Most viewed home galleries of 2011

L.A. at Home's list of the most viewed home photo galleries of 2011 is an interesting mix: a 495-square-foot house in Echo Park and a 670-square-foot condo in Montecito. The Venice retreat of former Telemundo President Nely Galán, the new Santa Monica digs for TV journalist Lisa Ling and the Carpinteria beach house remodel of TV and film veterans Amy Lippman and Rodman Flender. Designs by icons Frank Lloyd Wright, Ray Kappe, Rudolph Schindler and Charles and Ray Eames.

We usually profile at least one Southern California home or garden every week, and by year's end the numbers inevitably provide some surprises. Because our profiles draw readers for months, often years, we've organized the list by season, so homes that have been collecting clicks since the beginning of the year don't have an unfair advantage over those featured at the end. All of our most recent home and garden galleries are archived on our home tours page or in our Landmark Houses series.

Without further ado, our year-end list of most viewed home photo galleries ...

Eames House launches preservation effort

The Eames House in Pacific Palisades, completed in 1949 and beloved as an icon of the midcentury modern movement ever since, now sits empty -- the contents of the living room moved for an exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Realizing that six decades of loving care may not have been enough to preserve the landmark, and that an empty space presents a rare opportunity, the Eames family has launched a campaign to preserve the house -- and all that it contains.

“Our aim is to make sure it stays in great shape for another 250 years,” granddaughter Lucia Dewey Atwood said of the house, which has been in a state of suspended animation since Ray Eames died in 1988. In March the Eames Foundation hired the Los Angeles architectural firm Escher GuneWardena to develop a plan for the house, and 10 electronic data collectors have monitored temperature, light levels, relative humidity and more -- all in an effort to preserve not only the steel and glass architecture, but its lifetime of collections for decades to come.

Landmark Houses: Articles on Eames House history and preservation plan, photos

ALSO:

Time-lapse video: Eames living room packed up and moved

California design exhibition: "Living in a Modern Way"

-- David Hay

Photo credit: Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times

Irving Gill's Dodge House, a landmark in memory

Dodge House by Irving Gill has long been considered a landmark of residential design -- to some, one of the most important American houses of the 20th century. If you have not heard of this groundbreaking piece of architecture before, perhaps that’s because the 1916 house no longer exists. It was demolished in 1970, cleared to make way for apartments, now condos, in the heart of West Hollywood.

Dodge House’s form -- horizontal boxes lacking roof overhangs, surface detail or other ornament -- was a revolutionary departure from the pitched roof and symmetrical facades that once were so common. The graceful arches, the ahead-of-its-time mahogany paneling, the stunningly beautiful sense of simplicity -- all are gone. What’s left is the ghost of Gill’s genius and a cautionary tale that forms the latest installment of our Landmark Houses series.

Landmark Houses: Irving Gill's Dodge House

Library of Congress catalog with Dodge House photos and drawings

Landmark Houses: The series

-- Jeffrey Head

Credit: Los Angeles Times

Frank Lloyd Wright's Millard house, La Miniatura

Frank Lloyd Wright called the Alice Millard house in Pasadena “this little house” as a term of endearment. Over time, the nickname La Miniatura has stuck. Both monikers seem ill-fitting for a landmark of such stature today, one that grandson Eric Lloyd Wright called the best of Wright's four concrete block houses in the region.

It boggles the mind to think that the Millard house has been on the market for two years, currently listed at $4,995,000.

If that's out of your price range, at least you can live vicariously through our recently posted article and photo gallery, the latest installment in our Landmark Houses project.

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Landmark Houses: the series

Landmark Houses: Ray Kappe's natural wonder

Landmark Houses: Ennis house

Photos: Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times

Home Tour: Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis house

Our latest home profile: The Ennis house, Frank Lloyd Wright's 1924 concrete block masterpiece in the Los Angeles, is the latest installment of our year-long Landmark Houses series. Check out our:

Full article or photo gallery

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Landmark Houses: Ray Kappe's natural wonder

Ray Kappe house: Take an interactive tour of a legendary design

Our latest home profile: The unparalleled Palisades house of Ray Kappe, which kicks off our yearlong series on the landmark houses of Southern California. The package includes interactive 360-degree panoramas that allow you to pan, tilt and zoom inside the house.

Photo credit: Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times

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The Kappe residence in a traditional photo gallery