Harpel House 2, Anchorage, Alaska
Can a house have a sequel? Like other productions coming out of Los Angeles, the first one did so well that they decided to make another version of it.
This is Harpel House 2. Like many sequels, it hasn't received quite the attention of the first edition, but that's probably due to where it was released.
Harpel House the First knows that a big part of a celebrity is all in who you rub shoulders with, and it's hanging out with other superstars. In the aerial photo below, Harpel House 1 is the rectangular building with the small Futuro pod in the foreground. To the left of it is the Chemosphere (or Malin House).
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And, just 23 minutes away is Foster House, which I featured last year:
Are you sensing an overall theme? It's because all of these hits were directed by architect John Lautner. When radio announcer Willis Harpel, of Harpel House 1, decided to relocate to Anchorage, Alaska in 1966, nothing else would do for him but to have another spectacular Lautner house.
This is what he got:
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If it were mine, I'd find some furniture that would compliment the old while bringing in a little new:
Here's the dining area, which again reads circa 1967:
I would give it a little something new to talk about:
Harpel House 2 has 6,165 square feet with 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 1 big circle and at least 10 triangles.
One reviewer said of the first Harpel House: "It has no true facade and is designed to perfectly fit in with the site on which it's built." I'd say that's even more true of the second house, because while its front facade is unassuming...
...it certainly takes full dramatic advantage of its lovely rear view:
That's Lake Otis in the backyard, and the Chugach Mountains in the distance:
Harpel House 2 is the only Lautner house in Alaska, and one of very few built outside of California. As a sequel, it might have gotten a little less attention over the years, but it's clearly still a blockbuster in its own right.
