December 17, 2018

Man ordered to build replica of San Francisco home after illegally demolishing building

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A man who illegally demolished a San Francisco house designed by modernist architect Richard Neutra was ordered this week to rebuild it exactly as it was.

The city Planning Commission also ordered Ross Johnston to add a sidewalk plaque telling the entire saga of the house’s origins in the 1930s, its demolition and replication.

Johnston purchased the 1936 residence, known as the Largent House, in 2017 for $1.7 million.

Johnston had planned to remodel the 1,300-square-foot home in the Twin Peaks neighborhood and submitted his plans for the two-story house to the city, which mostly kept the first floor intact. His permit was approved.

However, as neighbor Cheryl Traverce discovered, Johnston had a much more elaborate modification in mind.

“I went to New York for about a week-and-a-half and [when I] came back the house was gone, totally gone,” Traverce told KPIX 5. “I was shocked.”

Johnston later applied for a retroactive demolition permit and asked to build a new three-story house that would expand the size from 1,300 to nearly 4,000 square feet.

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