neutra houses in Rancho Santa Fe?
Rancho Santa Fe has two Neutra houses, both from 1952. The Van Sicklen House is on Mimulus, and the Marshall House is on Calzada del Bosque on the west side of the Covenant, on about three acres. Both are private homes, and neither is open to the public.
Who designed the Van Sicklen House?
Richard Neutra’s office designed it, beginning in 1947 and finishing in 1952. The original drawings are credited to F. A. Nagel, Jack F. Gronau and Robert H. Simpson, working in Neutra’s office. Interior designer Gerald Jerome and architect Fred Dong enlarged the house in 1975 and 1976, and more was added around 1991.
How big is the Van Sicklen House?
The original 1952 house was about 2,458 square feet. It was enlarged to roughly 4,000 square feet in 1975 and 1976, and a west wing and pool house were added around 1991, joined by a breezeway. The property today runs to roughly 8,300 square feet, with the Neutra house at its heart.
What does the Van Sicklen House look like?
It is a long rectangle faced in redwood, under a single shed roof that runs the full length of the house and rises toward the street. The redwood continues inside as the ceiling, so the roof reads as one surface from the road side to the garden side, the house’s defining gesture.
Is the Van Sicklen House in Neutra: Complete Works?
Yes. Barbara Lamprecht’s Neutra: Complete Works, published by Taschen, includes the Van Sicklen House, and the Neutra Institute for Survival Through Design lists it among his projects. Those two records are the strongest documentation of the attribution, alongside the drawings credited to his office staff.
Where else can you see Richard Neutra houses in California?
Most of Neutra’s houses are in Los Angeles, especially Silver Lake, Brentwood and the hills around Hollywood, including the Bailey House, Case Study House 20, and the Reunion House. Others reach from Ojai, where the Moore House stands, to Palm Springs, and to the four houses in San Diego County.
Who is a good real estate agent for a Neutra house in California?
Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and an Inman Luxury Leader who represents buyers and sellers of architectural homes across California, including Neutra houses in Los Angeles. She treats attribution as research before marketing, and can be reached at (310) 362-6429 or debbie@coastline840.com.
For buyers and sellers
Own or want a Neutra house?
Debbie Pisaro of Coastline 840 represents buyers and sellers on documented architectural homes across California, San Diego County included, on or off market. I reply to every new inquiry within one business day.
(310) 362-6429 · debbie@coastline840.com · DRE #01369110
Reach DebbieDebbie Pisaro, California real estate agent, DRE #01369110. Coastline 840 is a brand/DBA of Side, Inc., CA DRE #02014153, responsible broker.
General information, not investment, legal, or tax advice. Facts follow the Neutra Institute project record, Barbara Lamprecht’s Neutra: Complete Works as cited in published coverage, and published accounts of the house; later additions should be verified against permits and recorded documents. Equal Housing Opportunity.
Debbie Pisaro of Coastline 840 is a California real estate agent, DRE #01369110, a 24-year veteran of California real estate and an Inman Luxury Leader, specializing in architectural and historic homes across the state, San Diego County included. Her architectural homes practice is at debbiepisaro.com. About Debbie
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