This certainly resonates with my own stewardship of the Bonnet House, where I lived for almost fifteen years. This compact wonder on a steep hillside evoked elegant, modest living from the moment I stepped inside. In addition to rewiring much of the house and sanding all of the floors to remove a pickled white finish, I repainted and restored the exterior redwood siding and stucco, reinstalled the original closet doors and window treatments, restored and reinstalled the original cabinetry in the kitchen, and repainted the interior using a palette favored by Neutra, among many other extensive changes.

Recently, the architects Frank Escher and Ravi GuneWardena — renowned for their restoration of John Lautner's Chemosphere and Neutra's Lovell Health House — told me that the Bonnet House had found a new owner. They introduced me to Gabriel Yuri, a talented young architect, designer and photographer whose work has been featured in Architectural Digest. It was thrilling to hear him describe how he is breathing new life into the house, including installing, for the first time, the built-in cabinetry Neutra had included in the original plans.

Owning a home designed by an influential architect requires a special commitment, and it was reassuring to learn that Yuri shares that sense of stewardship. That is not always the case.

Another celebrated Neutra design, the Maslon House, once owned by the grandparents of Douglas Elliman agent Marny Maslon, was infamously bulldozed in 2002. His Kronish House in Beverly Hills nearly suffered the same fate before a public outcry — and financial support from Greek shipping heir Stavros Niarchos III — saved it.

Crucially, the buyers for these homes tend to be highly cognizant of what Modernism and its practitioners stood for.

“These are not buyers who are purchasing square footage; they are acquiring a piece of art history,” said Elliman’s Bouvier. “The emotional dimension of these transactions is unlike anything else in the market. There is something almost magical about it. The aesthetical focal point can be more predominant than the functional criteria.”

It’s no surprise that Gabriel Yuri appreciates the significance of these homes.

“The Modernist movement in Los Angeles was the most significant contribution to American residential architecture of the 20th century,” he told me. “What modernists such as Neutra achieved was a complete rethinking of how we inhabit space — the dissolution of inside and outside divisions, the democratization of good design that was made possible by the unique landscape and climate of Los Angeles, as well as a certain ‘permission to experiment’ born from the culture.”

What’s more, Yuri added, so many attributes of these historic homes that were radically new in their day are things “we now take for granted in residential design — open plans, indoor-outdoor spaces, honest materiality.”  

Because so many of these Modernists worked in Southern California, loyalty to the movement is naturally very strong here. The annual Modernism Week in Palm Springs celebrated its 20th anniversary last year. And while there are wonderful Modernist works elsewhere, including Louis Kahn’s homes in the Philadelphia area, perhaps the greatest concentration is in and around New Canaan, Conn., home to numerous residences designed by legendary architects Marcel Breuer, Eliot Noyes and Philip Johnson. Happily, Johnson’s Glass House is open for public view.

Indeed, owning one of these houses may also carry with it an obligation to preserve architectural history itself. Writing recently in Dwell, Jia Yi Gu argued that the Stahl House should not remain in private hands but instead be acquired by a Los Angeles institution and opened permanently to the public.

Looking back on my years in Neutra's Bonnet House, I understand that argument. At one point I agreed to include the house on a tour organized by the Schindler House. Because Rudolf M. Schindler and Richard Neutra — two of Modernism's founding figures in Southern California — were famously estranged and fiercely competitive, it was an unusual request. When I hesitated, a noted Neutra scholar quickly reminded me of the larger responsibility that comes with owning such a place.

"You have to open the house," she insisted. "Otherwise Neutra will lose."

More than 500 people toured my home that day.

David Hay is a well-known architectural writer and playwright. His stories have been featured in The New York Times, Dwell and New York.