America's Most Envied Homeowners

By Katherine Salant

If the Guiness Book of Records included a "Most Envied Homeowners in America," category, Al and Simone Grossman would surely make the list.

For today's frazzled households, their house is unique in the things that really matter. The Grossmans live in a large, light-filled house that is perched in the hills overlooking Studio City, Calif. Designed in 1963 by the late Raphael Soriano, it was declared a historic/cultural monument by the city of Los Angeles in 1997. But more compelling than looks or pedigree to harried homeowners is the fact that this 4,800-square-foot house is so easy to keep clean, one person working only one day a week can do the whole place in under eight hours. In the 35 years that the Grossmans have lived there, they have never had to paint anything, inside or out. They replaced the carpeting in one bedroom, but otherwise have not had to replace or refinish any of the flooring.

What's the Grossmans' secret? Their house is framed with aluminum and most of the exterior exposed surfaces are aluminum that was either painted in the factory or left with its natural silver color. The interior walls are finished in micarta, a type of plastic laminate; the floors are terrazzo; and the desks, dressers and display cabinets are built-in so there are fewer places for dust balls to collect.

This unusual house had unusual beginnings. Al Grossman, whose companies sold a number of aluminum products, was approached by Soriano, who was promoting aluminum housing and wanted to build a showcase house in Los Angeles. As Soriano was known for designing modern-styled houses with flat roofs, an open plan and lots of glass, the Grossmans realized his proposal would be a radical departure from their conventional ranch house. But they were intrigued -- especially Al Grossman -- who liked the idea of having his firm's products displayed on his own house.

Two thirds of the way through construction, the famously temperamental Soriano walked off the job. But Grossman, who grew up in the roofing and sheet metal business, took over and supervised its completion. To furnish their new house in time for a charity event, he and his wife bought all new furniture in three hours and they are still using it today.

Steel-framed construction is a hot topic in the homebuilding industry these days, but what the builders are talking about is not what the Grossmans used. The builders are using conventional construction, and simply substituting steel studs and trusses for wood. The finished houses look like all the others on the block. No so the Grossman's house.

In this case, the entire supportive structure consists of aluminum columns and beams placed in a 10-by-20-foot grid pattern. Twenty-eight aluminum sliding glass doors enclose the house. In the few places where the outside wall is solid, the exterior finish is refrigeration cork, which Grossman said has required only minor repair over the years.

Though many people consider modern-styled houses with lots of metal, glass and flat roofs to be forbiddingly austere, the Grossmans' house is quite the opposite. The columns, both inside and out, are purple, and the beams are gold. The roof fascia board, downspouts and some of the aluminum fencing are robin's-egg blue. The plastic laminate walls in the main living area are yellow-green and the bedrooms and bathrooms are variously violet, Indian coral, concord blue, white and avocado. Some of the walls, built-in dressers, desks and cabinets are finished in a simulated rosewood pattern. The kitchen cabinets and countertops are dark green and light beige.

For someone who wants to build a no-maintenance house today, how feasible is the Grossmans' unconventional solution? Definitely doable, but an architect and a builder with experience in the type of residential steel frame construction used in the Grossman house is essential. And you would want to use steel instead of aluminum because it's stronger, cheaper much more easily obtainable.

Yale University professor and architect Peter DeBretteville, who built a steel frame house for himself when he lived in Los Angeles, said the nature of the material requires much more advanced planning and more detailed construction drawings than conventional wood-frame construction.

Wood warps, twists and shrinks, but it's forgiving. You can make adjustments up the last minute and you can invent details in the field. But steel framing members are fabricated in a factory .If you decide that a detail doesn't look right you can't just slap up another 2-by-4 like you can with wood.

University of Southern California professor and architect Pierre Koenig, who has designed more steel and glass houses than anyone in the profession, said that finding a capable builder can be challenging, and owners must also be prepared to keep the architect on board for the entire project.

You're asking for trouble if the architect just bids out the job and doesn't supervise the work. He must make sure that all the bids are reasonable. Bidders like a plumber can get scared and add on because it's a steel house.

Koenig, who has been designing this type of house for more than 50 years, said that in his experience the cost for such a house comes in at the low end for custom residential construction in most markets.

Although glass and steel-frame houses were first built in Southern California with its benign climate and adventurous clients like the Grossmans, Koenig said they are even more appropriate in places with climatic extremes of heat (+125 degrees F) or cold (-40 degrees F) because in such places standard materials deteriorate very rapidly.

Another plus with steel-framed houses is the speed of their construction, Koenig said. The entire frame can be erected and the house enclosed in a day, so that a crew can work in any kind of weather. In Los Angeles where Koenig lives, he said that the rest of the house can be finished in nine months, less than half the time required for a custom-built, conventional wood-framed house today. After his houses have been completed, all his clients have been pleased about the low maintenance, he added.

If a steel house is an aesthetic or financial impossibility, the plastic laminate walls of the Grossman's house can be installed with conventional construction. Theirs were fabricated by a local craftsman, but there are two companies that manufacture laminate-covered wall panels and distribute them nationally, Custom Plastics in Folsom, Calif. (916-351-0161; www.customplastics.com), and Interior Surface Systems in Temple, Texas (800-610-9809).

In both cases, the panels are two-feet wide and 8- to 10-feet high. Though this type of wall system is usually installed in institutional or commercial settings, it can be used in houses. It is usually installed over drywall, but it can be attached directly to the wood studs if they are spaced correctly. The installed cost varies by region and can range anywhere from $3.50 to $9 a square foot. That makes it about three to six times as costly as drywall, but once it's up, it's there forever.