John Lautner (1911 to 1994) was a Los Angeles architect who trained under Frank Lloyd Wright in the first Taliesin Fellowship and built roughly two hundred projects in Southern California. He is known for structural invention on impossible sites. At least five of his Los Angeles houses are designated Historic-Cultural Monuments, including the Chemosphere, number 785. Seven more Lautner projects sit over the ridge in the San Fernando Valley, three of them in Studio City.
Who was John Lautner and what did he build in Los Angeles?
Most architects solve a site. Lautner argued with it. Handed a hillside at 45 degrees he decided the hill was not the point, and the house went up on one column. That habit runs through fifty years of work, and it is why his houses are still the hardest ones in Los Angeles to price.
A search for John Lautner architect Los Angeles returns the Chemosphere, and then it repeats itself. This page is the fuller record: the training, the five monument numbers, and the seven Valley houses that never make the lists. John Lautner homes for sale are rare in any given year, and when one does come up the transaction looks nothing like a normal sale. Debbie Pisaro is an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles owners call for exactly that reason. This is the record of his work, the houses that carry monument numbers, and where each one sits.
Wright, Taliesin, and the move west
Lautner was born in Marquette, Michigan in 1911 and joined Frank Lloyd Wright's first Taliesin Fellowship at Spring Green in 1933. He stayed six years, and the documentation on his career credits him with supervising construction on Fallingwater and the Johnson Wax building, which is an apprenticeship in the physical fact of a building rather than in drawing one.
He came to Los Angeles at the end of the 1930s and never left. What he took from Wright was not a style. It was the conviction that structure is the architecture, and everything else is arrangement. His contemporaries in the city were working the same ground from other directions: R.M. Schindler, Richard Neutra, Gregory Ain, and later Craig Ellwood and A. Quincy Jones. The whole set sits in the architects archive.
Wood, plywood bents, and the 1940s
The 1940s work is wooden and inventive and mostly overlooked. Lautner was building with an engineer named Edgardo Contini, who worked out asymmetrical post and beam frames called plywood bents. The frames carry the load, so no interior wall has to, which is the open plan and the long glass a decade before anyone called it mid century modern.
The Mauer House on Rome Drive in Mount Washington is the clearest surviving example, and its history is unusual even for Lautner. Wright began the design in 1941. Lautner redesigned it entirely and finished it in 1946. House and Garden published it in 1944 as the model house for California living. The city adopted it as Historic-Cultural Monument number 481 in March 1990, which makes it the earliest designated Lautner house in Los Angeles.
The same years produced work that has not survived at all. Between 1946 and 1957 Lautner designed eight restaurants in Los Angeles, among them the 1949 coffee shop on Sunset that gave an entire American style its name. Not one of the eight is still standing, and none of the sites carries a marker.
Where the work changes
The city's National Register documentation puts the start of Lautner's second significant phase at the Harpel House, built in 1956 on Torreyson Drive in the Hollywood Hills. From there he stops choosing between wood and concrete and starts combining them. At the Harpel, round reinforced concrete columns carry wood beams laid in interlocking equilateral triangles, and the structural grid runs past the glass to make exterior rooms. It is Historic-Cultural Monument number 896.
Four years later, and four doors down the same street, he built the Chemosphere for Leonard Malin: an octagon of 2,208 square feet on a single five-foot concrete column, 29 feet above a slope nobody would build on. Encyclopaedia Britannica called it the most modern home built in the world in 1961. It is Monument number 785, and it is the house most people mean when they say Lautner.
Then Silvertop in Silver Lake, where a curved concrete shell wraps a ridge above the reservoir, Monument number 727. Then the Sheats-Goldstein Residence in Beverly Crest, with its coffered concrete roof and frameless glass, which the owner gave to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Lautner also worked at civic scale, and the Midtown School in Los Feliz is the local proof of it.
The Valley Lautners, and the round house on Berry Drive
Every Lautner most people can name is on the ocean side of the ridge. Seven of his projects sit on the Valley side, and three of those are in Studio City, and almost nothing has been written about any of them. That is the whole reason to put them on this page.
The one worth going out of your way for is the Wayne Zimmerman House on Berry Drive in Studio City, and it is round. A concrete roof sits on six columns, Zimmerman textured the ceiling himself in a palm frond pattern, and the plan splits the way a bachelor's house splits: swimming and exercise on the lower level, the entrance level given over to the view, with a built-in circular bench curved around the room that seats more than fifty people looking out at the San Fernando Valley. Lautner treated it as a variation on the observatory idea he had already worked out at the Chemosphere, which sits a few minutes of ridge away on the other side.
The year is not settled, and it is worth saying so rather than picking one quietly. The USModernist catalogue and the Round House Project both record 1968. Wikipedia's list of Lautner works says 1965. Take 1968, since it is the year two catalogues agree on, and treat the three year gap as what happens to a house that only two or three pages have ever carried a date for. Zimmerman built it himself, and the house stayed with the family that built it for decades, which is most of the reason so little was ever published about it, and also the usual reason a house like this is still recognizable as what the architect drew.
One point of order on the name, because it will otherwise cost somebody an afternoon. This is Wayne Zimmerman, the client. Bernard Zimmerman is a different person entirely, a Los Angeles architect with his own profile in this archive, and Frank Lloyd Wright built a Zimmerman House of his own in New Hampshire. Three unrelated Zimmermans, one of them a Lautner in Studio City.
The rest of the Valley set, by street rather than by number, since these are private houses and not designated monuments:
- Richard Brooks remodel, Viewcrest Road, Studio City, 1947. Standing.
- Ted Tyler House, Woodhill Canyon Road, Studio City, 1953. Fully restored in 1996.
- Louise Foster House, Las Cruces Drive, Sherman Oaks, 1950. Renovated in 2017.
- Ub and Mildred Iwerks House, Murietta Avenue, Sherman Oaks, 1958. Iwerks was the Disney animator who drew Mickey Mouse and animated Steamboat Willie.
- Coneco Corporation House, Scadlock Lane, Van Nuys, 1955.
- Goldsmith Residence II, Rayneta Drive, Sherman Oaks, 1978.
Put those next to the Schindlers on Reklaw Drive, Soriano's aluminum house on Dona Cecilia, and A. Quincy Jones at St. Michael's, and the Valley side of the hill stops looking like the overflow and starts looking like a second concentration. The whole of it is mapped in the mid-century neighborhoods of the San Fernando Valley, and the Studio City end of it is covered in more detail on the architectural homes of Studio City, alongside the Roxy Roth House and the Grossman House.
The house he built for himself
There is exactly one house Lautner designed and built for his own family, on Micheltorena Street in Silver Lake, and it is worth its own page. Architects' own houses are always the honest ones, because there is no client to argue with and no budget to hide behind. It sits up the same street as Silvertop, which makes that stretch of Silver Lake architecture one of the densest runs of Lautner in the city.
What a monument number means when a Lautner comes to market
Historic-Cultural Monument status in Los Angeles is a review process, not a freeze. Alterations go before the Cultural Heritage Commission, a demolition request can be delayed while the city looks for alternatives, and the owner keeps every other right including the right to sell. California protects historic architectural homes through several layers, and the city monument is one of them.
The number that moves a deal is the Mills Act contract, the property tax agreement offered to owners of qualifying historic properties who maintain them. Selling a Mills Act home has its own mechanics, and the same contract governs designated blocks across the city, out to the Craftsman streets of West Adams. Whether designation costs an owner at resale is a fair question, and the record on designated homes says it changes the buyer pool rather than the price.
None of that protection reaches the Valley houses. Not one of the seven carries a monument number, a Mills Act contract, or any review triggered by the architect's name, which is the ordinary condition of most Lautner work and the reason a page like this is worth keeping current.
On a Lautner, ask for the Mills Act contract, the permit history since designation, and any drawings the owner holds. The drawings are worth more than they look. Restorations live or die on them.
Pricing a Lautner, and why it is not a comps exercise
There is no comparable sale for a Lautner. There is barely a category. Value tracks the depth of the architectural buyer pool on the day the house comes to market, which is the subject of pricing a one-of-a-kind architectural home, and that pool is international, small, and extremely well informed. It also moves quietly, which is why pocket listings matter more at this level than at any other.
Condition and documentation carry more weight than square footage. A house with its original drawings, a clean permit history, and unwound later additions sits at the top of the pool. A house with unreviewed work sits at the bottom of it. That is the same lesson Koenig's Stahl House and the rest of the canon teach, and it is collected in seven iconic architectural homes in Los Angeles and across the architectural homes archive. If you are learning the vocabulary first, start with the Los Angeles house styles people fall in love with.
Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and an Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers across Los Angeles and the surrounding neighborhoods. She built Coastline 840 as a boutique California practice for this kind of work, on the argument that a boutique practice outperforms a big-box operation when a house needs someone who actually knows it. Owners of designated homes work with her as an architectural homes specialist, and the record lives at debbiepisaro.com. That is the difference between a listing agent and an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles owners come back to.
Who was John Lautner?
John Lautner was an American architect, born in Marquette, Michigan in 1911 and working in Los Angeles from the late 1930s until his death in 1994. He trained in Frank Lloyd Wright's first Taliesin Fellowship and built roughly two hundred projects, most of them in Southern California.
Is there a John Lautner house in Studio City?
Yes, three of them. The Wayne Zimmerman House on Berry Drive is a round house with a concrete roof on six columns. The Ted Tyler House sits on Woodhill Canyon Road, and a 1947 Lautner remodel stands on Viewcrest Road. None of the three carries a monument number or any historic designation.
When was the Wayne Zimmerman House in Studio City built?
The USModernist catalogue and the Round House Project both date it to 1968, while Wikipedia's list of Lautner works gives 1965. Take 1968 as the figure two catalogues agree on. The three year gap is typical of a house whose published record runs to only a few pages.
Which John Lautner houses are Los Angeles monuments?
At least five Lautner properties carry city monument numbers. The Mauer House is 481, Silvertop is 727, the Chemosphere is 785, the Goldstein office is 829, and the Harpel House is 896. The city's National Register documentation on Lautner lists these alongside the Sheats-Goldstein Residence.
What is Lautner most famous for?
The Chemosphere, an octagonal house of 2,208 square feet raised 29 feet on one concrete column above a 45-degree slope in the Hollywood Hills. Encyclopaedia Britannica called it the most modern home built in the world in 1961, and it has appeared in film and television for six decades.
Did Lautner work for Wright?
Yes. Lautner joined the first Taliesin Fellowship at Spring Green, Wisconsin in 1933 and stayed six years. Accounts of his career credit him with supervising construction on Fallingwater and the Johnson Wax building, which is why his own work is so consistently driven by structure rather than by style.
How many Lautner houses are there in Los Angeles?
Lautner completed roughly two hundred projects across Southern California, though the residential count in the city itself is smaller and not every commission survives. The city's National Register documentation on his residential architecture is the most reliable inventory of what still stands and what is designated.
Are Lautner homes hard to sell?
They are not hard to sell, they are hard to price. The buyer pool is small, international, and well informed, and it does not respond to a grid of neighborhood comparables. Condition, original drawings, and a clean permit history since designation carry more weight than square footage does.
Can you tour a Lautner house?
Most are private residences and cannot be visited. The Sheats-Goldstein Residence in Beverly Crest was given by its owner to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and opens on a limited basis. The Chemosphere, the Harpel House, and the Mauer House are all private and closed to the public.
Who is a good architectural real estate agent in Los Angeles?
Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and an Inman Luxury Leader who represents buyers and sellers of architectural, historic, and design-forward homes across Los Angeles. She works regularly on Historic-Cultural Monuments and Mills Act properties. Reach her at (310) 362-6429 or debbie@coastline840.com.
Coastline 840 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90026 · DRE #01369110
Debbie Pisaro, DRE #01369110, is the founder of Coastline 840, a boutique California practice, and an Inman Luxury Leader with 24 years of experience in architectural, historic, and design-forward homes. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market. Coastline 840 is a fictitious business name of Side, Inc., CA DRE #02014153, the responsible broker. She writes about California real estate at debbiepisaro.com, losfelizliving.com, and coastline840.com.
City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning, Residential Architecture of John Lautner in Southern California 1940 to 1994 (National Register Multiple Property Documentation). City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning, Historic-Cultural Monuments List. USModernist Archives, John Lautner project catalogue. The Round House Project, Wayne Zimmerman Residence. The John Lautner Foundation. Society of Architectural Historians, SAH Archipedia. Pacific Coast Architecture Database, University of Washington.
On the Register
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