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Ernest Batchelder, whose early 20th century mantel tiles are considered historic masterpieces, once said "a fireplace is not a luxury; it is a necessity -- because it adds to the joy and beauty of living."
Perhaps that is most true during the holidays, when the fireplace serves as a central gathering spot. "It comes back to the primitive idea of what makes a home," said Amy Murphy, a USC architecture professor. "We think of the house as a place of the hearth. A fireplace gives a space a hierarchy, a center where everyone can gather around."
And it doesn't have to be indoors.
Taking advantage of California's long summers and mild winters, some homeowners have turned parts of their backyards into alfresco extensions of their living rooms, using a fireplace as an anchor.
It was a trend that started here in the early 20th century, triggered by some of Los Angeles' modernist architects who wanted to blur the lines between indoor and outdoor living spaces.
Oil heiress and arts patron Aline Barnsdall, for whom Frank Lloyd Wright designed the remarkable Hollyhock House -- his first Los Angeles project -- on Hollywood Boulevard, believed that a true California house should be "as much outside as inside." That's exactly what Wright gave her, creating an exterior space equivalent to each major interior space.
Architect Rudolph M. Schindler embraced that idea when he built his house at Kings Road in West Hollywood, designing it around a courtyard. Big sliding doors on a series of courtyard rooms make house and garden seem as if they were part of the same space. The...