The Eames Foundation has released a plan to maintain the modernist Californian residence that Charles and Ray Eames built for themselves to make it look like the designers "just stepped out for the day".
The Eames House Conservation Management Plan was published last month, following over a decade of research and preservation work on the residence in Los Angeles' Pacific Palisades neighbourhood.
Eames House features a gridded steel construction filled with glass and panelling
The Eames Foundation teamed with the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) ? a private institute under the Getty Trust dedicated to heritage conservation ? to develop the scheme after finding that the existing practices were "no longer adequate for the conservation of several ageing structural elements". Completed by the late American design duo in 1949, Eames House is regarded as a key example of the Case Study House experiments for building postwar American residences efficiently and inexpensively. It was landmarked in 2006.
A large cobalt blue panel defines the exterior of the residence
The property served as the Eames' home and design studio for over thirty years up until their deaths: Charles in 1978 and Ray in 1988. Since 2004, the house has been maintained by the Eames Foundation, a nonprofit established by Charles Eames' daughter from his first marriage, Lucia Eames.
Today, the foundation is run by her five children. It launched the 250 Year Project to ensure that the landmark...