Peninsula Palladian: Rancho Palos Verdes’ LaBarba Residence hearkens back to Renaissance architecture
The stairs to the Great Room in the LaBarba Residence in Rancho Palos Verdes. Photos by Adrian Van Anz A 1940s cinderblock style beach house stood for nearly a half century on Rancho Palos Verdes’ Lunada Pointe. The property occupied one of the 16,000 acres formerly owned by the community’s founders, the Vanderlip family, and its last use was as the familial home of the esteemed Ernest V. and Marguerite Berry. According to local lore, the Berry residence had undergone a multitude of additions resulting in it’s taking on a long “boomerang” shaped design. In 1991, Georgene McKim and Jim LaBarba purchased property and spent the next six years constructing a home with over 12,000 square feet of living space, replete with 1,000 rose bushes, 300 merlot grape plantings and a 180 degree panoramic ocean view. The home was built to house hundreds of art objects and paintings, its architecture itself an assemblege of sorts, with myriad details — from a lush allegorical ceiling mural in its great room to its ornate Chimera stair railings — meant to mirror the work of architects, artists, and sculptors the couple saw during their extensive travels. “We worked our butts off for 30 years in the…
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