A fireplace anchors the living room. (Photo by Sterling Reed)
A Schindler-designed built-in sofa and storage unit separates the living and dining areas.(Photo by Sterling Reed)
The dining area. (Photo by Sterling Reed)
One of the four bedrooms. (Photo by Sterling Reed)
The kitchen and breakfast area. (Photo by Sterling Reed)
The studio. (Photo by Sterling Reed)
Newport Beach’s landmark Lovell Beach House, designed by modernist architect Rudolph M. Schindler, is on the market for $18.8 million for the first time in its 100-year history. (Photo by Sterling Reed)
For the first time in its 100-year history, the landmark Lovell Beach House on Newport Beach’s Balboa Peninsula is on the market.
The asking price is $18.8 million.
Modernist architect Rudolph M. Schindler designed the 2,741-square-foot beachfront residence for health advocates Philip and Leah Lovell. A naturopathic doctor who wrote a wellness column for the Los Angeles Times, Philip Lovell advocated natural foods, fresh air and nude sunbathing — principles that influenced the home’s design.
The Lovells’ connection to Schindler began through Leah Lovell, who taught alongside the architect’s wife, Pauline Schindler, at an experimental school in Los Angeles, according to a 2019 PBS SoCal article.
Completed in 1926 and updated over the decades, the four-bedroom, four-bathroom house occupies a 3,734-square-foot corner lot along a narrow stretch of the peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and Newport Harbor. A broad sandy beach separates the landmark from the surf, while the oceanfront boardwalk passes directly in front of it.
The setting comes amid renewed concerns about coastal flooding.
On Monday, Oct. 26, unusually high king tides sent water into streets and properties along the peninsula. Newport Beach officials declared a local emergency and deployed pumps, sandbags and protective sand berms to combat flooding.
But the Lovell Beach House is not shown inundated in an online Newport Beach flood simulation. Co-listing agent Nate Cole of Modern California House also reported through a publicist Tuesday, Oct. 27 that conditions at the property are “all good.”
Five reinforced-concrete frames, each shaped like two interlocking squares, support the house.
Schindler elevated the living space above the boardwalk for privacy, while a wall of glass offered sweeping ocean views, according to the home’s 1973 National Register of Historic Places nomination prepared by architectural historian Esther McCoy.
The house joined the National Register in 1974.
In 1928, Schindler enclosed the open-air sleeping porch to keep out coastal fog and moisture.
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A rooftop deck provides space for sunbathing.
Two stairways lead from street level to the home’s main living area, a cavernous, double-height space with floor-to-ceiling glass and a bridge-like mezzanine hallway above. A fireplace anchors the room, while a Schindler-designed built-in sofa and storage unit separates the living and dining areas.
The home’s architectural pedigree extends outdoors.
Richard Neutra helped design the ocean-facing garden, according to architectural historian Judith Sheine as cited by The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the listing. Its garden originally stretched beneath the elevated house to create a sheltered outdoor space with a fireplace.
James Steele, author of the 2005 Taschen book on Schindler, described the Lovell Beach House as “Schindler’s second-most important work” after the architect’s own home on Kings Road.
Although the Lovells later commissioned Neutra’s equally celebrated Lovell Health House in Los Angeles, completed in 1929, the couple preferred their Newport Beach home. There, they entertained artists and intellectuals, including singer Paul Robeson and photographer Edward Weston, granddaughter Robin Lovell told the Journal.
In the early 1970s, the Lovells’ youngest son, Gary, and his wife, Barbara, purchased the property off-market for about $50,000. According to the Journal, they bought it from Gary Lovell’s brother and his father, a widower at the time.
The home has undergone relatively few changes over the decades. Gary and Barbara Lovell remodeled the kitchen and converted a large bathroom into two. The original bathroom had a communal shower with about five showerheads, intended to promote circulation and digestion, Robin Lovell told the Journal.
The property also includes a garage and studio.
Gary Lovell died in May 1997 at 70. Barbara Lovell continued living in the beach house until her death in December 2025 at 94.
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Todd Bousman of Bouhaus Properties shares the listing with Cole.