Set majestically high above Laguna Beach in California is a 1930s masterpiece built for one of America's greatest adventurers. Richard Halliburton crossed the Alps on an elephant, swam the Panama Canal and was finally lost at sea trying to sail a traditional Chinese junk from Hong Kong to San Francisco. His California home is equally adventurous, both for its time and to our eyes now. Hangover House, as it's known, is now for sale... and there's no obligation on the new buyer to plan unlikely travels.
Uncompromising, stark and commanding its extraordinary position hanging over (hence the name) Aliso Canyon, Hangover House is a pioneering concrete-and steel-masterpiece. The Pacific Ocean is 600 feet below and a panoramic window to the main living space, a vast room with the polished concrete floors that you'd expect, celebrates the breathtaking view. Halliburton chose an inexperienced friend, just-qualified architect William Alexander Levy, to design his home. For this adventurer routine and the ordinary were anathema. His home celebrates that.
Halliburton made his name with travel writing, executed with a verve that made him a national celebrity. He wrote of crossing the Alps in the footsteps of Hannibal on an elephant called Miss Dalrymple borrowed from a Paris zoo, of re-enacting Robinson Crusoe on the island of Tobago and of being flown around the world in an open bi-plane. His friends were film stars, writers and musicians caught up with the romance of adventure.
A room with a view
Hangover House has two bedrooms and two bathrooms to its main floors with a guest suite below. An original spiral staircase leads to a roof deck, with its concrete shelter and original steel casement window. Outdoor panoramic dining? This is the place. Every vista requires another breath to be taken. Recent work has included a full restoration, while kitchen and bathrooms have been left bare, allowing a new owner to add their own finishing touches.
Richard Halliburton planned what was to be his last journey here. Sailing a custom built Chinese junk on a three month voyage was just another unlikely adventure, but was lost in a typhoon, its remains never found. Hangover House is a key part of the Halliburton legacy, a landmark piece of American architecture as unlikely and striking as the man who commissioned it.
The house is for sale through Agents of Architecture who specialise in "modern, historic and design-led properties". Hangover House meets all of these criteria and then some. The property comes with a plot next door and planning permission for an infinity pool linked to a guest house, because you want people staying but honestly not around you all the time. Hangover House was always going to command an adventurous price. So pick up the phone to Agents of Architecture, offer them £5.5-million and prepare for a life in a pre-brutalist landmark.
