Listings: The Hong Residence, Los Feliz

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If there is a real estate bubble, and it is popping, well, that’s going to be a somewhat depressing story to read about every day. And LA Land does not want to be completely depressing, so we mix in items like this one -- our attempt to celebrate the vibrancy of Los Angeles residential architecture and style. The Hong Residence, built in 1968 at 5146 Los Franciscos Way in Los Feliz by architect Roger Hong in collaboration with Buff and Hensman, is truly cool. Classic post and beam, high ceilings, but with a restrained and human scale that’s becoming lost in the era of stadium kitchens. Opens to a small, rectangular pool with sweeping city views. Here’s the really cool part: he built it for his mother, and it’s been preserved exactly as it was built. It even has really dated, fraying shag carpeting. The ‘electronics’ -- intercom wall panels in each room -- look like something out of an old Rat Pack movie. ‘It’s absolutely original,’ listing agent Crosby Doe of Mossler & Doe Associates told LA Land. ‘There’s almost a Kyoto-esque feeling to it.’ Kyoto-esque? I’m not sure either. But it’s a beautiful house. By the numbers: 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 3,016 square feet home on a 12,000 square-foot lot. Listed at $2.395 million.