Best of 2009: Most-read L.A. at Home articles

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Home editors and home readers are in agreement: We loved Barbara Thornburg’s look at the family that called Case Study House No. 22 home. It is a fascinating article about an ordinary man with a not-so-ordinary dream: to build one of the coolest houses in Los Angeles. You also loved our story about the piano’s declining importance as a middle-class status symbol, as well as the battle over the clothesline.

Below, the 10 most-viewed Home stories from the last year, with excerpts from each.

1. Case Study House No. 22: The story behind L.A.’s original dream home: ‘Perhaps the most surprising fact is that the original inspiration for the design may not have come from architect Pierre Koenig but rather his client, Buck Stahl. ... Taken in July 1956, 16 months before Koenig received the commission, the image shows a shirtless Stahl posing with his nephew Bobby Duemler next to a large-scale model of a glass-and-steel house. It bears more than a passing resemblance to the iconic design attributed to Koenig. Is it possible that Stahl deserves some of the credit for the house?’
2. Piano’s prominence in American homes declines: ‘Many forces have contributed to the acoustic piano’s troubles. Start with electronic keyboards and digital instruments, with their improving quality and alluring gadgets such as metronomes, USB ports, headphones and recording devices. ... [F]or students, there is ferocious competition for the hours between school and sleep: Homework or video games? Soccer or ballet? Facebook or TV? In a survey of piano teachers conducted in 2005 for the Piano Manufacturers Assn. International, 89% said that the primary reason a child drops lessons is ‘too many other activities.’’
   
3. Parentology: Sending you child away to an outdoor behavior therapy program (published in November): ‘There are times -- emotionally exhausting and agonizing times -- when parents realize that something in the family system has gone horribly awry and that for a kid’s safety and future, the son or daughter is better off living somewhere else. It is a terrible decision to have to make -- one that is scary, expensive and humbling. So what makes a parent do it?’
4. Is your clothesline illegal? ‘When clothes dryers account for at least 6% of the electricity used by U.S. households, is it any wonder that line-drying is coming back? In places where the practice is banned as an unsightly nuisance to neighbors, right-to-dry activists and blogging eco-moms are forming an alliance. Their cause: to reduce energy consumption and to call upon sunlight rather than bleach to get those whites even whiter.’
   
5. Lost L.A.: Century Plaza Hotel, symbol of modern life out West, faces demolition: ‘Donald A. Robbins, senior designer for manager Western International Hotels, decorated the 800 guest rooms. Each had cutting-edge luxuries: wide sliders that opened onto balconies with an ocean or a mountain view, soundproofed walls, central air and heating, electric blankets, built-in vanities, ice machines, radios in the nightstands, and color television a decade before it reached most American homes.’
6. Victory gardens sprout up again: ‘When the National Gardening Assn. compiles its annual data later this month, market research director Bruce Butterfield expects to see a 10% rise in food gardening. ... ‘People want to have more connection with their own world,’ said Yvonne Savio, manager of the Common Ground Garden Program for the Los Angeles County UC Cooperative Extension, which includes a master gardener program that aims to help poor people grow food. Applications, she said, have doubled in the past three years.’
7. Barbra Streisand, the collector, puts her antiques up for auction: ‘Question: Do you get a good deal because you are Barbra Streisand? Answer: That works both ways. Sometimes people will see that I like something, and even though I’d be happy to pay for it, they insist upon making it a gift. And other times, there are dealers who think they can charge me double because they know I can afford it. That usually doesn’t work for them because I have a pretty good idea of what things are worth.’
8. ‘Double Indemnity’ house gets a fresh dose of glamour: ‘Mae Brunken wanted a home with a past. And in a plot with an only-in-Hollywood ending, the interior designer and set decorator found her period piece -- one with a film noir pedigree.’
9. Lost L.A.: The old Robinsons-May Beverly Hills, a shop that may drop: ‘The home furnishings department was on the ‘garden level.’ It was the highlight of the store, a boutique with a living-room feel. Floor-to-ceiling windows looked out on a California patio. Instead of department store counters and wood floors, there were streamlined cabinets and wall-to-wall carpeting. The Loewy firm was proud of the tables illuminating imported cut crystal, porcelain figurines and plates. It had used modern design to make the traditional look new. The message to the decorator-housewife: You too can belong to the future.’
10. Ryan Brown of ‘Flipping Out’ finds a home worth keeping: ‘The 35-year-old Brown, known as the voice of reason on the show, realized that with the real estate market shaky and his own personal life in transition, it was time to focus less on remodeling for profit and more on getting his own house in order. As fans of ‘Flipping Out’ know, Brown and his domestic partner, chef Dale Monchamp, became fathers to a daughter born through surrogacy. After living in a succession of flip houses, the couple wanted to put down roots. ‘We’ve moved seven times in one year,’ Brown says. ‘When Chloe came along, we had to get off that roller coaster.’’