All in the Family
Renowned Pasadena architect Peter Tolkin updates a midcentury
home for a very special client: his mother
story By // Maria russo PhotograPhy By // Vicky Moon
π Wh e n F r An c in e T o l kin c o o pe r
and her husBand, herB, Bought
a midcentury Post-and-Beam
house in 1984, they knew it needed
a rethink. nestled next to a hill
aBove the arroyo seco, the Place
had gorgeous views and good
Bones. But it also had cottage
cheese ceilings, green carPet and
smoky mirrored walls.
Both Herb and Francine, a partner in
Tolkin Group, a real estate development
and property management company that
specializes in mixed-use urban projects, were
undaunted by the project ahead. They decided
on "three iterations of repair," Francine says.
The first step was scraping the ceiling and
removing the unfortunate remnants of late-70s
decor. Then came updates to the kitchen and
master bedroom. By 2008, the Coopers, who
have six children and thirteen grandchildren
between them, were ready to expand beyond
the footprint of the house. Naturally, they
turned to Francine's son Peter, who had gradu-
ated from architecture school and launched his
own firm, gathering awards and accolades for
projects including Saladang Song Restaurant
in Pasadena, which is often named among
the region's most significant recent works of
modern architecture.
"It was a nice custom home of the period, a
fairly classic traditional post-and-beam," Peter
says, "but it wasn't a masterwork, not a Buff
and Hensman." His goal was to "find a way to
make the house feel like it was of the present,
but still rely on what was there. I thought we
CLIENT RELATIONS.
left to right, elias
tolkin (Peter's son),
Peter tolkin, yunhee
min (Peter's fiancee),
Francine tolkin cooper
and herb cooper.
feature_tolkin_MA14.indd 69 2/20/14 11:54 AM
