Mom's West Coast Architecture Tour: Part Three

Need to get caught up?  Here's Part One and Part Two.

When last we blogged, Mom and I visited the gorgeous Getty Villa and had lunch in nearby Malibu, eating lovely food while staring out at the waves crashing on the shore.  For our afternoon adventure, we headed just a bit further south to the Eames house, another Case Study house folks can visit.  While the Eames house will let you inside, it costs hundreds of dollars (yes, really), so we instead opted for the $10 per person outside tour, where you wander the grounds at your leisure and peek inside the windows as you feel so compelled.

Like the Getty and the Stahl house, the Eames is located right up on a hill with a magnificent view.  I can only assume this land was a bit cheaper back in the day, although that certainly wouldn't be a concern for someone like Getty.  Tangent time - while in the gift shop at the Getty, I saw an outstanding magnet with a quote from the man himself.  It read, "Formula for success: rise early, work hard, strike oil."  Indeed.

Anywhooo, the Eames house.  Behold:

Pretty cool, right?

Despite what it looks like here, it's not a particularly large house; it's a Case Study house, remember?  The grounds span a bit over an acre, and the view is something like this:

I could get used to this...

Scattered around the grounds were some placards discussing the Eames (they were super cool folks), their work, and the house itself.  One thing that really came through is that like the Stahls, the Eames actually lived here, and the space reflected that.  

Discarded toys.
When was the last time Tonka trunks
were made of actual metal?
I don't think it was in my lifetime...

Quick peeks inside the house showed all sorts of interesting things, but of course, our focus was the famous Eames chair...

Ta daaaa!

While Mom was snapping chair photos,
I was grabbing some candids of her...

A few more shots around the different sides of the house:

The Eames house was a really neat place, and $10 a person is well worth it to see the grounds, the structures on the property, and the view.  We were there in the afternoon, and even with the ocean breeze, it got pretty toasty (you can see we're melting a bit in some of the photos above); since you have to make a reservation ahead of time to tour the property, it's worth making one earlier in the day rather than later, if you plan to go anywhere during the warmer months.

After our time at Eames, we hopped back into the Prius and once again faced the ridiculous traffic on the way home, stopping quickly at McDonald's for ice cream (hey, not all of our food can be from beachfront places in Malibu).  When Chris came home, we ate some dinner and chilled out for awhile, enjoying the rest of our day!

On the final blog installment, I take Mom all over greater Long Beach, touring only the finest areas of town ("and here's our Home Depot and here's our PetsMart...").

Later!

Amy