Cliff May in Pacific Palisades, six houses and what became of them

Debbie Pisaro November 3, 2026

A board-and-batten Cliff May ranch house with a long front porch, the kind of house that once stood on Palisades streets

Cliff May in Pacific Palisades at a glance

Cliff May built six recorded houses in Pacific Palisades between 1938 and 1941. None can be found standing today. At least four were torn down and replaced before the January 2025 fire, a fifth was gone before the fire and the house on its lot burned, and the sixth was recorded at an address that does not exist.

Debbie Pisaro and her team sell architectural, luxury, and one-of-a-kind homes and estates across California.

Pacific Palisades · Architectural Homes

Before the fire, there were six Cliff May houses on record in the Palisades. Debbie Pisaro checked every address. Here is what she found, and what it says about the houses that are still left.

By Debbie PisaroDRE #01369110

November 2026

Architectural Home7 min read

Before Sullivan Canyon, before the Experimental House, Cliff May was building in Pacific Palisades. Between 1938 and 1941 he designed six houses there that made it into the record, on Alma Real Drive, Ocampo Drive in the Huntington Palisades, Romany Drive, Alta Mura Road, Chautauqua Boulevard, and San Remo Drive. When the Palisades burned in January 2025, nobody said whether any of them survived. So Debbie Pisaro went and checked.

Debbie, an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles owners call when the architect is the reason for the sale, keeps the full record of the architect in her Cliff May architect profile. This page is the part of that record nobody else had written down.

From Debbie

I checked every one of these six addresses myself. Not one is still a Cliff May house that I could find. This is so sad.

The Record

The six Cliff May houses in the Palisades

These are the Pacific Palisades houses in the Cliff May record, with what Debbie found at each address in October 2026.

Address	Client	Year	What happened
515 Alma Real Drive	H.H. Utley	1938	Replaced by a new house in 2022, which did not burn
814 O’Campo Drive	Frank Colligan	1938	The recorded address does not exist; where the house stood is unknown
13600 Romany Drive	Charles Kaufman	1940	Replaced by a new house, which did not burn
1679 Alta Mura Road	Dr. Leslie LeCron	1940	Replaced by a new house, which did not burn
1325 Chautauqua Boulevard	Eric Scudder	1940	Torn down before the fire; the house that replaced it burned in 2025
1700 San Remo Drive	Edward Fowler	1941	Replaced by a new house, which did not burn

The fire did not take these houses. Most were already gone.

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What Happened

Why the Palisades lost its Cliff Mays

The January 2025 fire is the easy explanation, and for these houses it is mostly the wrong one. Five of the six were already gone before it, replaced by larger new houses over the years, the most recent in 2022. The sixth, the 1938 house for Frank Colligan, is recorded at 814 O’Campo Drive in the Huntington Palisades, and that address does not exist. Where the house actually stood, and whether it was still there in January 2025, is a question the record cannot answer.

None of the six carried a landmark designation. In Los Angeles, a house without one can generally be taken down with an ordinary demolition permit, whoever designed it. The one Cliff May house on the city’s monument list, the Experimental House on Old Ranch Road, is still standing. The difference between the two outcomes is a piece of paper.

What Is Left

Where Cliff May still stands near the Palisades

His work on the Brentwood side of the border is a different story. Sullivan Canyon, which sits on the Palisades line and is often marketed as Pacific Palisades, still holds his houses on Old Ranch Road, covered in Cliff May homes in Brentwood, a Sullivan Canyon guide. Next door is Riviera Ranch, the subdivision he laid out from 1940, and a few canyons east are his first Los Angeles houses in Mandeville Canyon. Those districts have been found eligible for historic registers, but eligible is not designated, and the Palisades shows what that can mean.

For Owners

If you own a Cliff May, keep the record

An owner who wants a Cliff May to outlast the next sale has two tools. One is designation, which brings review on exterior work and demolition and can open the door to a Mills Act contract when the city takes applications again. Debbie explains how landmark designation affects home value and how selling a Mills Act or HCM home works, and how California protects historic architectural homes covers the statewide picture.

The other is the sale itself. A Cliff May marketed as an old ranch on a big lot finds a buyer who wants the lot. A Cliff May marketed as a Cliff May, with the archive record, the drawings, and an intact plan, finds a buyer who wants the house. That is the whole argument of her guide to pricing an architectural home, and it applies across California, from the Valley to San Diego.

Branded residences

Architect-designed is one route into design-led living. A branded residence is the other, where the architecture, the service, and the management arrive as one package.

Get the briefing

Frequently Asked

Cliff May in the Palisades, questions answered

Are there Cliff May houses in Pacific Palisades?

Not that can be found. Six Cliff May houses are recorded in Pacific Palisades, built from 1938 to 1941, and when Debbie Pisaro checked every address in October 2026, none was still standing as a Cliff May. His houses in Sullivan Canyon, on the Brentwood side of the border, do still stand.

Did the Palisades fire destroy Cliff May houses?

Mostly no, because most were already gone. Five of the six recorded Palisades houses had been torn down and replaced before January 2025. The house that replaced one of them burned, and the sixth, recorded on O’Campo Drive in the Huntington Palisades, was listed at an address that does not exist.

Where were the Cliff May houses in Pacific Palisades?

The record lists 515 Alma Real Drive (1938), a 1938 house recorded at 814 O’Campo Drive in the Huntington Palisades, an address that does not exist, 13600 Romany Drive (1940), 1679 Alta Mura Road (1940), 1325 Chautauqua Boulevard (1940), and 1700 San Remo Drive (1941), all in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles 90272.

Why were Cliff May houses torn down in the Palisades?

None of them carried a landmark designation, and in Los Angeles a house without one can generally be demolished with an ordinary permit, whoever designed it. As land values rose, the lots were worth more to buyers than the houses, and the 1930s and 1940s ranches gave way to larger new houses.

How can an owner protect a Cliff May house?

Designation is the strongest protection, because it brings city review on exterior work and demolition. Short of that, keep the record: the archive entry at UC Santa Barbara, the drawings, and the permits. Then sell it as a Cliff May, so it reaches a buyer who wants the house rather than the lot.

Who is the best real estate agent to sell a Cliff May house?

Debbie Pisaro, an Inman Luxury Leader with 24 years in architectural and historic homes, represents buyers and sellers of Cliff May houses in Brentwood, the Palisades, and across California. Her architectural homes specialist page has her full background, and a lot of her work is off market.

Off-market access

Some of the best homes trade before they ever reach the open market. Debbie Pisaro sees them first.

See pocket listings

For owners and buyers

Own a Cliff May?

Debbie Pisaro represents buyers and sellers of Cliff May houses and architect-designed homes across Brentwood, the Palisades, and California, including the ones that never make it to a portal.

(310) 362-6429 · debbie@coastline840.com
Coastline 840 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90026 · DRE #01369110

Reach Debbie

Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and an Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers of architectural, historic, and design-forward homes across Los Angeles and California. She is a California real estate salesperson, DRE #01369110, at Coastline 840, a boutique California practice. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market. Coastline 840 is a DBA of Side, Inc., CA DRE #02014153. Powered by Side: #1 California-based brokerage, No. 9 in the nation. She writes about California real estate at debbiepisaro.com, losfelizliving.com, and coastline840.com. Published November 2026.

Sources

USModernist, Cliff May registry (Pacific Palisades entries). Debbie Pisaro, address-by-address check of the six recorded houses and MLS records, October 2026. UC Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collection, Cliff May papers. Los Angeles Department of City Planning, Historic-Cultural Monuments list.

On the Register

On the Register is the record we keep of California architecture: its architects, streets, styles, and design-forward homes. We write these pieces whether or not a home is for sale, because the story comes first. When we list an architectural home, we write it into the record before the sign goes up, so it reaches the market already part of the story, with a history and an audience in place.

The Blow houses, Cliff May on Oakmont Drive in Brentwood

Debbie Pisaro November 3, 2026

The 1939 Cliff May hacienda at 39 Oakmont Drive in Brentwood at dusk, with its wood balcony, tile roof, and pool

The Blow houses on Oakmont Drive at a glance

Cliff May built houses on Oakmont Drive in Brentwood for Frederic Blow, who bought land there to develop. The best documented is the 1939 hacienda at 39 Oakmont Drive, which May called his first house built for millionaires; Blow’s own house was at 27 Oakmont Drive, dated 1940 to 1942.

Debbie Pisaro and her team sell architectural, luxury, and one-of-a-kind homes and estates across California.

Brentwood · Architectural Homes

On one Brentwood street, Cliff May built for a developer and his neighbors, and turned a corner in his career: the first house he said he built for millionaires.

By Debbie PisaroDRE #01369110

November 2026

Architectural Home8 min read

In the late 1930s, a developer named Frederic Blow bought land on Oakmont Drive in Brentwood, planned a group of houses, and kept one for himself. He hired Cliff May, who was four years out of San Diego and still building his name. One of the Oakmont houses became, in May’s own words, the first house he built for millionaires.

Debbie Pisaro, an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles owners call when the architect is the reason for the sale, keeps this page as the record of the Oakmont houses. The architect has his own page, the Cliff May architect profile, and his other Brentwood work is in Cliff May homes in Sullivan Canyon, Riviera Ranch, and Mandeville Canyon.

The Client

Frederic Blow and Oakmont Drive

According to the USModernist register, Frederic Blow bought property on Oakmont Drive for a development of houses, including his own at 27 Oakmont Drive. That gives the street its shape in the Cliff May record: a developer’s project with the developer living in it, a step beyond the spec houses May had built with his partner John Smith on Stone Canyon Road and in Mandeville Canyon a few years earlier.

The Millionaire House

39 Oakmont Drive, the first house for millionaires

The best documented of the Oakmont houses is the 1939 hacienda at 39 Oakmont Drive, Los Angeles 90049, on about an acre and a half. In his oral history, Cliff May called it his first house built for millionaires, and UC Santa Barbara holds its original plans and drawings. The marketing material that has followed it describes a high-ceilinged entry, a curved staircase, original built-in bookcases, three fireplaces, a pool, and a paddle tennis court. It sold for $13 million in February 2018.

That line from the oral history marks a turn. Until then, May’s Los Angeles work had been his own house and spec houses with a partner. Oakmont put him in front of clients with real money and real land, the clients he would build for in Brentwood’s canyons for the next forty years.

In May’s own words, his first house built for millionaires.

All things architectural

Debbie Pisaro writes All Things Architectural, on the homes and the architects who designed them, the details, the history, and the neighborhoods they shaped.

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The Numbers Problem

27, 29, or 39: reading the record

The street numbers on Oakmont Drive do not line up across the sources, and anyone buying or selling here should know how. The USModernist register lists Blow House I at 27 Oakmont, dated 1940, and Blow House II at 29 Oakmont, dated 1939 and sold in 2018. The UC Santa Barbara archive also files May’s later work, a 1941 pool and lounge and guest-house work from 1944 to 1948, under 29 Oakmont. Today’s records and listings put the 1939 May house at 39 Oakmont, sold in February 2018.

The dates and the sale match, so 29 and 39 very likely describe the same house, recorded under an old number or a mistaken one. The city’s historic survey adds its own wrinkle, listing “Blow House No. 2” at 27 North Oakmont Drive and dating it to 1942. An owner on Oakmont should settle the number with the county assessor and the archive file before the house is marketed, because the attribution is only as strong as the address it is tied to.

The Value

Owning a Brentwood Cliff May

None of the Oakmont houses carries a landmark designation in the record, so none is under city review, and Debbie’s check of the Cliff May houses of Pacific Palisades shows how quickly undesignated houses can disappear. What protects value here is the record: the archive drawings, the oral history, the permits, and the plan. Debbie explains how that shows up in price in her guide to pricing an architectural home, and how landmark designation affects home value for owners considering it.

The one Cliff May on the Los Angeles monument list is his own Experimental House, a few miles west. His contemporaries are in Debbie’s guide to California architects, and his work runs the length of the state, from San Diego to Hope Ranch in Santa Barbara.

Branded residences

Architect-designed is one route into design-led living. A branded residence is the other, where the architecture, the service, and the management arrive as one package.

Get the briefing

My Take

My take on 39 Oakmont Drive

What struck me right away: 1.45 acres. That's an enormous piece of Brentwood for a 1939 house, and it tells you who it was built for. Cliff May himself called it his first house built for millionaires.

The arrival is what this house does well. The record describes a high-ceilinged entry, a curved staircase, original built-in bookcases, and three fireplaces, and UC Santa Barbara still holds the plans. It was meant to impress and to last, and the original details are still there to point to.

I picture a family that wants room more than flash: a pool, a paddle tennis court, kids outside all afternoon, and a house with a story they can tell at dinner.

The honest part is the address. The register and the archive file this house as 29 Oakmont, and today it's 39. I believe it's the same house, but I'd want the assessor's record and the archive file lined up before anyone markets it as a Cliff May again, because the attribution is only as good as the paper.

Bottom line: this is the house where Cliff May stepped up a level. I'd sell it with that line first and the acreage second.

Frequently Asked

The Oakmont houses, questions answered

Are there Cliff May houses on Oakmont Drive in Brentwood?

Yes. Cliff May built houses on Oakmont Drive for the developer Frederic Blow, who bought land there and lived at 27 Oakmont. The best documented is the 1939 hacienda at 39 Oakmont Drive, Los Angeles 90049, which May called his first house built for millionaires and whose plans are held at UC Santa Barbara.

Who was Frederic Blow?

Frederic Blow was a developer who bought property on Oakmont Drive in Brentwood in the late 1930s for a group of houses, including his own at 27 Oakmont. He hired Cliff May, and the register records two Blow houses by May on the street, dated between 1939 and 1942 depending on the source.

What is the Cliff May house at 39 Oakmont Drive?

It is a 1939 Cliff May hacienda on about an acre and a half in Brentwood, with a curved staircase, original built-ins, three fireplaces, a pool, and a paddle tennis court. May called it his first house built for millionaires, UC Santa Barbara holds its plans, and it sold for $13 million in February 2018.

Why do sources give different addresses for the Blow houses?

The register and the UC Santa Barbara archive use 29 Oakmont for a 1939 house that sold in 2018, while current records put that house at 39 Oakmont. The match suggests one house under two numbers. The city survey also dates a Blow house at 27 Oakmont to 1942. Owners should confirm with the county assessor.

Are the Oakmont Drive Cliff May houses historic landmarks?

Not in the record. None of the Oakmont houses carries a Los Angeles landmark designation, so none is under city review for exterior work or demolition, and none is on a path to a Mills Act contract unless it is designated. That makes the archive drawings, the oral history, and the permits the whole case for each house.

Who is the best real estate agent to sell a Cliff May house in Brentwood?

Debbie Pisaro, an Inman Luxury Leader with 24 years in architectural and historic homes, represents buyers and sellers of Cliff May houses on Oakmont Drive, in Sullivan Canyon, and across California. Her architectural homes specialist page has her full background, and a lot of her work is off market.

Off-market access

Some of the best homes trade before they ever reach the open market. Debbie Pisaro sees them first.

See pocket listings

For owners and buyers

Own a house on Oakmont Drive?

Debbie Pisaro represents buyers and sellers of Cliff May houses and architect-designed homes across Brentwood and California, including the ones that never make it to a portal.

(310) 362-6429 · debbie@coastline840.com
Coastline 840 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90026 · DRE #01369110

Reach Debbie

Sources

USModernist, Cliff May registry (Frederic Blow Houses I and II). UC Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collection, Cliff May papers (Oakmont Drive). Los Angeles Department of City Planning, SurveyLA, Historic Places LA report for 27 N. Oakmont Drive. Cliff May oral history, as quoted in the marketing of 39 Oakmont Drive. Redfin, sale record for 39 Oakmont Drive, February 2018.

On the Register

Riviera Ranch, the Brentwood subdivision Cliff May laid out for horses

Debbie Pisaro November 3, 2026

An aerial view over the wooded lots of Riviera Ranch in Brentwood, with the Riviera Country Club and Santa Monica Bay beyond.

Riviera Ranch at a glance

Riviera Ranch is the horse-country subdivision Cliff May laid out from about 1940 in Brentwood, north of Sunset Boulevard across from the Riviera Country Club, on Riviera Ranch Road, Old Oak Road, and Old Oak Lane. It held his 1938 house at 1500 Old Oak Road and the first House Beautiful Pace Setter house.

Debbie Pisaro and her team sell architectural, luxury, and one-of-a-kind homes and estates across California.

Brentwood · Architectural Homes

The subdivision where Cliff May lived first, built for horses, and opened the house that sent his ranch idea to every corner of the country.

By Debbie PisaroDRE #01369110

November 2026

Architectural Home8 min read

Before Sullivan Canyon, there was Riviera Ranch. Across Sunset Boulevard from the polo fields of the Riviera Country Club, Cliff May laid out a neighborhood of ranch sites for people who kept horses, built himself a house at the top of the hill, and in the years after the war opened a model home there that House Beautiful put on its cover. The ranch house went national from this road.

Debbie Pisaro, an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles owners call when the architect is the reason for the sale, keeps this page as the record of the subdivision. The architect has his own page, the Cliff May architect profile, and the canyon next door has hers too: Cliff May homes in Brentwood, a Sullivan Canyon guide.

The Subdivision

What is Riviera Ranch?

Riviera Ranch is a mid-century subdivision in Brentwood, Los Angeles 90049, on Riviera Ranch Road, Old Oak Road, and Old Oak Lane, north of Sunset Boulevard and directly across from the Riviera Country Club. Cliff May developed it from about 1940 with a partner, the developer John Smith, and with financing from the First National Finance Corporation. The lots were large and zoned for horses, and the houses were his: long, low California ranches set back from the road behind oaks and fences.

When May and Smith later divided their projects, Smith took the Woodacres subdivision and May took the deed to Riviera Ranch, according to the UC Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collection, which holds his papers. Building went on into the late 1970s. The city’s historic survey counts 15 of the subdivision’s 31 parcels as contributors and finds Riviera Ranch eligible for the National Register and the California Register as postwar development by a master architect. It has not been designated.

His First House Here

1500 Old Oak Road, the house at the top

The first house May built for himself in Brentwood sits at the top of Old Oak Road. The USModernist register records it as a 1938 hacienda-style house at 1500 Old Oak Road that served as his personal residence and as the model home for the subdivision, out of sight at the end of the road, and says he called it Mandalay.

That name carries a puzzle worth knowing about. The UC Santa Barbara archive catalogs a later house, his fifth for himself, as “Mandalay” at 2200 Old Ranch Road in Sullivan Canyon, dated 1956, and that is the Mandalay where he died in 1989. May seems to have used the name twice, for the first house in this subdivision and the last one in the canyon next door. Between them came the Cliff May Experimental House at 1831 Old Ranch Road, now Historic-Cultural Monument #716. When a listing or a neighbor says “Mandalay,” ask which one.

The ranch house went national from this road.

All things architectural

Debbie Pisaro writes All Things Architectural, on the homes and the architects who designed them, the details, the history, and the neighborhoods they shaped.

Join the list or call (310) 362-6429

The Pace Setter

The House Beautiful Pace Setter house

The house that made Riviera Ranch famous stood at 1611 Old Oak Road. It began as a postwar demonstration plan for Woodacres, with William Cody, later one of the great Palm Springs modernists, as project architect in May’s office, and it was built in Riviera Ranch in 1946 and 1947 with First National Finance money. Elizabeth Gordon, the editor of House Beautiful, and her staff designed the interiors.

It opened as the magazine’s first Pace Setter house, with two months of public tours, and in February 1948 House Beautiful gave it the cover and a long spread. The effect was immediate: May received some twenty commissions to build the design around the United States, and Gordon went on to publish a new Pace Setter house every year into the mid-1960s. May remodeled the house in 1948. The register records that it was demolished in 2006 and a new house built on the lot in 2007, so the Pace Setter now lives in the magazine, the photographs at UC Santa Barbara, and the houses it inspired.

Riviera Ranch Road

The UC Santa Barbara archive also holds May’s file for a 1948 house for Dorothy Bowman at 13222 Riviera Ranch Road. The best known sale in the area came in July 2024, when Ben Affleck paid $20.5 million for “Paradise Found,” a 1941 Cliff May design that press reports place within the Riviera Ranch enclave. Debbie covers what drives value on these streets, and why the record matters more than the comps, in her guide to pricing an architectural home.

The Value

Buying and selling in Riviera Ranch

Because the subdivision is eligible but not designated, most Riviera Ranch houses carry no landmark status of their own, which means no city review on exterior work and no path to a Mills Act contract unless a house is designated on its own. It also means nothing stops a buyer from replacing an original, as the Pace Setter lot shows. For a seller, an intact Cliff May with its courtyard, ceilings, and tile floors, and a paper trail in the UC Santa Barbara files, is the strongest version of the house to bring to market. Debbie explains how landmark designation affects home value and how selling a Mills Act or HCM home works for owners weighing that choice.

Riviera Ranch belongs to a larger California story. May’s early Los Angeles work includes the Cliff May house on Stone Canyon Road in Bel Air, and his contemporaries, from A. Quincy Jones on, are in Debbie’s guide to California architects. Architectural buyers shop the architect, not the zip code, and a Riviera Ranch buyer is as likely to come from San Francisco or New York as from the Westside.

Branded residences

Architect-designed is one route into design-led living. A branded residence is the other, where the architecture, the service, and the management arrive as one package.

Get the briefing

Frequently Asked

Riviera Ranch, questions answered

What is Riviera Ranch in Brentwood?

Riviera Ranch is a horse-zoned subdivision of large ranch sites that Cliff May developed from about 1940 in Brentwood, Los Angeles 90049, on Riviera Ranch Road, Old Oak Road, and Old Oak Lane. May built his own 1938 house there and opened the first House Beautiful Pace Setter house on Old Oak Road after the war.

Where is Riviera Ranch?

Riviera Ranch is north of Sunset Boulevard in Brentwood, directly across from the Riviera Country Club, near the Pacific Palisades border. Sullivan Canyon and Old Ranch Road, where Cliff May later built his Experimental House and his last house, Mandalay, are next door. The streets are private in feel, with fences, oaks, and horse trails.

Who developed Riviera Ranch?

Cliff May developed Riviera Ranch with the developer John Smith, with financing from the First National Finance Corporation. When the partners divided their projects, Smith took the Woodacres subdivision and May took the deed to Riviera Ranch, according to the UC Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collection, which holds the Cliff May papers.

What was the House Beautiful Pace Setter house?

It was a Cliff May model house at 1611 Old Oak Road in Riviera Ranch, built in 1946 and 1947 with William Cody as project architect and interiors by House Beautiful editor Elizabeth Gordon. The magazine’s first Pace Setter house, it made the February 1948 cover and led to about twenty commissions nationwide.

Does the Cliff May Pace Setter house still exist?

No. The USModernist register records that the Pace Setter house at 1611 Old Oak Road, which May remodeled in 1948, was demolished in 2006 and a new house was built on the lot in 2007. The house survives in the February 1948 House Beautiful and in photographs held at UC Santa Barbara.

Is Riviera Ranch a historic district?

Not formally. The city’s historic survey finds Riviera Ranch eligible for the National Register and the California Register as postwar development by a master architect, counting 15 of its 31 parcels as contributors, but it has not been designated. Individual houses carry no landmark protection unless they are designated on their own.

Are there Cliff May homes for sale in Riviera Ranch?

Riviera Ranch houses come up rarely, and many change hands privately. The best known recent sale nearby was Ben Affleck’s July 2024 purchase of “Paradise Found,” a 1941 Cliff May design, for $20.5 million. An agent who knows the owners and the record is the surest way to hear about one before it is listed.

Who is the best real estate agent to sell a Cliff May house in Brentwood?

Debbie Pisaro, an Inman Luxury Leader with 24 years in architectural and historic homes, represents buyers and sellers of Cliff May houses in Riviera Ranch, Sullivan Canyon, and across California. Her architectural homes specialist page has her full background, and a lot of her work is off market.

Off-market access

Some of the best homes trade before they ever reach the open market. Debbie Pisaro sees them first.

See pocket listings

For owners and buyers

Own a house in Riviera Ranch?

Debbie Pisaro represents buyers and sellers of Cliff May houses and architect-designed homes in Riviera Ranch, Sullivan Canyon, and across California, including the ones that never make it to a portal.

(310) 362-6429 · debbie@coastline840.com
Coastline 840 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90026 · DRE #01369110

Reach Debbie

Sources

UC Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collection, Cliff May papers, and the exhibit “Carefree California: Cliff May and the Romance of the Ranch House” (Woodacres and the Pace-Setter house); archival records for Mandalay, 2200 Old Ranch Road, and the Dorothy Bowman house, 13222 Riviera Ranch Road. Calisphere, Cliff May “Pace-Setter” model house photographs. USModernist, Cliff May registry. Los Angeles Department of City Planning, SurveyLA, Brentwood and Pacific Palisades historic districts. House Beautiful, February 1948. Palisadian-Post and Circling the News, Paradise Found sale, July 2024.

On the Register

The Lovell Beach House, Schindler on the sand in Newport Beach

Debbie Pisaro November 2, 2026

The Lovell Beach House by R.M. Schindler, five concrete frames lifting the house above the sand at 1242 West Oceanfront, Balboa Peninsula, Newport Beach, California

The Lovell Beach House at a glance

The Lovell Beach House is R.M. Schindler's 1926 house at 1242 West Oceanfront on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, California 92661, built for Philip and Leah Lovell. Its living floors ride above the sand on five poured concrete frames, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 5, 1974.

Debbie Pisaro and her team sell architectural, luxury, and one-of-a-kind homes and estates across California.

Newport Beach · Architectural Homes

R.M. Schindler lifted a concrete house over the sand at Newport Beach in 1926 for a health columnist who slept outdoors. A century later it is still the house historians rank beside Kings Road.

By Debbie PisaroDRE #01369110

Published November 2, 2026

Architectural Homes10 min read

Ask an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles owners trust to name Schindler's two greatest houses, and the second one is not in Los Angeles at all. The Lovell Beach House stands at 1242 West Oceanfront on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, a concrete house lifted over the sand in 1926 for a health columnist who slept outdoors and took cold showers. In October 2026 it was offered for sale for the first time in its hundred-year history. This page is the record of what it is.

Debbie Pisaro keeps that record the same way whether or not a house is on the market. The facts below come from the National Register file, the Historic American Buildings Survey and the Pacific Coast Architecture Database, and they are written here so that the house, its address, and the names it is known by all point to one page.

The House

What is the Lovell Beach House?

The Lovell Beach House is a two-story concrete and glass house that R.M. Schindler designed for Philip and Leah Lovell, worked on from 1922 and completed in 1926. Five poured-in-place reinforced concrete frames, each shaped like a figure eight, carry the living floors up off the beach, so that the garage sits at grade on the north, a garden sits at grade on the south, and the house itself floats above both.

Inside, a double-height living and dining room opens to the east and south through floor-to-ceiling glass. The bedrooms on the upper floor open onto a gallery that looks down into that room, and a rooftop deck sits above it all for the sunbathing Lovell prescribed. The house measures 2,741 square feet. Schindler designed the built-in furniture and the lamps, and the plan was laid out for cross-ventilation off the ocean, so it was built without air conditioning.

The Historic American Buildings Survey, which photographed and measured the house in 1968, called it "generally considered one of the greatest works" of Schindler. The Pacific Coast Architecture Database goes further and places it among the most radical departures in American domestic architecture. Both judgments rest on the frames, which are still the first thing anyone sees from the boardwalk.

All things architectural

Debbie Pisaro writes All Things Architectural, on the homes and the architects who designed them, the details, the history, and the neighborhoods they shaped.

Join the list or call (310) 362-6429

Where is the Lovell Beach House, and why is it filed under Los Angeles?

The Lovell Beach House is at 1242 West Oceanfront, Newport Beach, California 92661, on the southeast corner of West Oceanfront and 13th Street on the Balboa Peninsula, with the public boardwalk running along its ocean side. It is in Orange County. It is not in Los Angeles, whatever the headlines say.

The misfiling is understandable. Schindler practiced out of West Hollywood, the Lovells lived in Los Angeles, and the house belongs to the same story as the Kings Road House and the Lovell Health House in Los Feliz. But anyone who owns the house, or wants to, deals with Newport Beach: its planning department, its building code, and the coastal permitting that comes with an oceanfront lot. Calling it a Los Angeles house is a category. The address is Newport Beach.

It also places the house in a longer California line. Schindler built Pueblo Ribera Court in La Jolla in 1923, the Bennati cabin above Lake Arrowhead in 1934, and the Wolfe House on Catalina, which was demolished in 2002. A short drive down the same coast, the concrete Hangover House in South Laguna is another reminder of how early Orange County's shoreline drew experimental modern houses.

The Clients

Who were Philip and Leah Lovell?

Philip Lovell was born Morris Saperstein in New York in 1895, studied osteopathy in Missouri, and reinvented himself in Los Angeles as a naturopath. He ate raw food, slept outdoors, and wrote the Care of the Body column in the Los Angeles Times for more than twenty years. Leah Lovell was an educator. Their beliefs are written into the plan.

The open sleeping porches were for sleeping in sea air. The rooftop deck was for sun. The communal shower, with five showerheads, was for the cold-water routine Lovell preached in print. Schindler himself came back within a few years to enclose the sleeping porches, and he kept the five-head shower when he did. Leah Lovell later told the historian Esther McCoy that the house simply fit the family, which is about the best review a client can give.

Two clients, two architects, and the two houses that started California modernism.

How is the Lovell Beach House different from the Lovell Health House?

The Lovell Beach House is Schindler's concrete house in Newport Beach, completed in 1926. The Lovell Health House is Richard Neutra's steel-framed house in Los Feliz, completed in 1929 for the same clients. Same family, same health creed, two architects, and two buildings that between them defined what a modern house in California could be.

The order matters. Neutra came to Los Angeles in the mid-1920s and lived with the Schindlers at Kings Road. When the Lovells wanted a city house, the commission went to Neutra rather than Schindler, it launched Neutra's own practice, and the two friends were estranged for years. The beach house is the one that came first, and it is the purer statement of Schindler's own ideas. The Los Feliz story is told in full on the Lovell Health House page on Los Feliz Living.

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The Record

Is the Lovell Beach House a landmark?

Yes. The Lovell Beach House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 5, 1974, as reference number 74000545, six years after the Historic American Buildings Survey recorded it in drawings and Marvin Rand's photographs. The full nomination is in the National Register file.

What that listing does and does not do is the part owners ask about. For a private owner spending private money, National Register status is recognition, not a veto. The rules that actually bind an alteration, a sale or a permit are local and state ones, and on this lot they run through the City of Newport Beach and its coastal program. Whether a Mills Act contract is available is a city decision too, since each city chooses whether to offer the program. The network's guide to selling a Mills Act home covers how that contract travels with a house when the city does offer it.

The other record that matters is physical. Schindler supervised the porch enclosure and, according to PCAD, a 1947 remodel, so the major recorded changes to the house were his own. The house still looks much as it did in the 1968 survey photographs, with nearly all of its built-ins in place. Integrity like that is uncommon in a hundred-year-old oceanfront building, and it is the single biggest factor in what a house like this is worth.

Buyer's Note

On a landmark modern, the alteration history is the appraisal. Read the permit file and the survey photographs before you read the square footage.

What should a buyer know before buying a Schindler house?

A buyer considering a Schindler house should judge it on integrity first: original built-ins, original materials, and how much of the architect's intent survives, then confirm designation, permit and coastal rules with the city, budget for specialist conservation, and price the provenance on its own terms rather than by the foot.

Concrete on the beach is its own conservation problem. Salt air reaches the reinforcing steel, and a house like this one needs an engineer who has worked on historic concrete, not a general contractor with good intentions. Schindler's Los Angeles houses, often wood frame and plaster, carry different problems, and the How House in Silver Lake, the Buck House in the Miracle Mile and the Schindler houses of Studio City each show how a house reads once it has been changed, or carefully not changed, over the years. Debbie Pisaro's R.M. Schindler profile gathers the whole body of work in one place.

Pricing is the other discipline. A house that had never been offered for sale in a hundred years, with a National Register file, has no true comparable sale, and the method in Debbie's guide to pricing an architectural home applies: provenance, integrity and audience first, the per-foot average last.

Debbie Pisaro's own test on a house like this is simple: stand on the boardwalk at 13th Street and look up between the frames. From down the beach the Lovell Beach House reads as a box on stilts; from underneath you see the concrete doing the work, and that view is what a buyer is really paying for. The first question owners of a landmark modern ask her is rarely the price. It is who the next owner will be, and whether they will leave the built-ins alone.

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Working With Debbie

Buying or selling architect-designed homes across California

Debbie Pisaro is not the listing agent for 1242 West Oceanfront. Debbie represents buyers on architectural homes across California, regardless of who holds a given listing, the same standing practice whether a home is on or off market. Architectural buyers shop the architect, not the zip code, which is why her practice runs from Newport Beach and Laguna up through Los Angeles to Ojai and Santa Barbara, and the work is described on her architectural homes specialist page.

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. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market. Coastline 840 is a boutique California practice and a brand of Side, Inc., CA DRE #02014153, responsible broker, for the reasons in why we built Coastline 840 and why boutique teams outperform big-box brokerages. How quiet sales work is explained in pocket listings and off-market homes, and the wider library lives at debbiepisaro.com. For a house with a century of history, that record comes first, and keeping it is what an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles owners hire is for.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the Lovell Beach House?

At 1242 West Oceanfront in Newport Beach, California 92661, on the Balboa Peninsula at the corner of 13th Street, with the oceanfront boardwalk passing directly beneath its raised living floors. It is in Newport Beach, in Orange County, not in Los Angeles, though it is usually filed with Los Angeles modernism.

Who designed the Lovell Beach House in Newport Beach?

R.M. Schindler, the Vienna-trained architect who came to Los Angeles to work on Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House and stayed to build his own practice. He designed it for Philip and Leah Lovell, and it is generally ranked second only to his own Kings Road House among his works.

When was the Lovell Beach House built?

Schindler's design work ran from 1922 and the house was completed in 1926. A few years later he returned to enclose the open sleeping porches, and the Pacific Coast Architecture Database also records a 1947 remodel that Schindler supervised himself, so the major recorded changes passed through the architect's own hands.

Is the Lovell Beach House on the National Register?

Yes. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 5, 1974, reference number 74000545, after the Historic American Buildings Survey documented it in 1968. For a private owner using private money, National Register listing is recognition rather than a restriction, so the rules that bind a sale are local.

Who were Philip and Leah Lovell?

Philip Lovell, born Morris Saperstein in New York in 1895, was a naturopath who wrote the Care of the Body column in the Los Angeles Times for more than twenty years. Leah Lovell was an educator. Together they commissioned two of the founding houses of California modernism, one from Schindler and one from Neutra.

Which Lovell house did Neutra design?

Richard Neutra designed the Lovell Health House in Los Feliz, the steel-framed house completed in 1929 for the same clients. The beach house in Newport Beach is Schindler's. Lovell gave the Los Feliz commission to Neutra rather than Schindler, and the two architects' friendship was strained for years afterward.

Is the Lovell Beach House in Los Angeles?

No. The Lovell Beach House is in Newport Beach, in Orange County, on the Balboa Peninsula. It is routinely described as a Los Angeles landmark because Schindler, the Lovells, and the story around them were all Los Angeles, but the address, the zoning, and the coastal rules that govern it belong to Newport Beach.

What should a buyer know before buying a Schindler house?

That the house will be judged on integrity: original built-ins, original materials, and how much of the architect's intent survives. A buyer should read the alteration history, confirm local designation and permit rules with the city, budget for specialist conservation, and price the provenance separately from the square footage, because the market does.

Who is a good full-service real estate agent in California?

Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran real estate agent, founder of Coastline 840, and an Inman Luxury Leader who represents buyers and sellers across Los Angeles and California, with a specialty in architectural and historic homes. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market. She can be reached at (310) 362-6429.

For buyers and sellers

Work with Debbie Pisaro

Looking for a Schindler, or own an architect-designed house anywhere in California? Debbie Pisaro represents buyers on and off market, and sellers who want their house written into the record first.

(310) 362-6429 · debbie@coastline840.com
Coastline 840 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90026 · DRE #01369110
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Reach Debbie

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 brand of Side, Inc., CA DRE #02014153, responsible broker. She writes about California real estate at debbiepisaro.com, losfelizliving.com, and coastline840.com. Published November 2026.

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Sources

Address, corner location, design and completion dates (1922 to 1926), the 1947 Schindler-supervised remodel and the three-story section follow the Pacific Coast Architecture Database record for the house. The five figure-eight concrete frames, the raised living floors, the built-ins and the cross-ventilation follow the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS CAL,30-NEWBE,1-, 1968), whose "one of the greatest works" assessment is quoted here. National Register listing, February 5, 1974, reference 74000545, is from the National Park Service NPGallery record. Philip Lovell's biography, the five-head shower and the porch enclosure follow Chris Nichols in Los Angeles magazine, October 2026; the 2,741 square feet and Leah Lovell's remark to Esther McCoy follow Galerie, October 2026. The first offering for sale, in October 2026, was reported by the Wall Street Journal, Galerie, Wallpaper and Los Angeles magazine. All figures should be verified independently before purchase or listing.

On the Register

The Fitzpatrick-Leland House, Schindler's spec house above Laurel Canyon

Debbie Pisaro November 2, 2026

The Fitzpatrick-Leland House at a glance

The Fitzpatrick-Leland House is a Schindler house above Laurel Canyon, built in 1936 at 8078 Woodrow Wilson Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90046. R.M. Schindler designed it as a model home for the developer Clifton Fitzpatrick, one of the few houses he drew to be sold rather than commissioned. The MAK Center for Art and Architecture owns it today.

Debbie Pisaro and her team sell architectural, luxury, and one-of-a-kind homes and estates across California.

Laurel Canyon · Architectural homes

R.M. Schindler drew it in 1936 for a developer who wanted a model home. A museum owns it now, which means the one Schindler built to be sold is the one that cannot be.

By Debbie PisaroDRE #01369110

November 2, 2026

Architectural homes9 min read

What is the Fitzpatrick-Leland House?

Schindler almost always worked to a commission. A client came to him, usually with an awkward hillside lot and a budget that would not stretch, and he made something that could not have stood anywhere else. The Fitzpatrick-Leland House is one of the exceptions, and the exception is the point: in 1936 a developer named Clifton Fitzpatrick hired him to draw a house with no buyer attached to it, a model home meant to sell a hillside, and Schindler built it on the ridge where Woodrow Wilson Drive runs into Mulholland Drive above Laurel Canyon.

It is still there, at 8078 Woodrow Wilson Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90046. It is not a monument, it is not on any register this page could find, and it is not going to come up for sale, because a museum owns it.

The Fitzpatrick-Leland House · 8078 Woodrow Wilson Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90046 · also recorded as 2886 Laurel Canyon Boulevard · R.M. Schindler, 1936 · client: Clifton Fitzpatrick · no designation on record · owned by the MAK Center for Art and Architecture

The commission

A house drawn for nobody in particular

A spec house is a strange thing to ask of Schindler. His reputation rests on houses fitted to one family and one slope so exactly that they read as arguments rather than products. Asking him for a model home meant asking him to design for an imagined buyer, which is closer to what a tract architect does, and the MAK Center puts it plainly: the house was “originally commissioned by developer Clifton Fitzpatrick as a speculative house.”

What he produced was not a compromise. Architectural Record, writing in 2008, described an L-shaped plan of about 2,400 square feet perched on a cliff edge. LA Weekly, in 2017, described it cascading down three stories with interlocking volumes radiating from its core. The county assessor, which measures rather than admires, records 2,664 square feet on a lot of 12,733 square feet, 119 feet by 107, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and under the heading of view, one word: canyon.

Those two square-footage figures do not agree, and this page is not going to pick one. Published architectural sources and county records disagree about California houses more often than either side admits, and on a house with no designation behind it the chain of documentation is the whole provenance. Anyone who needs a firm number should pull the assessor record.

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The correction

It was not his only one

Architectural Record called it “Schindler’s only spec house.” That is the line most writing about the house repeats, and it is not right. Schindler returned to the idea at least three times across fifteen years, and two of the other attempts are already on this site.

Around 1922, within a couple of years of arriving in Los Angeles, he built speculative duplexes at Harper Avenue and Romaine Street. In the late 1930s he built three speculative houses in a row on West Ellis Avenue in Inglewood, each about a thousand square feet, all three still standing and none of them designated. Fitzpatrick-Leland, in 1936, sits in the middle of that sequence.

Read as a group they say something a single house cannot. Schindler kept testing whether modern architecture could be sold to a buyer who had not asked for it, at the start of his Los Angeles career and again near the end of it, and the market kept declining to settle the question. That is a thread through his work, not an anomaly in it.

Schindler kept testing whether modern architecture could be sold to someone who had not asked for it. The market kept declining to answer.

The rescue

Bought in 1990, and given away

By 1990 the house had been worked over. LA Weekly records that numerous owners and various modifications had made Schindler’s original plan unrecognizable. Russ Leland bought it that year, hired the architect and contractor Jeff Fink, and spent roughly a decade putting it back, restoring the floor-to-ceiling windows among other things. Then he donated the house and the land, and the second half of its name is his.

Exactly when that donation happened depends on who is telling it. The MAK Center’s own page says 2007. LA Weekly says 2008. Architectural Record, writing in June 2008, reported it as newly announced. And the Los Angeles County Assessor carries the change of ownership on February 9, 2015, recorded as a nominal transfer. Three dates, three sources, and the county is the one that governs the tax roll.

That last line is the one worth pausing on. A single-family residence carrying a welfare exemption is a house owned by a qualifying nonprofit rather than by a person, which is the county’s way of saying what the MAK Center says in words. The assessor does not publish an owner name, so the tie is an inference rather than a signature, but it is an inference drawn from the primary record: a 1936 house on a canyon ridge, held by a nonprofit, last sold on the open market on October 30, 1990, which is the year Leland bought it.

The street

Laurel Canyon, the Hollywood Hills, and a ridge that is both

The house is filed in two places at once. The MAK Center gives its address as Mulholland Drive and Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles 90046 on one page and calls it a Hollywood Hills house on another. The assessor puts the parcel in a cluster named for Runyon Canyon and records the second address as 2886 Laurel Canyon Boulevard. All of that is true at the same time, because the parcel sits where the canyon turns into the ridge.

Treat it as a Laurel Canyon house and the record supports you, because the canyon boulevard number is the county’s, not a marketing flourish. For the canyon’s architectural record it matters more than a boundary argument: the canyon now has a documented Schindler to go with Pierre Koenig’s Case Study House #21 and Garrett Eckbo’s gardens in Wonderland Park.

Woodrow Wilson Drive earns a second look too. The Shulman House, Raphael Soriano’s 1950 house and studio for the photographer Julius Shulman, stands at 7875 Woodrow Wilson Drive and is Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument 325. Two architects of the same generation, two houses, two hundred numbers apart on one ridge road, and only one of them designated. If you are reading Soriano and Schindler as rivals for the same hillside, this is the block where the argument is physically visible.

What an owner should take from this

An undesignated house is held together by its paperwork. Fitzpatrick-Leland has an institution, a restoration record and a county file; three speculative Schindlers in Inglewood have none of those, and Inglewood has no preservation ordinance at all. If you own a house with an attribution and no designation, the chain of documentation is the asset. Build it before you need it.

Why it matters

The one Schindler that will not trade again

There is a joke buried in this house and it is worth saying out loud. Of all the Schindlers in California, the one drawn specifically to be sold is the one that can no longer be bought. The three he built to sell in Inglewood went onto the open market and stayed there, traded like any other small house, one of them famously turned up on Craigslist. The one commissioned by a developer as a sales tool ended up in a museum’s hands and off the market permanently.

That inversion is the honest answer to anyone asking what a Schindler is worth. Debbie Pisaro’s standing observation applies here as squarely as anywhere in California: a lot of these houses never hit the market at all, so what you can look up about a street is only part of what happened on it. The public record of Schindler transactions is a record of the houses that happened to go the public way, and it is thinner than the body of work.

Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran of California real estate and an Inman Luxury Leader, and most of what she does on a house like this one happens before anything is listed: reading the county file, finding who actually held title, and working out which published account is repeating an error. Architectural buyers shop the architect rather than the zip code, and they fly in from New York, Chicago and London to do it. California holds one of the deepest concentrations of modernist housing anywhere, from the canyon ridges above Los Angeles to Ojai, the central coast and the Bay Area, and the Schindler map runs across most of it. Her guide to R.M. Schindler and his California houses is the place that map lives.

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Questions

Frequently asked questions about the Fitzpatrick-Leland House

Where is the Fitzpatrick-Leland House?

The Fitzpatrick-Leland House stands at 8078 Woodrow Wilson Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90046, on the ridge where Woodrow Wilson Drive meets Mulholland Drive above Laurel Canyon. The Los Angeles County Assessor also records the same parcel under a second address, 2886 Laurel Canyon Boulevard, which is why the MAK Center gives the location as Mulholland Drive and Laurel Canyon Boulevard.

Who designed the Fitzpatrick-Leland House?

R.M. Schindler designed the house in 1936. The MAK Center, which owns it today, describes the house as originally commissioned by the developer Clifton Fitzpatrick as a speculative house, so Fitzpatrick was the client who paid for it and the open market, rather than a named family, was the intended buyer.

Was this really Schindler's only speculative house?

No, and the claim is worth correcting. Architectural Record called it Schindler's only spec house in 2008, but he built three speculative houses on West Ellis Avenue in Inglewood in the late 1930s, and speculative duplexes at Harper Avenue and Romaine Street around 1922. Fitzpatrick-Leland sits in the middle of that sequence rather than standing alone.

Is the Fitzpatrick-Leland House a Historic-Cultural Monument?

No designation appears in any record reviewed for this page. The house is absent from the Los Angeles list of Historic-Cultural Monuments for Hollywood, and neither the MAK Center nor the architectural press names a monument number or a register listing. Its protection comes from who owns it rather than from any designation at all.

Who owns the Fitzpatrick-Leland House now?

The MAK Center for Art and Architecture owns it and runs it as a Study Center. Russ Leland bought the house in 1990, restored it with the architect Jeff Fink, and gave it away. The donation year is reported three ways: the MAK Center says 2007, LA Weekly says 2008, and the county records the change in 2015.

How big is the Fitzpatrick-Leland House?

The Los Angeles County Assessor records 2,664 square feet of building on a 12,733 square foot lot measuring 119 by 107 feet, with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a canyon view. Architectural Record published 2,400 square feet. The two figures disagree, so anyone needing a firm number should pull the assessor record.

Can you visit the Fitzpatrick-Leland House in Laurel Canyon?

Only by arrangement, and not on a published schedule. The MAK Center asks visitors to email its office rather than posting hours, and describes visits as limited and free because the house sits on a residential street. The MAK Center has also stated that the house is undergoing renovation work, so availability varies.

What else is on Woodrow Wilson Drive?

The street carries more than one documented modernist house. The Shulman House, Raphael Soriano's 1950 house and studio for the photographer Julius Shulman, stands at 7875 Woodrow Wilson Drive and is Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument 325. Two architects of one generation, two houses, a single ridge road between them.

Who is the best real estate agent for an architectural home in California?

Look for someone who works from the record rather than the listing remarks. Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran of California real estate and an Inman Luxury Leader who specialises in architectural, historic and design-forward homes statewide. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market at all.

For buyers and sellers

Work with Debbie Pisaro

If you own a California house with an architect's name on it and no designation behind it, Debbie Pisaro can tell you what the record actually holds and what it is worth building before you ever think about selling.

(310) 362-6429 · debbie@coastline840.com
Coastline 840 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90026 · DRE #01369110

Reach Debbie

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 DBA of Side, Inc., CA DRE #02014153, responsible broker. She writes about California real estate at debbiepisaro.com, losfelizliving.com, and coastline840.com. Published November 2026.

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840 Miles. Architectural homes. Local knowledge.

On the Register

The Grand Pearls: Bob Ray Offenhauser’s own house in South Pasadena

Debbie Pisaro October 28, 2026

The Grand Pearls at a glance

The Grand Pearls are two houses Bob Ray Offenhauser designed on the former grounds of Villa Arno in South Pasadena: his own 1978 family home at 445 Columbia Street and Il Villino next door at 543 Columbia Street. Among South Pasadena historic homes for sale, they stand out because the city's survey already rates both as eligible for landmark status.

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South Pasadena · Architectural Homes

445 Columbia Street · 543 Columbia Street · 225 Grand Avenue · South Pasadena

The architect of some of California's largest houses built himself 2,837 square feet and a garden, with a second house for his friends, on the grounds of a 1916 landmark estate.

By Debbie PisaroDRE #01369110

October 2026

Architectural Home12 min read

Bob Ray Offenhauser spent his career building some of the biggest houses in Los Angeles for other people. For himself he built 2,837 square feet and a garden. In 1978, on a piece of the old Villa Arno estate in South Pasadena, he designed a courtyard house for his own family and, beside it, a second house for close friends. He called the pair his Grand Pearls. Debbie Pisaro, an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles and Pasadena buyers call on houses with a story like this one, sees the two houses and the estate they came from as one record that has never been written down in one place.

This page covers all three: Villa Arno at 225 Grand Avenue, Offenhauser's own house at 445 Columbia Street, and Il Villino at 543 Columbia Street. It also covers what the city's survey says about them, and what that means for anyone weighing South Pasadena historic homes for sale. The architect's full record is in Debbie Pisaro's profile of Bob Ray Offenhauser.

The Estate

What was Villa Arno?

Villa Arno is a 1916 Italian Renaissance Revival estate at 225 Grand Avenue, South Pasadena, designed by Reginald D. Johnson as a winter house for John S. Tanner. Before it was finished, Tanner sold it to the chemist Dr. Arno Behr, and for years it was known as the Tanner-Behr House. Behr's wife later named it Villa Arno, for Italy and for her husband.

The house passed through a short line of owners after the Behrs left in 1931, among them the interior designer Raymond G. Gould, Alexander B. Macbeth of the Southern California Gas Company, and the artist Earle Hugens. The fashion designer Richard Tyler bought it in 1998. The City of South Pasadena designated it Landmark #23 in 1977, and the South Pasadena Public Library's photograph of it carries that number.

Johnson (1882 to 1952) is best known for the English and Mediterranean houses he designed for Pasadena and Santa Barbara clients in the 1920s. He also designed the Santa Barbara Biltmore, the Hale Solar Laboratory in Pasadena, and later Baldwin Hills Village in Los Angeles. His drawings are held at the Huntington in San Marino. That is where Offenhauser, sixty years after Villa Arno went up, coordinated the construction of the Chinese Garden. The two architects never worked together, but their records meet in the same library a few miles away.

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The Pearls

What are the Grand Pearls?

The Grand Pearls are the two houses Bob Ray Offenhauser designed together on Columbia Street after the Villa Arno grounds were subdivided: his own family home at 445 Columbia Street and Il Villino at 543 Columbia Street, built for close friends of the family. The name was his.

He meant them as a European way of living, a house "inseparable from its gardens," in the words carried by the realtor.com account of the pair. Each house sits behind its own walls, turns inward to courtyards, and opens its main rooms to the garden. Neither is large by Offenhauser's standard, and both share the center line that runs through all of his work.

225 Grand AvenueVilla Arno, 1916

Reginald D. Johnson's Italian Renaissance Revival estate for John S. Tanner. South Pasadena Landmark #23, designated 1977.

445 Columbia StreetOffenhauser House, 1978

Offenhauser's own family home. About 2,837 square feet on about a third of an acre, kept to its original design.

543 Columbia StreetIl Villino, 1979

The second Pearl, for close friends of the family. About 3,108 square feet on about 0.43 acre, behind ten-foot walls.

His House

What is Offenhauser's own house like?

The Offenhauser house at 445 Columbia Street is a three-bedroom courtyard house of about 2,837 square feet on a lot of about a third of an acre, near the Arroyo Seco. Tall perimeter walls and a gate close it off from the street, and a fountain courtyard leads in to a parterre of clipped boxwood, reflecting basins and stone urns.

The plan runs as a row of pavilions, each facing its own garden. The great room has the 14-foot ceilings and skylights realtor.com calls his signature, an 18th-century limestone fireplace, and a 12-foot-wide glass wall that slides away into the garden. The floors are terra-cotta, stone and wood, with brick accents, arched windows and doors, and built-ins throughout. There is a garden room, a kitchen with a walk-in butler's pantry, and a pool and spa. South Pasadena's inventory of historic resources records the style as Neoclassical.

His son, Madison Offenhauser, told realtor.com that his parents built the house as an empty-nest retreat once he and his sister left for college, and that they lived there for forty years. "They loved to entertain and for two decades had sit-down dinners in the garden room the last Sunday of every month for 40 people," he said. He also said the family never changed the original design, only restored it when needed.

He built mansions for other people. For himself he built a courtyard and a garden room.

The house belongs to a short shelf of architects' own houses that say more than their commissions do. Frank Gehry's own house in Santa Monica, Donald Hensman's Domus Solaris in the Hollywood Hills, and Paul Williams's own house in Lafayette Square are the others Debbie Pisaro has written about. Each one shows the architect working without a client in the room.

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The Twin

What is Il Villino?

Il Villino is the second Pearl, at 543 Columbia Street, designed by Offenhauser for close friends of his family. It is an Italian villa of about 3,108 square feet on about 0.43 acre, behind ten-foot walls, with three bedrooms, a 12-foot-square pyramid glass skylight over the living room, herringbone brick floors, and a south courtyard with a pool, a terrace and a gazebo pavilion.

One correction for the record. South Pasadena's inventory of historic resources gives Il Villino a build date of 1970, while its listings give 1979. Since it was designed as a pair with a house completed in 1978, 1979 is the date that fits. Il Villino changed hands in 2015, so the two Pearls have had separate owners for years.

The Record

Are the Grand Pearls historic homes?

On the city's own survey, yes. South Pasadena's inventory of historic resources lists both 445 and 543 Columbia Street with the California status code 5S3, which means a property appears to be individually eligible for local listing or designation through survey evaluation. It is a survey finding, not a designation.

That distinction matters for taxes. South Pasadena accepts Mills Act applications only from properties already designated: a city landmark, a contributor to a historic district, or a National or California Register listing, and the city says it applies the Mills Act more restrictively than other municipalities. A 5S3 house would need formal designation first. Los Feliz Living's guides to selling a Mills Act home and to what designation does to home value explain how those contracts and designations play out for an owner, in the Los Angeles version of the same system.

One more note keeps the record straight. South Pasadena is its own city, with its own Cultural Heritage Commission, and is not part of Pasadena. A buyer searching Pasadena historic homes for sale will find these houses filed under both names; the rules that apply are South Pasadena's. For the Pasadena side, Debbie Pisaro has written about Paul Williams's Flint House and the Gell-Mann House in the Prospect Historic District.

The Architect

How does his own house compare with his other work?

It is the smallest and the most personal. Within three years Offenhauser drew a Neoclassical courtyard house for himself in 1978, an Italianate villa at 988 Buckingham Place in Pasadena in 1979, and the white, flat-roofed DeHaven Villa in Hancock Park in 1980. Three different houses, one center line. His career had started in a different key: The Regency, at 1457 Blue Jay Way in 1967, is the house that puts him in the story of Hollywood Regency homes in Los Angeles, the style John Elgin Woolf made into a building.

His clients got scale. His own family got light, a garden on every side, and a room big enough to seat forty people once a month. For a buyer, that is the case for this house: it is the one place his ideas were tested by the person who had them, for four decades.

Buyer's Note

An architect's own house kept to its original design is the asset. Ask for the drawings and the restoration record before planning a single change, and treat the 5S3 rating as a reason to check with the city first.

Coastline 840's guide to pricing a one-of-a-kind architectural home explains how a number gets built for a house like this, where the comparables are other architects' houses rather than the street.

Debbie Pisaro is not the listing agent for 445 Columbia Street or for either of the other houses on this page. Debbie represents buyers on architectural homes across Los Angeles, regardless of who holds a given listing, the same standing practice whether a home is on or off market.

Coastline 840, the boutique California practice she founded, was set up for houses like these; the reasons are in why we built Coastline 840 and in why boutique real estate teams outperform big-box brokerages. Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and an Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers across South Pasadena, Pasadena, Los Angeles and the surrounding neighborhoods. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market.

If a house like this is in your future, Debbie Pisaro's architectural homes specialist page explains how she works. More house histories are at debbiepisaro.com, for anyone looking for an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles and Pasadena owners trust with a house that has a history.

My Take

Where I land on the Offenhauser House

What struck me, and stayed with me, is the glass. A man famous for stone and scale put a 12-foot wall of glass in his own great room and made it disappear into the garden. That tells you what he valued when nobody was paying him.

The house does the hard thing well: it is small without feeling small. Fourteen-foot ceilings, skylights, a courtyard at every turn, and a garden room that seated forty people on the last Sunday of the month. That is a house built for a life, not for a photograph.

I picture the next owner as someone who would rather host twelve good dinners a year than own a big house they never fill. Probably someone who has lived in Europe, or wants to, and who cares more about a garden than a garage.

The homework is the record. I would pull the city's file on the 5S3 rating, ask for Offenhauser's original drawings, and confirm what the family restored and when. A house kept to its original design is the whole value here, so the paperwork has to prove it.

Bottom line: this is the most personal house he ever drew. Buy it to live in it the way he did, and change as little as you can.

Questions

Frequently asked about the Grand Pearls

Where is Bob Ray Offenhauser's own house?

Bob Ray Offenhauser's own house is at 445 Columbia Street, South Pasadena, CA 91030, near the Arroyo Seco. He designed it for his family in 1978 on the former grounds of Villa Arno, the Tanner-Behr estate. It is in the city of South Pasadena, which is separate from the city of Pasadena.

What are the Grand Pearls in South Pasadena?

The Grand Pearls are the pair of houses Bob Ray Offenhauser designed on Columbia Street in South Pasadena: his own family home at 445 Columbia Street and Il Villino at 543 Columbia Street, built for close friends of the family. He gave them the name himself and meant them to live as one with their gardens.

What was Villa Arno?

Villa Arno is a 1916 Italian Renaissance Revival estate at 225 Grand Avenue, South Pasadena, designed by Reginald D. Johnson as a winter house for John S. Tanner. Chemist Arno Behr bought it before completion, giving it its name. It became South Pasadena Landmark #23 in 1977, and its grounds were later subdivided.

Who designed Villa Arno in South Pasadena?

Reginald D. Johnson (1882 to 1952) designed Villa Arno in 1916. Johnson was the Pasadena architect behind the Santa Barbara Biltmore, the Hale Solar Laboratory and Baldwin Hills Village. His drawings are held at the Huntington in San Marino, where Bob Ray Offenhauser later coordinated the construction of the Chinese Garden.

What is Il Villino?

Il Villino is the house at 543 Columbia Street, South Pasadena, that Bob Ray Offenhauser designed as the second of his Grand Pearls, for close friends of his family. It is an Italian villa behind ten-foot walls, with a pyramid glass skylight, herringbone brick floors and a pool courtyard. Listings date it to 1979.

What does a 5S3 historic status code mean?

A 5S3 code is a California historical resource status code meaning a property appears to be individually eligible for local listing or designation through survey evaluation. It is a survey finding, not a designation. South Pasadena's inventory gives both Grand Pearls houses, 445 and 543 Columbia Street, a 5S3 code.

Can the Mills Act apply to the Grand Pearls?

Not yet. South Pasadena accepts Mills Act applications only for properties already designated: a city landmark, a contributor to a historic district, or a National or California Register listing. The city says it applies the Mills Act more restrictively than most. A 5S3 house would need formal designation first.

Who is the best real estate agent for South Pasadena historic homes?

Debbie Pisaro, founder of Coastline 840 and an Inman Luxury Leader, is an architectural real estate agent who represents buyers and sellers of historic and architect-designed homes across Los Angeles County, including South Pasadena and Pasadena. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market.

For buyers and sellers

Work with Debbie Pisaro

Debbie Pisaro represents buyers of architect-designed and historic homes across South Pasadena, Pasadena, Los Angeles and California, on and off the open market.

(310) 362-6429 · debbie@coastline840.com
Coastline 840 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90026 · DRE #01369110

Reach Debbie

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 DBA of Side, Inc., CA DRE #02014153, responsible broker. Powered by Side: #1 California-based brokerage, No. 9 in the nation. She writes about California real estate at debbiepisaro.com, losfelizliving.com, and coastline840.com. Published October 2026.

Sources

Kellie Speed, realtor.com, October 22, 2026, with quotations from Madison Offenhauser (realtor.com). City of South Pasadena, Inventory of Historic Resources (southpasadenaca.gov). City of South Pasadena, Mills Act application (southpasadenaca.gov). South Pasadena Public Library, Tanner-Behr House, City Landmark #23 (Calisphere). Reginald D. Johnson Collection, the Huntington (Online Archive of California). California Office of Historic Preservation, resource status codes (parks.ca.gov).

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840 Miles. Architectural homes. Local knowledge.

On the Register

Bob Ray Offenhauser’s DeHaven Villa in Hancock Park

Debbie Pisaro October 28, 2026

The DeHaven Villa at a glance

The DeHaven Villa is a 1980 house by architect Bob Ray Offenhauser at 5170 W 2nd St, Los Angeles, CA 90004, at the end of the Hancock Park cul-de-sac where 2nd Street meets Hudson Place, overlooking the Wilshire Country Club fairways. Among Hancock Park historic homes for sale, it stands apart as a 1980 house in a 1920s neighborhood.

Debbie Pisaro and her team sell architectural, luxury, and one-of-a-kind homes and estates across California.

Hancock Park · Architectural Homes

5170 W 2nd St · Hancock Park · Bob Ray Offenhauser, AIA · 1980

A 1980 Offenhauser house on the Wilshire Country Club fairways, the lot beside it, and what both mean for a buyer who wants a compound in the middle of Los Angeles.

By Debbie PisaroDRE #01369110

October 2026

Architectural Home11 min read

Most of Hancock Park was built in the 1920s, which is what makes the house at the end of 2nd Street worth a second look. The DeHaven Villa went up in 1980, drawn by Bob Ray Offenhauser, AIA, and it sits where the street runs out at Hudson Place, with the Wilshire Country Club fairways beyond. Debbie Pisaro, an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles buyers bring in on houses like this one, reads it as two things at once: a late, large house by an under-written California architect, and the anchor of a possible compound.

What follows covers where the house is, what it is, what the parcel next door changes, and whether a 1980 house in a historic neighborhood counts as a historic home. The architect's full record is in Debbie Pisaro's profile of Bob Ray Offenhauser.

The Place

Where is the DeHaven Villa?

The DeHaven Villa is at 5170 W 2nd St, Los Angeles, CA 90004, in Hancock Park. It sits at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac, at the point where West 2nd Street meets Hudson Place, and it looks out over the fairways of the Wilshire Country Club.

Two notes keep the record straight. This is the 5100 block of West 2nd Street in Hancock Park, not the 2nd Street that runs through downtown Los Angeles. And the houses on Hudson Place back onto the same course, so the view from this end of the street is fairway, not rooftops.

The Wilshire Country Club dates to 1919, and its Norman Macbeth course opened the next year on land that came from the Hancock family. A barranca runs through it and comes into play on at least 13 holes. The club hosted the Los Angeles Open in 1928, 1931, 1933 and 1944, and its clubhouse sits at 301 N. Rossmore Avenue.

Hancock Park itself was developed in the 1920s on land that had belonged to the Hancock family, and the houses around the course are mostly from that decade: Tudors, Spanish revivals, and Georgian and Mediterranean houses on deep lots. Those period revival houses are the reason the city governs the neighborhood with a Historic Preservation Overlay Zone, and the reason a 1980 villa at the end of 2nd Street stands out. Nearby, Debbie Pisaro has written about the districts at Sunset Square and South Carthay.

All things architectural

Debbie Pisaro writes All Things Architectural, on the homes and the architects who designed them, the details, the history, and the neighborhoods they shaped.

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The House

What is the DeHaven Villa like?

The DeHaven Villa is an ivy-covered, white, flat-roofed house of about 7,620 square feet on a lot of roughly 0.41 acre, with five bedrooms. The name says villa; the architecture is a pared-down modern classicism, built in strict symmetry around a classical door frame at its center. A large motor court sets it back from the street. Inside are two-story ceilings and four fireplaces, with a pool behind, and the house has since been extensively remodeled and expanded.

The house shows its architect. The motor court and the entrance on axis are his habits, and so is the scale: rooms tall enough to read as halls, and a facade composed in balance. Many of the 1920s houses around it are picturesque revivals; this one is formal and centered, and it reads more like an estate than a house on a street.

The house is known as the DeHaven Villa, sometimes written De-Haven Villa. It changed hands in 2018, and the name has followed it through its marketing since. For the generation of Los Angeles estates before it, read Debbie Pisaro's profile of Paul R. Williams, whose houses are the usual point of comparison for one this size.

The Lot

What does the lot next door change?

The parcel beside the house, 5180 2nd Street, is a separate non-conforming lot. The marketing that has followed the DeHaven Villa presents the two together, with the second parcel as room for a tennis court or a larger compound in the middle of Hancock Park.

A non-conforming lot is one that does not meet the current zoning standard for a lot of its kind, usually on size or frontage. In practice that limits what can be built on it by itself and makes it far more useful to the house next door than to anyone else. That is the case for treating the two as one property.

The house at the end of 2nd Street is a villa in name. The lot beside it is what could make it an estate.

A compound in the middle of Los Angeles is a rare thing to be offered. Hancock Park lots are deep but seldom doubled, and the buyers who want one usually want privacy as much as land. Sales like that often begin quietly, through private introductions, before anything is advertised; Debbie Pisaro explains the mechanics in her guide to pocket listings.

Before any buyer plans a tennis court or a guest house on the second lot, the Department of Building and Safety and the HPOZ review both have a say, especially on anything visible from the street. The order of operations matters: confirm what the second parcel can legally hold, then price it.

Off-market access

Some of the best homes trade before they ever reach the open market. Debbie Pisaro sees them first.

See pocket listings

The Record

Is a 1980 house in Hancock Park a historic home?

Not in the way its neighbors are. Hancock Park's historic standing comes from its 1920s build-out, and under the Los Angeles HPOZ framework, a property built outside a district's period of significance is generally classed as non-contributing. A 1980 house is decades past that build-out, so the city's survey is the first document to pull before planning any exterior work.

Non-contributing does not mean unregulated. Exterior changes inside an HPOZ still go through review, and that matters for anything a buyer might want to add on either lot. Just West Adams keeps a full HPOZ guide that explains how the review works, and the rules are the same citywide.

The Mills Act, which can lower property taxes on designated historic properties, is generally a tool for contributing houses and landmarks rather than for a house like this one. Los Feliz Living's guide to selling a Mills Act home explains how those contracts carry over to a buyer.

Searching Hancock Park historic homes for sale, a buyer will mostly find the 1920s houses. The DeHaven Villa is the exception that says something about the neighborhood: even its newest large house keeps a classical doorway on its center line, drawn by an architect who built around that line his whole career.

The Architect

Who designed the DeHaven Villa?

Bob Ray Offenhauser, AIA (1927 to 2016), a USC-trained California architect known for large, strictly symmetrical houses. The DeHaven Villa came the year after his 1979 Italianate villa at 988 Buckingham Place in Pasadena, and thirteen years after The Regency at 1457 Blue Jay Way in the Bird Streets, the house that ties him to Hollywood Regency homes in Los Angeles and to the tradition John Elgin Woolf built.

His office, Offenhauser Associates of Burbank, later coordinated the architecture and engineering for Liu Fang Yuan, the Chinese Garden at the Huntington in San Marino. Two years before the DeHaven, he had built his own family home in South Pasadena, the first of the pair he called the Grand Pearls. His houses run from Pasadena to Beverly Hills and the desert at Indian Wells, which puts the DeHaven Villa inside a California body of work, not only a Los Angeles one.

Buyer's Note

A house this size beside 1920s houses is hard to appraise. Expect the comparables to come from other architect-designed estates rather than the street, and expect the second parcel to be valued on what it does for the first.

Coastline 840's guide to pricing a one-of-a-kind architectural home walks through how that number gets built. Owners elsewhere in the neighborhood can start with a home valuation.

Debbie Pisaro is not the listing agent for 5170 W 2nd St. Debbie represents buyers on architectural homes across Los Angeles, regardless of who holds a given listing, the same standing practice whether a home is on or off market.

Coastline 840, the boutique California practice she founded, was set up for houses like this one; the reasons are in why we built Coastline 840 and in why boutique real estate teams outperform big-box brokerages. Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and an Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers across Hancock Park, Los Angeles and the surrounding neighborhoods. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market.

Own an architectural home, or hoping to buy one? Start with Debbie Pisaro's page as an architectural homes specialist. More house histories and architect profiles are at debbiepisaro.com, where anyone looking for an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles owners trust with houses like this can start.

My Take

Where I land on the DeHaven Villa

What struck me about this house is that Offenhauser put a motor court at the end of a cul-de-sac. The street already stops here. He made you arrive anyway, around a court and up to a door on center, as if the house were a mile from anywhere instead of a few minutes from Larchmont.

It does the thing Hancock Park houses rarely do: it turns its back on the street and faces the course. Two-story rooms, four fireplaces, and the fairways out past the pool. For a house built in 1980, it is not trying to look like the 1920s around it, and I respect that.

I picture a buyer who wants a compound without leaving the middle of the city. Someone who entertains, who may want a court for the kids or a guest house for family, and who would rather have the second lot than a second home.

The honest part is the paperwork. I would want to know what 5180 2nd Street can legally hold before anyone falls in love with a tennis court, how the HPOZ survey classifies a 1980 house, and where the name DeHaven comes from. Those are the first three things I would pull.

Bottom line: this is a house that could become an estate. Buy it for the house, and price it for the lot.

Questions

Frequently asked about the DeHaven Villa

Where is the DeHaven Villa?

The DeHaven Villa is at 5170 W 2nd St, Los Angeles, CA 90004, in Hancock Park. It sits at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac where West 2nd Street meets Hudson Place, looking over the Wilshire Country Club fairways. It is the Hancock Park stretch of 2nd Street, not the 2nd Street that runs through downtown.

Who designed the DeHaven Villa in Hancock Park?

Bob Ray Offenhauser, AIA, designed the DeHaven Villa in 1980. Offenhauser (1927 to 2016) was a USC-trained California architect known for large, symmetrical houses, including The Regency at 1457 Blue Jay Way and a 1979 Italianate villa at 988 Buckingham Place in Pasadena. His Burbank office also coordinated the Huntington's Chinese Garden.

When was the DeHaven Villa built?

The DeHaven Villa was built in 1980, which makes it far younger than most of Hancock Park, where the houses around the Wilshire Country Club mostly date to the 1920s. It has since been extensively remodeled and expanded, and it changed hands in 2018. The house is known as the DeHaven Villa or De-Haven Villa.

What is the lot next door to the DeHaven Villa?

The lot next door is 5180 2nd Street, a separate non-conforming parcel. The marketing that has followed the DeHaven Villa presents the two together, with the second lot as room for a tennis court or a larger compound. A non-conforming lot falls short of current zoning standards, so it is most useful joined to its neighbor.

Is the DeHaven Villa a historic home in Hancock Park?

Not in the way its neighbors are. Hancock Park's historic standing rests on its 1920s build-out, and under the Los Angeles HPOZ framework a property built outside a district's period of significance is generally non-contributing. A 1980 house sits well outside that, so the city's HPOZ survey is the record to check.

Does the Wilshire Country Club border the DeHaven Villa?

Yes. The DeHaven Villa looks out over the Wilshire Country Club fairways from the end of 2nd Street at Hudson Place. The club dates to 1919, its Norman Macbeth course opened in 1920, and it hosted the Los Angeles Open in 1928, 1931, 1933 and 1944. Its clubhouse address is 301 N. Rossmore Avenue.

Can the Mills Act apply to a 1980 house in Hancock Park?

Usually not on its own. In Los Angeles, Mills Act contracts, which can lower property taxes, generally go to designated Historic-Cultural Monuments and contributing properties in an HPOZ. A 1980 house in Hancock Park is likely non-contributing, so a Mills Act contract would normally need a designation first. Check eligibility before relying on it.

Who is the best real estate agent for Hancock Park historic homes?

Debbie Pisaro, founder of Coastline 840 and an Inman Luxury Leader, is an architectural real estate agent who represents buyers and sellers of historic and architect-designed homes across Los Angeles, including Hancock Park. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market, which suits estate and compound buyers.

For buyers and sellers

Work with Debbie Pisaro

Debbie Pisaro represents buyers of architect-designed homes and estates across Hancock Park, Los Angeles and California, on and off the open market.

(310) 362-6429 · debbie@coastline840.com
Coastline 840 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90026 · DRE #01369110

Reach Debbie

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 DBA of Side, Inc., CA DRE #02014153, responsible broker. Powered by Side: #1 California-based brokerage, No. 9 in the nation. She writes about California real estate at debbiepisaro.com, losfelizliving.com, and coastline840.com. Published October 2026.

Sources

Wilshire Country Club history (wilshirecountryclub.com). Los Angeles City Planning, Hancock Park HPOZ survey (planning.lacity.gov). Bob Offenhauser obituary, Los Angeles Times, 2016 (legacy.com). Property details from the public marketing record for 5170 W 2nd St.

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840 Miles. Architectural homes. Local knowledge.

On the Register

The Cliff May Experimental House, the one he built for himself

Debbie Pisaro October 23, 2026

Cliff May homes in Brentwood at a glance

Cliff May homes in Brentwood cluster in Sullivan Canyon along Old Ranch Road and in neighboring Riviera Ranch, where he designed houses from 1940 to the late 1970s. He lived there too. His own Experimental House at 1831 Old Ranch Road is Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #716, the only May house on the city’s monument list.

Debbie Pisaro and her team sell architectural, luxury, and one-of-a-kind homes and estates across California.

Brentwood · Architectural Homes

Cliff May homes in Brentwood cluster in Sullivan Canyon, where the architect lived, built, and died. A guide to the canyon, the houses, and how to buy one.

By Debbie PisaroDRE #01369110

Updated October 2026

Architectural Home10 min read

Cliff May designed homes in Sullivan Canyon, the equestrian enclave on the Brentwood and Pacific Palisades border, from the early 1940s through the 1970s. He also lived there, first in the Experimental House he built for his family on Old Ranch Road, then at a ranch house he called Mandalay, where he died in 1989. No other pocket of California holds as many of his custom houses, or as much of his own life.

If you are searching for Cliff May homes in Brentwood, or for an architectural real estate agent in Los Angeles who understands what makes these homes valuable, this is the post. Debbie Pisaro is a California real estate agent who specializes in architectural, historic, and design-forward homes across Brentwood and the wider Westside. For the architect himself, his whole career and every house on the network, see her Cliff May architect profile.

The Architect

Who Cliff May was

Cliff May is widely credited with inventing the California Ranch house in 1932, in San Diego, with a low-slung pitched roof and a floor plan that wrapped around a courtyard. He moved to Los Angeles in 1935. He never trained as an architect and, by most accounts, was not licensed as one until the very end of his life. He designed more than one thousand custom residences and, with collaborator Chris Choate, the prefab plans for some eighteen thousand tract ranch homes.

What makes a Cliff May home recognizable: pitched shiplap ceilings, terracotta tile floors, deep eaves, French doors opening from nearly every room to a courtyard or patio, an L-shaped or U-shaped plan that creates an outdoor room at the center, and a horizontal silhouette that hugs the land rather than asserting itself above it. Indoor-outdoor before anyone called it that.

Cliff May is often grouped with A. Quincy Jones, Joseph Eichler, and William Krisel in the mid-century California canon, but the work is distinct. Eichler’s Northern California developments favored post-and-beam construction with central atriums and floor-to-ceiling glass, more geometric and cooler in temperament. Quincy Jones brought a refined modernist line to LA residential work. Krisel built thousands of butterfly-roof tract homes in Palm Springs. Cliff May sits closer to the land, closer to the Spanish Colonial precedent, and closer to the indoor-outdoor California vernacular he essentially created.

The Canyon

Why Sullivan Canyon

Sullivan Canyon sits between Brentwood and Pacific Palisades, north of Sunset Boulevard, west of Mandeville Canyon. It is zoned for equestrian use. The streets have no sidewalks. Sycamores and oaks form a canopy over most of the canyon floor. There is no commercial frontage inside the canyon itself, which is part of why it remains one of the quietest pockets on the Westside despite being minutes from the Brentwood Country Mart and Riviera Country Club.

Old Ranch Road, which began life as Sullivan Canyon Road, is the spine. The city’s historic survey treats it and Melhill Way as the Old Ranch Road Residential Historic District: 49 parcels, 31 of them contributors, built from 1941 to 1977 around communal stables, bridle trails, and horse barns. It finds the district eligible for the National Register, the California Register, and local designation, and a state nomination came before the city in 2014. The right word is eligible: it has not been designated. The 1947 George Welch House at 10 Sullivan Canyon is in the Cliff May record, and so is the 1976 addition he designed for the actress Bea Arthur at 2000 Old Ranch Road.

Across Sunset from the Riviera Country Club is Riviera Ranch, the subdivision of ranch sites May laid out from 1940 on Riviera Ranch Road, Old Oak Road, and Old Oak Lane. His own 1938 house is at 1500 Old Oak Road, and the first House Beautiful Pace Setter house stood at 1611 Old Oak Road until it was demolished in 2006. The survey finds Riviera Ranch eligible for the National and California Registers too, and it is not designated either.

His Own Houses

The houses Cliff May built for himself

Cliff May chose this canyon for himself. The house that proves it is the Cliff May Experimental House at 1831 Old Ranch Road, finished in the early 1950s as his family’s home and his laboratory for the open ranch plan: one long room flowing to the garden, the walls doing as little as possible. The City of Los Angeles declared it Historic-Cultural Monument #716 on June 12, 2002, crediting May for the house and Thomas Church for the landscape. In 2007 Marmol Radziner restored it, reopening the plan, replacing the roof, and bringing it up to code. It sits behind a locked gate and is not open to the public. Next door, at 1821 Old Ranch Road, is a second May house from 1953.

His last house, Mandalay, stood in the same canyon, and he died there in October 1989. It was demolished in the 1990s. The UC Santa Barbara archive catalogs it as his fifth house for himself, at 2200 Old Ranch Road, dated 1956. His second was in Mandeville Canyon, and an earlier house in Riviera Ranch was recorded under the same name, which is one more reason every Cliff May attribution in this canyon is worth checking against the record.

Cliff May chose this canyon for himself.

All things architectural

Debbie Pisaro writes All Things Architectural, on the homes and the architects who designed them, the details, the history, and the neighborhoods they shaped.

Join the list or call (310) 362-6429

The Value

What makes a Cliff May in Brentwood valuable?

Brentwood, the 90049 zip code, is one of the most established luxury markets in Los Angeles, anchored by the Getty Center, San Vicente Boulevard’s coral tree median, and the Brentwood Country Mart. The neighborhood is essentially built out, so architectural pedigree matters here in a way it does not in markets where buyers expect to tear down and rebuild. Beyond Cliff May, Brentwood holds Richard Neutra’s Nesbitt House and Steven Ehrlich’s Schulman House. Many of Debbie’s Brentwood clients also shop a second home on the coast; see the Malibu, Montecito, and Carmel guide for coastal buyers.

The canyon’s best known sale shows the ceiling. In July 2024, Ben Affleck paid $20.5 million for “Paradise Found,” a 1941 Cliff May design in Sullivan Canyon, renovated and expanded to more than six thousand square feet with an equestrian center, a guesthouse, a pool, and a spa. At the other end are the smaller, more original houses, where intact ceilings, tile, and courtyard plans count for more than square footage. A documented Cliff May attribution is what separates the two from an ordinary Westside ranch, and it is why pricing an architectural home starts with the record before the comps.

Here are the Brentwood Cliff May houses documented by address, for buyers and sellers trying to place a house in the record.

House	Address	Year	Status
Cliff May Experimental House	1831 Old Ranch Road	early 1950s	Los Angeles HCM #716
Cliff May House	1821 Old Ranch Road	1953	Old Ranch Road district (eligible)
George Welch House	10 Sullivan Canyon	1947	Sullivan Canyon
Bea Arthur addition	2000 Old Ranch Road	1976	Old Ranch Road district (eligible)
Cliff May House, Riviera Ranch	1500 Old Oak Road	1938	Riviera Ranch (eligible)
House Beautiful Pace Setter House	1611 Old Oak Road	1946 to 1947	Demolished 2006
“Paradise Found”	Sullivan Canyon	1941	Sold July 2024, $20.5M

Mills Act

Can a Cliff May home qualify for the Mills Act?

Two preservation programs affect the economics of owning a Cliff May in Brentwood. Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument designation is the city’s landmark status. The Mills Act is a California program that lowers property taxes in exchange for a preservation commitment. HCM status is the recognition; the Mills Act is the financial benefit, and a property generally needs HCM or comparable designation to be eligible.

In Brentwood that is a short list. The Experimental House at 1831 Old Ranch Road is HCM #716, and the city’s designation report cites it as an embodiment of the California Ranch and a work by master designer Cliff May. The Old Ranch Road and Riviera Ranch districts around it have been found eligible but are not designated, so most canyon houses carry no landmark status of their own. Debbie has advised on selling Mills Act and HCM homes across the city.

Where a contract exists, the math is real. Mills Act properties in Los Angeles typically see a 40 to 60 percent reduction in annual property taxes, depending on how the County Assessor calculates the income-based valuation. The contract is a revolving ten-year agreement that renews each year and runs with the property, so a buyer inherits it. A house assessed at $8 million at the standard 1.25 percent rate carries a tax bill of roughly $100,000 a year; a contract can cut that substantially. For more on the program, see the Los Feliz HCM guide.

One caveat. The City of Los Angeles stopped accepting new Mills Act applications in 2020 while it reworks the program, and released draft changes for public review in March 2025. Existing contracts continue and transfer to new buyers. Unincorporated Los Angeles County runs its own program, but Brentwood is inside the city, so city rules apply. If the Mills Act is the reason you are buying, look for a house that already carries a contract.

Buyer’s Note

The City of Los Angeles has not accepted new Mills Act contract applications since 2020. Existing contracts continue to transfer with the property.

Off-market access

Some of the best Brentwood architectural homes trade before they ever reach the open market. Debbie Pisaro sees them first.

See pocket listings

What to Look For

What to look for in a Cliff May in Brentwood

Three things matter when evaluating a Cliff May home in Sullivan Canyon or anywhere on the Westside. First, integrity. The most valuable Cliff May homes are the ones that have not been opened up, modernized, or stripped of their pitched ceilings and tile floors. An “improved” Cliff May is often a diminished one. Second, the courtyard plan intact. The central courtyard is the architectural argument of the house. If it has been enclosed or paved over, the home has lost what makes it a Cliff May rather than a generic ranch. Third, the lot. Sullivan Canyon lots tend to run larger than typical Brentwood lots because of the equestrian zoning, and the relationship between the house and the land is a Cliff May principle, not an accessory.

Then check the attribution. The Cliff May papers at the UC Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collection, original permits, and period coverage in Sunset or House Beautiful are what turn “Cliff May style” into a Cliff May. Original fireplaces and outdoor fire features sometimes carry inspection findings that sellers will not credit or repair, so verify chimneys, hearths, and any gas line work independently. Roofs, skylights, and the original wood-beam structure should be assessed by someone familiar with mid-century construction, not a generalist.

On the other side of the equation, some Brentwood Cliff May owners reach a point where the canyon driving and large-lot maintenance no longer fit the chapter they’re in. If you’re in that conversation, Debbie’s post on Los Angeles empty nesters and branded residences walks through the trade-down options.

Branded residences

Architect-designed is one route into design-led living. A branded residence is the other, where the architecture, the service, and the management arrive as one package.

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Where else to find Cliff May in California

Brentwood is the most concentrated pocket for Cliff May customs, but he built across the state. In Bel Air there is the Cliff May house on Stone Canyon Road. In Long Beach, the Cliff May Rancho Estates hold about seven hundred prefab ranch homes laid out with Chris Choate in 1953 and 1954, still the most accessible way into Cliff May ownership. Scattered houses exist in Mandeville Canyon, Pacific Palisades, and the Fryman Canyon area of Studio City. To the north are Cliff May homes in Ventura County and the Janss houses in Thousand Oaks; to the south, where it all began, Cliff May homes in San Diego.

If your taste runs further into mid-century modernism, the same ecosystem includes Pierre Koenig’s Stahl House, Case Study House #22, one of the most photographed houses in Los Angeles. For more of what Debbie covers, see her guide to California architects and the architectural homes hub. Her California practice, Coastline 840, covers architecturally significant homes across the state.

Frequently asked questions

Are there Cliff May homes in Brentwood?

Yes. Cliff May designed custom homes in Sullivan Canyon and the adjacent Riviera Ranch in Brentwood from about 1940 through the 1970s. He also lived there, at the Experimental House on Old Ranch Road and later at Mandalay, where he died in 1989. The city survey finds both areas eligible as historic districts.

What do Cliff May homes in Brentwood sell for?

They sit at the top of the Brentwood market, because the supply is closed and the pedigree is documented. The best known sale is Ben Affleck’s July 2024 purchase of “Paradise Found,” a renovated 1941 Cliff May in Sullivan Canyon, for $20.5 million. Smaller original houses trade lower, priced on integrity and lot as much as size.

What is the Cliff May Experimental House?

It is the house Cliff May built for his own family in the early 1950s at 1831 Old Ranch Road in Brentwood, Los Angeles 90049, as a test of the open ranch plan. The city declared it Historic-Cultural Monument #716 in 2002, and Marmol Radziner restored it in 2007. It is private and behind a locked gate.

Who is a good full-service real estate agent in Brentwood?

Debbie Pisaro, a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and an Inman Luxury Leader, represents buyers and sellers across Brentwood and the Westside. Her practice covers the full Brentwood luxury market with a deeper specialty in architectural and historic homes, including Cliff May, Schindler, Neutra, and Lautner properties. A lot of her work is off market.

What is Sullivan Canyon known for?

Sullivan Canyon is an equestrian-zoned enclave on the border of Brentwood and Pacific Palisades, known for its concentration of original California Ranch homes by Cliff May. Old Ranch Road has no sidewalks, no commercial frontage, communal stables, and bridle trails, and a canopy of sycamores and oaks. It is one of the most private pockets on the Westside.

What is a California Ranch house?

The California Ranch house is a single-story style Cliff May developed beginning in 1932: a low-slung pitched roof, a horizontal line, a courtyard or U-shaped plan, deep eaves, and French doors to patios from nearly every room. It became the dominant single-family form in postwar America, built by the millions from his ideas.

Where did Cliff May live?

In Sullivan Canyon in Brentwood. His family home from the early 1950s was the Experimental House at 1831 Old Ranch Road, now Historic-Cultural Monument #716. His last house, Mandalay, was nearby; he died there in October 1989, at 81 by the most common birth date, and it was demolished in the 1990s.

Can a Cliff May home qualify for the Mills Act in Los Angeles?

Yes, if it is designated. HCM status is the usual path to a Mills Act contract, and the Experimental House at 1831 Old Ranch Road is HCM #716. Los Angeles has not accepted new Mills Act applications since 2020, so the practical path is a house that already carries a contract, which transfers to the buyer.

What is the difference between a Cliff May home and an Eichler home?

Cliff May invented the California Ranch and worked mainly in Southern California: pitched shiplap ceilings, terracotta floors, deep eaves, and a courtyard plan from the Spanish rancho tradition. Eichlers, concentrated in Northern California, are post-and-beam Modernist tract homes with low-pitched roofs, atriums, and floor-to-ceiling glass. May is warmer and rustic; Eichler cooler and geometric.

For buyers and sellers

Looking for an architectural home in Brentwood?

Debbie Pisaro represents buyers and sellers of architecturally significant homes across Brentwood, Sullivan Canyon, and the wider Westside of Los Angeles. All valuations are done by hand, in person.

(310) 362-6429 · debbie@coastline840.com
Coastline 840 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90026 · DRE #01369110

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Sources

Los Angeles Department of City Planning, Historic-Cultural Monuments list (HCM #716, Cliff May Experimental House) and SurveyLA, Brentwood and Pacific Palisades historic districts (Old Ranch Road; Riviera Ranch). Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission, CHC-2014-922, Sullivan Canyon. USModernist, Cliff May registry. UC Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collection, Cliff May papers. Pacific Coast Architecture Database (PCAD), Cliff May and Mandalay. Marmol Radziner, Experimental Ranch. Palisadian-Post and Circling the News, Paradise Found sale, July 2024. Los Angeles Conservancy, City of Los Angeles Mills Act Program.

On the Register

A low 1930s ranch house among sycamores on Mandeville Canyon Road in Brentwood.

Cliff May in Mandeville Canyon, the house he built when he came to Los Angeles

Debbie Pisaro October 17, 2026

Cliff May in Mandeville Canyon at a glance

Mandeville Canyon is where Cliff May started in Los Angeles. In the mid-1930s he built his own family house at 1867 Mandeville Canyon Road, catalogued as Cliff May house 2, and across the road a speculative house at 1920 Mandeville Canyon Road, the Mildred Boos house, known as the Lily Pond House.

Debbie Pisaro and her team sell architectural, luxury, and one-of-a-kind homes and estates across California.

Brentwood · Architectural Homes

Before Riviera Ranch and Sullivan Canyon, Cliff May came to Los Angeles and built two houses facing each other in Mandeville Canyon: one to live in, and one to sell.

By Debbie PisaroDRE #01369110

October 2026

Architectural Home8 min read

Cliff May arrived in Los Angeles in 1935 with a San Diego reputation, a partner named John Smith, and no houses in the city. Within two years he had three. Two of them face each other across Mandeville Canyon Road: the house he built for his family, and a speculative house Smith bought two lots for, right across the street, while May’s own was still going up.

Debbie Pisaro, an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles owners call when the architect is the reason for the sale, keeps this page as the record of both. The architect has his own page, the Cliff May architect profile, and the canyons he moved on to have theirs: Riviera Ranch and Sullivan Canyon.

The Start

How Cliff May came to Los Angeles

By 1935 May had built his first ranch houses in Talmadge Park and Mission Hills in San Diego and had a magazine feature to show for it. According to the AFS Quarterly history of his early work, his partner John Smith talked him into moving north and going into real estate together. Their first Los Angeles projects were three houses built between 1935 and 1937: a speculative house on Stone Canyon Road in Bel Air, the speculative house at 1920 Mandeville Canyon Road, and May’s own house at 1867 Mandeville Canyon Road. The Bel Air house is covered in the Cliff May house on Stone Canyon Road.

His House

1867 Mandeville Canyon Road, Cliff May house 2

The UC Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collection, which holds the Cliff May papers, catalogs the Mandeville Canyon house as Cliff May house 2, the second house he built for his own family after San Diego. The record dates it to 1936 or 1937, depending on the source. As his family grew, he moved on: to a 1938 house at 1500 Old Oak Road in Riviera Ranch, then to the Experimental House on Old Ranch Road, his fourth, and finally to Mandalay, his fifth, at 2200 Old Ranch Road.

That sequence makes 1867 Mandeville Canyon Road the first house Cliff May built to live in in Los Angeles, and one of the first anywhere in the city to carry his idea of the ranch house: one story, wrapped around outdoor space, with doors from the rooms straight onto the garden.

One house to live in, and one to sell, facing each other.

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Across the Road

1920 Mandeville Canyon Road, the Lily Pond House

For the speculative house, Smith bought two lots, marked lots 29 and 30 on the drawings, across the road from May’s house while it was under construction. The house that went up there is known as the Mildred Boos house and as the Lily Pond House. AFS Quarterly reports that it remains intact, and it credits William Cody, then a student at USC working in May’s office and later one of the great Palm Springs modernists, with the drawings. Dates in the record run from 1936 to 1938.

A speculative house is a statement of confidence. May and Smith were betting that Los Angeles buyers would pay for a house like the one May was building for himself, and they built it where buyers could see both. Within a few years the same bet, made at the scale of a subdivision, became Riviera Ranch.

The Value

Owning a first-years Cliff May

Neither Mandeville Canyon house carries a landmark designation in the record, so neither is under city review and neither is on a path to a Mills Act contract unless it is designated on its own. That makes the record the whole case. For an owner or a buyer, the archive entry, the original drawings, the permits, and an intact plan are what turn “an early ranch house in Mandeville Canyon” into the house Cliff May built to live in when he came to Los Angeles. Debbie explains how that shows up in price in her guide to pricing an architectural home, and how landmark designation affects home value for owners weighing that step.

May’s early Los Angeles years belong to a statewide story that runs from his first houses in San Diego to Ventura County and the Las Palmas houses in Palm Springs, where Cody later made his name. His contemporaries are in Debbie’s guide to California architects, and every house she covers is in the architectural homes collection.

Branded residences

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My Take

What I’d tell a buyer about Cliff May house 2

What struck me, and stayed with me, is the light on that canyon road, and the picture of two houses facing each other across it: one going up for his own family, one built to sell. I keep coming back to that.

This house tells the start of the story. It's Cliff May house 2, the second house he built for his family and the first he built to live in in Los Angeles, from before Riviera Ranch and Sullivan Canyon. Everything he did on the Westside starts on this road.

I picture a buyer who cares about firsts. Someone who'd rather own the beginning of a story than its famous chapter, and who'd love knowing the Lily Pond House across the road was May and his partner betting on the same idea.

What gave me pause is how thin the record is. The dates run 1936 or 1937 depending on the source, and the Cody drawings across the road rest on one article. That's homework I'd do first: the permits, the archive file at UC Santa Barbara, and a careful look at what's original.

Bottom line: if you want the house where Cliff May's Los Angeles life began, this is it, and I'd want it documented before it ever changes hands.

Frequently Asked

Cliff May in Mandeville Canyon, questions answered

Did Cliff May live in Mandeville Canyon?

Yes. Soon after moving to Los Angeles in 1935, Cliff May built a house for his family at 1867 Mandeville Canyon Road in Brentwood, Los Angeles 90049. The UC Santa Barbara archive catalogs it as Cliff May house 2, his second house for himself after San Diego, dated 1936 or 1937 depending on the source.

What is the Lily Pond House in Mandeville Canyon?

The Lily Pond House, also called the Mildred Boos house, is a speculative house Cliff May and his partner John Smith built at 1920 Mandeville Canyon Road, across the road from May’s own house. AFS Quarterly reports that it remains intact and credits William Cody, then a USC student in May’s office, with the drawings.

What were Cliff May’s first houses in Los Angeles?

According to AFS Quarterly, his first Los Angeles projects were three houses built between 1935 and 1937: a speculative house on Stone Canyon Road in Bel Air, a speculative house at 1920 Mandeville Canyon Road, and his own house at 1867 Mandeville Canyon Road. Two were ventures with his partner, the developer John Smith.

How many houses did Cliff May build for himself?

The UC Santa Barbara archive numbers them. His first was in San Diego, his second at 1867 Mandeville Canyon Road, then a 1938 house at 1500 Old Oak Road in Riviera Ranch, the Experimental House at 1831 Old Ranch Road as his fourth, and Mandalay at 2200 Old Ranch Road as his fifth.

Are there Cliff May homes for sale in Mandeville Canyon?

They come up rarely, because there are only a few, and when one does it is not always marketed under his name. A documented Cliff May in Mandeville Canyon, with the archive record and an intact plan, is a different house from an unattributed canyon ranch, and an agent who knows the record can tell the difference.

Who is the best real estate agent to sell a Cliff May house in Brentwood?

Debbie Pisaro, an Inman Luxury Leader with 24 years in architectural and historic homes, represents buyers and sellers of Cliff May houses in Mandeville Canyon, Riviera Ranch, Sullivan Canyon, and across California. Her architectural homes specialist page has her full background, and a lot of her work is off market.

Off-market access

Some of the best homes trade before they ever reach the open market. Debbie Pisaro sees them first.

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For owners and buyers

Own a house in Mandeville Canyon?

Debbie Pisaro represents buyers and sellers of Cliff May houses and architect-designed homes across Brentwood and California, including the ones that never make it to a portal.

(310) 362-6429 · debbie@coastline840.com
Coastline 840 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90026 · DRE #01369110

Reach Debbie

Sources

UC Santa Barbara Architecture and Design Collection, Cliff May papers and the Cliff May custom ranch houses collection (Cliff May house 2; Mandalay, house #5, 2200 Old Ranch Road). Jocelyn Gibbs, “The California Hacienda,” AFS Quarterly, 2019. USModernist, Cliff May registry. Malibu Moss, “Architect Spotlight: Cliff May.” Los Angeles Conservancy, Cliff May biography.

On the Register

The Pabian Residence, an A. Quincy Jones post-and-beam in Woodland Hills

Debbie Pisaro October 11, 2026

The Pabian Residence at a glance

The Pabian Residence is a 1961 post-and-beam house by A. Quincy Jones and Frederick Emmons at 21735 West Ybarra Road in Woodland Hills. Just under 1,500 square feet, it steps down its sloping lot, and the Los Angeles City Council declared it Historic-Cultural Monument No. 1328 in October 2025, so exterior changes now go through City review.

Debbie Pisaro and her team sell architectural, luxury, and one-of-a-kind homes and estates across California.

Woodland Hills · Architectural Homes

A small Jones house with a big record, and what it teaches anyone weighing a post-and-beam home that needs work. Historic-Cultural Monument No. 1328 · 21735 West Ybarra Road, Woodland Hills.

By Debbie PisaroDRE #01369110

October 2026

Architectural Home10 min read

Most buyers ask whether to buy a post-and-beam home that needs work as an abstract question. It is easier to answer with a real house. Buy one if the roof, the slab, and the glass are sound, or priced honestly, and you are willing to remodel slowly. The beams are rarely the problem. Original windows, low-slope roofs, and any historic designation set the budget, the timeline, and the future buyer pool. Debbie Pisaro, an architectural real estate agent in Los Angeles, walks through it here with one house that shows every piece of the decision.

The house is the Pabian Residence at 21735 West Ybarra Road in Woodland Hills, a 1961 post-and-beam of 1,498 square feet that A. Quincy Jones designed with his partner Frederick Emmons for the Pabian family. In October 2025 the Los Angeles City Council declared it Historic-Cultural Monument No. 1328 (see the City Council committee report).

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Debbie Pisaro writes All Things Architectural, on the homes and the architects who designed them, the details, the history, and the neighborhoods they shaped.

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The House

A small house with a big record

Here is the twist. Jones is the architect most buyers tie to the co-op hillsides of Crestwood Hills in Brentwood and to Joseph Eichler's tracts. A one-off split-level that steps down a Woodland Hills slope is not the Jones most people picture. The City's designation findings list exposed wood beams, a concrete slab foundation, floor-to-ceiling windows, metal flush-mounted windows, and a low-pitched roof with overhanging eaves, then credit the plan for following the natural downward slope of the site.

So a house smaller than most tract homes earned monument status for how it sits on its lot. Size had nothing to do with it. The house is also known for nine skylights, and its own site describes a restoration completed in 2022.

The Architect

Who were Jones and Emmons?

Archibald Quincy Jones was born in Kansas City in 1913 and earned his architecture degree at the University of Washington in 1936. After Navy service in the Second World War, he joined the postwar group that planned the Mutual Housing Association community near Brentwood, working alongside Whitney Smith, landscape architect Garrett Eckbo, and engineer Edgardo Contini (USModernist covers the story). His long partnership with Frederick Emmons drew plans for Eichler too, the houses behind the protected Eichler tracts of Southern California. Jones taught at USC and later served as dean of its architecture school (biography).

Why does that matter to a buyer? A post-and-beam frame carries the roof on a grid of posts and beams, so the walls between them are free to be glass. That is why these houses feel like gardens. It is also why they cost real money to keep watertight.

The beams are rarely the problem. The water is.

The Designation

Can you remodel a Historic-Cultural Monument in Los Angeles?

Yes, with City review. A Historic-Cultural Monument is a City of Los Angeles designation made by the City Council under Chapter 9, Article 1 of the Administrative Code, and the Pabian findings state that future construction is regulated under Section 22.171.14 and measured against the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation. In plain terms, additions, alterations, and demolition get reviewed by City Planning before a permit moves forward. The City governs, not the county. Read the designation resolution to see exactly what it covers before assuming anything about interiors.

Do not confuse the label with a tax break. Designation makes a house eligible to apply for a Mills Act contract, a separate agreement with the City, recorded against the property, that lowers the assessed value in exchange for a long maintenance commitment. It begins with a ten-year term, renews automatically, and passes to the next owner. The record for the Pabian Residence shows designation; it does not show a recorded contract. Never assume one on any monument. Confirm it in the title report. Debbie Pisaro has written more on selling a Mills Act or HCM home.

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Some of the best homes trade before they ever reach the open market. Debbie Pisaro sees them first.

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The Decision

How to decide on a post-and-beam fixer

Walk any post-and-beam house in this order, and write the answers down before removing contingencies.

Roof first. Low-pitched roofs with deep eaves shed water slowly. A roof patched for decades can hide rot at beam ends and decking. Have a roofer who knows low-slope assemblies look, not only a general inspector.
Skylights and penetrations. Nine skylights on the Pabian Residence means nine holes that have had to survive more than sixty years of weather. Water stains on a wood ceiling show where to look.
Glass and windows. The City names the metal flush-mounted windows as a defining feature of this house. On a designated home, replacing them means City review first. On any post-and-beam house, price the glass before the kitchen.
The slab. A concrete slab foundation means pipes run in or under the floor. A repipe means cutting concrete or rerouting overhead through exposed ceilings. Order a sewer scope and a plumbing quote early.
Wiring with nowhere to hide. Exposed beam ceilings put new conduit in plain sight, so plan routes with a designer before committing to a scope.
Lateral strength. Large glass areas leave little wall for bracing. Ask a structural engineer what a seismic upgrade would take in a California house like this one.
Disclosures and permits. Read the TDS, the SPQ, and the NHD, check the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone line, and ask for the permit history. Open the title work for any recorded historic agreements.

Treat the first remodel scope as a repair scope. The buyers who struggle with these houses are the ones who plan a finish budget and discover a structure budget. A one-of-a-kind house has thin comps, so every dollar spent on the roof and glass shows up as condition, and condition is what an appraiser and the next buyer can actually measure. That is the core of how to price an architectural home in Los Angeles.

Buyer's Note

Price the roof, the skylights, and the glass before you price the kitchen. On a monument, add City review to the timeline before you add anything to the budget.

What should an owner of a house like this pull first?

Pull four things before talking to anyone about listing. First, the designation resolution and the council file number; for the Pabian Residence that is Council File 25-0979, under case CHC-2025-2719-HCM. Second, the list of protected features from the City's findings. Third, any recorded Mills Act contract. Fourth, the permit history. Together they tell a buyer what can change and what must stay. A home valuation from Debbie Pisaro starts from the same four documents.

Then put the story in the first line of the listing, in this order: architect, year, monument number, and what is original. A line like "1961 A. Quincy Jones post-and-beam, Historic-Cultural Monument No. 1328" screens for the right buyer in one sentence and saves the showings that go nowhere.

The Company It Keeps

The Pabian Residence and its Valley neighbors

Woodland Hills holds more architectural company than most buyers expect. On the City's monument list for the San Fernando Valley, the Van Dekker House at 19950 West Collier Street, designed by R.M. Schindler in 1940, and the Corbin Palms House at 6118 Jumilla Avenue, by Palmer and Krisel in 1955, share the neighborhood with the Pabian Residence. The mid-century tracts of Woodland West and Rams Village fill in the streets between them. Over in Tarzana, the Kaye Residence at 4754 Vanalden Avenue is a 1963 house by Gregory Ain, and in Granada Hills the Eichler Homes Foster Residence in the Balboa Highlands tract was declared in 2006. The full roster of architects lives in Debbie's architectural homes guide.

The larger story is a California one. From Brentwood's Crestwood Hills to Eichler's Bay Area neighborhoods to a quiet slope in Woodland Hills, post-and-beam carried one idea across the state: let the structure show and let the garden in. Buyers who shop the architect, not the zip code, fly in for exactly that.

My Take

Where I land on the Pabian Residence

What struck me wasn't the obvious thing. It was that Jones let the slope make the plan. He could have graded the lot flat and set a box on it. Instead the house steps down with the ground, and the City wrote that choice straight into its findings.

That one decision does a lot of work in under 1,500 square feet. A split level on a hillside gives each floor its own way out to the yard, and the walls of glass and nine skylights pull light down through every level. Small houses that do this well tend to feel bigger than their footprint.

I picture a buyer who shops by architect. Someone who already knows Jones from Crestwood Hills or an Eichler and wants one of his houses that very few people have heard of. A designer, a couple, someone who works from home and wants the light.

Here's what would give me pause, and it's the homework I'd do first. Nine skylights and a low roof are nine places water has had more than sixty years to find. The metal flush-mounted windows are protected, so repair gets priced before replacement. I'd have a low-slope roofer and a sewer scope lined up before anyone writes an offer.

Bottom line: this is the kind of monument I like best. Small, specific, and honest about how it was built. If the roof and the glass check out, I'd buy it for the slope alone.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

Where is the Pabian Residence?

The Pabian Residence is at 21735 West Ybarra Road in Woodland Hills, in the southwest San Fernando Valley, on a sloping lot south of Ventura Boulevard. It sits inside the City of Los Angeles, Council District 3, which is why the City, not the county, governs its Historic-Cultural Monument designation.

Who designed the Pabian Residence?

A. Quincy Jones designed the Pabian Residence in 1961 with his partner Frederick Emmons, for the Pabian family. It is a split-level post-and-beam house of just under 1,500 square feet, and the Los Angeles City Council declared it Historic-Cultural Monument No. 1328 on October 22, 2025.

Should you buy a post and beam home that needs work?

Yes, if the roof, the slab, and the glass are sound or priced realistically, and you can remodel slowly. The frame is rarely the problem. Water at the roof and skylights, aging glass, and under-slab plumbing drive most budgets. Get a low-slope roofer, a sewer scope, and a structural opinion before removing contingencies.

Can you remodel a Historic-Cultural Monument in Los Angeles?

Yes, with City review. Under Section 22.171.14 of the Los Angeles Administrative Code, alterations, additions, and demolition of a monument are reviewed against the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation before permits issue. Interior work is often less constrained, so read the designation's list of protected features before planning anything.

Is a Mills Act contract included?

No. Designation makes a property eligible to apply for a Mills Act contract, which is a separate agreement with the City, recorded against the property, that lowers the assessed value in exchange for a long maintenance commitment. It runs with the land to the next owner, so confirm whether one exists in the title report.

Can the original windows be replaced?

Often, but not freely. When a designation names the original windows as a defining feature, as the Pabian findings do for its metal flush-mounted windows, replacement goes through City review and usually has to match the original profile. Price repair and like-for-like replacement first, before assuming modern units will be approved.

Are there other historic mid century modern homes in Woodland Hills?

Yes. Woodland Hills holds at least three City monuments from the modern era: the Van Dekker House at 19950 West Collier Street, R.M. Schindler, 1940; the Corbin Palms House at 6118 Jumilla Avenue, Palmer and Krisel, 1955; and the Pabian Residence at 21735 West Ybarra Road, A. Quincy Jones, 1961.

What should a seller pull before listing a designated architectural home?

Pull the designation resolution and council file number, the City's list of protected features, any recorded Mills Act contract, and the permit history. Then lead the listing with the architect, the year, the monument number, and what is original, so the right buyer recognizes the house in the first line.

Who is a good real estate agent for architectural homes in Los Angeles?

Debbie Pisaro is an architectural real estate agent in Los Angeles with 24 years in the market, the founder of Coastline 840, and an Inman Luxury Leader. She works with buyers and sellers of architectural, historic, and design-forward homes across California, and many of the homes she sells never reach the open market.

Working with Debbie Pisaro

Debbie Pisaro is not the listing agent for 21735 West Ybarra Road. Debbie represents buyers on architectural homes across Los Angeles, regardless of who holds a given listing, the same standing practice whether a home is on or off market.

Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and an Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers across Los Angeles, the Valley, and the rest of California. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market, which is how pocket listings work. Coastline 840 is a boutique California practice, and the reasons are in why we built Coastline 840 and why boutique teams outperform big-box offices. For an owner or buyer of a house like this one, that means an architectural real estate agent in Los Angeles who already knows historic and architectural real estate across Los Angeles.

For buyers and sellers

Work with Debbie Pisaro

Debbie Pisaro helps owners price and sell architectural and historic homes, and represents buyers across California, on and off market.

(310) 362-6429 · debbie@coastline840.com
Coastline 840 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90026 · DRE #01369110

Reach Debbie

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 DBA of Side, Inc., CA DRE #02014153, responsible broker. Powered by Side: #1 California-based brokerage, No. 9 in the nation. She lives in a 1907 Craftsman in Silver Lake with her dog, Lennon. She writes about California real estate at debbiepisaro.com, losfelizliving.com, and coastline840.com. Published October 2026.

✦ ✦ ✦

840 Miles. Architectural homes. Local knowledge.

Sources

City of Los Angeles, Council File 25-0979, PLUM Committee report (October 14, 2025) and Cultural Heritage Commission findings, case CHC-2025-2719-HCM. City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning, Historic-Cultural Monuments list. USModernist, A. Quincy Jones and Crestwood Hills.

On the Register

Harry Gesner boathouses cantilevered over the hillside above Cahuenga Pass in the Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles.

Harry Gesner’s boathouses, house by house

Debbie Pisaro October 10, 2026

The Harry Gesner boathouses at a glance

The Harry Gesner boathouses are eleven small houses on Woodrow Wilson Drive and Pacific View Drive, above Cahuenga Pass in the Hollywood Hills. Gesner designed them in 1959 for developer Ronald Buck, on steep lots subdivided in 1911, and Norwegian boatbuilders framed them like hulls with hand axes and adzes.

Hollywood Hills · Architectural Homes

Eleven houses on lots nobody could use, framed by Norwegian boatbuilders with hand axes. Where each one is, and what to know before you buy one.

By Debbie PisaroDRE #01369110

October 2026

Architectural Homes12 min read

The Harry Gesner boathouses began as a problem nobody could solve. In 1911 a developer cut the south slope of Cahuenga Pass into strips too narrow and too steep for an ordinary house, and for almost fifty years nothing was built on them. Debbie Pisaro is an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles buyers call about houses like these, and her Harry Gesner architect profile tells the rest of his story, from the Wave House to his own Sandcastle. This page is the boathouses, one address at a time.

The short version: developer Ronald Buck asked Gesner what could be done with the lots. Gesner's answer was to stop treating them as building sites and start treating them as slipways. He hired a crew of Norwegian boatbuilders, and in 1959 they framed eleven small houses the way they would frame a hull, then cantilevered them out over the canyon.

They are some of the most recognizable small houses in Los Angeles, and some of the least understood when one comes to market. Below is where each one is, how the count gets confused, and what Debbie Pisaro looks at before a buyer makes an offer.

The lots

Why did the boathouses need a boatbuilder?

The boathouses needed a boatbuilder because the lots could not hold a conventional house. They were subdivided in 1911 into strips about 25 to 35 feet wide and about 95 feet long, running down a steep slope above Cahuenga Pass, and they sat vacant for almost fifty years.

A standard house wants a flat pad and room to spread out. These lots offered neither. Gesner's solution was to make each house narrow and light, and to push it out past the edge of the slope rather than dig into it. The Los Angeles Conservancy describes the result as houses cantilevered out beyond the edges of the hillside, on lots only 25 to 30 feet wide.

A structure that is long, narrow, light and strong, and that has to hold its shape while hanging in space, is a hull. That is the logic of hiring boatbuilders, and it is why the name stuck to the whole group.

All things architectural

Debbie Pisaro writes All Things Architectural, on the homes and the architects who designed them, the details, the history, and the neighborhoods they shaped.

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The builders

Framed like a hull, with hand axes

Gesner hired a crew of Norwegian boatbuilders who had recently arrived in Los Angeles, trained in traditional timber work. By the Los Angeles Conservancy's account they shaped the structural wood with hand axes and adzes rather than saws, which is why the framing in an original boathouse reads as hand-made rather than milled.

Gesner came to the method naturally. He was a surfer and a sailor before he was a designer, and the instinct to build light, taut structures shaped by the forces on them runs through his work, from the copper roof of the Wave House in Malibu to these houses on the hill. He was also a nephew of the aircraft designer Jack Northrop, and the profile tells that side of the story.

House by house

Where the boathouses are, address by address

All eleven boathouses are in the Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, CA 90068, on two streets above Cahuenga Pass. These are the addresses USModernist catalogues individually, each dated 1959.

Woodrow Wilson Drive · seven houses

7025Woodrow Wilson Drive

The first boathouse built on Woodrow Wilson Drive.

7031Woodrow Wilson Drive

Catalogued individually by USModernist, 1959.

7035Woodrow Wilson Drive

Catalogued individually by USModernist, 1959.

7041Woodrow Wilson Drive

Catalogued individually by USModernist, 1959.

7045Woodrow Wilson Drive

Catalogued individually by USModernist, 1959.

7147Woodrow Wilson Drive

Catalogued individually by USModernist, 1959.

7149Woodrow Wilson Drive

About 1,136 square feet, two bedrooms and one bath.

Pacific View Drive · four houses

6890Pacific View Drive

The first boathouse built on Pacific View Drive.

6894Pacific View Drive

The largest of the group, about 2,400 square feet with three bedrooms.

6900Pacific View Drive

Catalogued individually by USModernist, 1959.

6906Pacific View Drive

Catalogued individually by USModernist, 1959.

The Woodrow Wilson houses are the small ones: the Los Angeles Conservancy puts them at under 1,200 square feet each. The Pacific View group includes the largest boathouse, 6894, at about 2,400 square feet. Square footage on a hillside house changes with every permitted addition, so treat any figure as a starting point for the permit file, not the end of it.

Gesner stopped treating the lots as building sites and started treating them as slipways.

The count

How many boathouses did Harry Gesner actually build?

USModernist catalogues eleven Gesner boathouses by address, and that is the count used here. Other sources disagree: Wikipedia describes a group of twelve, and listing copy over the years has called a house one of five, one of seven or one of eight.

The numbers differ for ordinary reasons. Some sources count only one street. Some fold in later houses nearby that borrowed the look. And a house that is one of eight in one listing becomes one of five in the next, because the copy is written to sell that house, not to settle the record.

For a buyer or an owner, the practical rule is simple: match the street number to the catalogue. A house on the list is documented. A house next door that looks the part is a question, and the answer changes what it is worth.

Buying a boathouse

What should a buyer check before buying a Gesner boathouse?

A buyer should check three things before making an offer on a Gesner boathouse: that the address is one of the catalogued eleven, how the house holds the hillside, and how much of the original hand-cut timber survives. Each one changes the price, and each one is cheaper to learn before escrow than after.

The hillside comes first in practice. A house cantilevered over a canyon depends on its foundation, its posts and any retrofit work done since 1959, so the permit history and a structural inspection matter more here than on a house on a flat lot. Drainage, fire planning and insurance come next, as with every house in the Hollywood Hills, and so does parking on a narrow street.

Survival comes last and matters most to the next buyer. A boathouse with its original framing, its original proportions and a clear permit trail is a documented work of architecture. One that has been enlarged or reframed is still a Gesner site, but it is not the same purchase. Pricing that difference is its own discipline, covered in how to price an architectural home in Los Angeles. Designation should be checked house by house too, and Debbie Pisaro's Los Feliz work shows what Historic-Cultural Monument designation does to a home value.

Buyer's note

"Gesner boathouse" in the remarks is a claim until the street number matches the catalogue. Check the address first, then the hillside, then the timber.

Off-market access

Some of the best homes trade before they ever reach the open market. Debbie Pisaro sees them first.

See pocket listings

The rest of his work

The boathouses and the rest of Gesner

The boathouses sit between Gesner's two worlds. In Malibu he worked the sand, from the Wave House to his own Sandcastle, and that coast is mapped in Harry Gesner's Malibu, house by house. When several of his houses came to market after his death in 2022, Debbie Pisaro wrote them up in four Harry Gesner houses, from the Malibu sand to the Sierra foothills.

The hills above Hollywood are full of architects who took on impossible lots. John Lautner did it with concrete in Silver Lake, and the wider lineage runs through Debbie Pisaro's guide to the architects of California modernism. Her architectural homes specialist page explains how she works with owners and buyers of houses like these.

She does it through Coastline 840, the boutique California practice she built for architectural and historic homes, and the case for a small practice on houses like these is in why boutique real estate teams outperform the big firms. Debbie Pisaro is not the listing agent for any of the eleven boathouses. Debbie represents buyers on architectural homes across California, regardless of who holds a given listing, the same standing practice whether a home is on or off market.

Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and an Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers across Los Angeles and California's coast and hills. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market. For a boathouse above Cahuenga Pass, that is the work of an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles owners already trust with named houses, and the rest of her work is at debbiepisaro.com.

My Take

What I think of the boathouses

The detail that stops me is the tools. In 1959, in the Hollywood Hills, Norwegian boatbuilders shaped the framing of these houses with hand axes and adzes instead of saws. You can't order that from a lumberyard, and nobody is going to build a house that way again.

What these houses do well is make a lot out of almost nothing. The lots were strips 25 to 35 feet wide on a slope nobody had built on for almost fifty years. Gesner didn't fight the hill. He kept each house narrow and light, pushed it out over the canyon, and got a view out of a site everyone else had written off.

I picture someone who'd trade square footage for character without blinking. Most of the Woodrow Wilson houses are under 1,200 square feet. That's a buyer who wants one great room, a deck over the canyon and a house people ask about.

The honest part: a house that's been hanging off a hillside since 1959 comes with homework. I'd want the permit history, a structural inspection of the cantilever and the foundation, and a clear read on how much of the original hand-cut timber is still there. Before any of that, I'd match the street number to the catalogue, because the name gets stretched to houses next door. That homework is mine to do.

Bottom line: if one of the eleven comes up with its original framing intact, I'd take it seriously and I wouldn't wait. Small as they are, they're the kind of house people remember.

Questions

The Gesner boathouses, answered

Where are the Harry Gesner boathouses?

The Gesner boathouses stand above Cahuenga Pass in the Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, CA 90068. Seven are on Woodrow Wilson Drive, at 7025, 7031, 7035, 7041, 7045, 7147 and 7149, and four are on Pacific View Drive, at 6890, 6894, 6900 and 6906. All eleven date to 1959.

How many boathouses did Harry Gesner design?

USModernist catalogues eleven Gesner boathouses by address, all from 1959, and that is the count Debbie Pisaro uses. Wikipedia describes a group of twelve, and listing copy has cited five, seven and eight. The counts differ because some sources count one street, and some count houses near the group.

Who built the Hollywood Hills boathouses?

A crew of Norwegian boatbuilders built them in 1959 to Harry Gesner's design, for developer Ronald Buck. They framed the houses the way they would frame a hull and, by the Los Angeles Conservancy's account, shaped the structural wood with hand axes and adzes instead of saws.

Why are they called the boathouses?

They are named for how they were built, not for any boat. Gesner hired Norwegian boatbuilders and had them frame each house like a hull, in hand-finished timber, cantilevered out over the canyon. The name stuck to the whole group of houses on Woodrow Wilson Drive and Pacific View Drive.

How big is a Gesner boathouse?

Small. The Los Angeles Conservancy puts the houses on Woodrow Wilson Drive at under 1,200 square feet each; 7149 Woodrow Wilson Drive is about 1,136 square feet with two bedrooms. The exception is 6894 Pacific View Drive, the largest of the group, at about 2,400 square feet with three bedrooms.

When were the boathouses built?

Harry Gesner designed the boathouses and Norwegian boatbuilders built them in 1959, which is the year USModernist gives for all eleven. The Los Angeles Conservancy says the late 1950s. The lots themselves are much older: they were subdivided in 1911 and sat empty for almost fifty years before Gesner built on them.

What should a buyer check before buying a Gesner boathouse?

Confirm the address against the USModernist catalogue first, since listing copy sometimes stretches the name to neighboring houses. Then look hard at the hillside: the cantilever, the foundation and any retrofit work, drainage, fire planning and parking on a narrow street. Finally, find out how much of the original hand-cut timber survives.

Who is the best real estate agent for buying a Harry Gesner boathouse?

Look for a real estate agent who works in architectural homes and checks attributions as closely as comps. Debbie Pisaro, founder of Coastline 840 and an Inman Luxury Leader, represents buyers and sellers of architecturally significant homes across California, and many of the homes she sells never reach the open market.

For buyers and sellers

Work with Debbie Pisaro

Debbie Pisaro helps buyers and owners document, price and place architectural homes like the boathouses, from the Hollywood Hills to the coast.

(310) 362-6429 · debbie@coastline840.com
Coastline 840 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90026 · DRE #01369110

Reach Debbie

Debbie Pisaro, Real Estate Salesperson, 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 DBA of Side, Inc., CA DRE #02014153, responsible broker. She writes about California real estate at debbiepisaro.com, losfelizliving.com, and coastline840.com. Published October 2026.

Sources

USModernist, Harry Harmer Gesner; Los Angeles Conservancy, Boat Houses; Wikipedia, Boathouses (Hollywood Hills); Dwell, on a Gesner boathouse; LAist, on a Gesner boathouse.

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On the Register

The Bernstein House by Harry Gesner, a wood beach house on the sand at Malibu Cove Colony in Malibu, California.

Four Harry Gesner houses, from the Malibu sand to the Sierra foothills

Debbie Pisaro October 10, 2026

Harry Gesner homes for sale at a glance

Harry Gesner homes for sale are rare, because the self-taught California architect built few houses and families keep them for decades. Four have come to market since his death in 2022: the Bernstein House in Malibu Cove Colony, the Erenhault House in Trousdale Estates, Condor Crag in Calabasas and the Reshaw houses outside Porterville.

California · Architectural Homes

A beach house in Malibu Cove Colony, a Trousdale ridge house, a cliff house above Calabasas and two round houses on 200 acres. Four Harry Gesner houses, and what each one is.

By Debbie PisaroDRE #01369110

October 2026

Architectural Homes10 min read

Harry Gesner homes for sale come up so seldom that four in a short stretch is worth writing down. Gesner was a surfer, a sailor and a self-taught designer who put houses where other architects would not: on the sand at the tide line, into the bedrock of a Beverly Hills ridge, onto a granite cliff in the Santa Monica Mountains. Debbie Pisaro is an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles collectors call when a house like this surfaces, and her Harry Gesner architect profile covers the man, the Wave House and the Hollywood boathouses.

This page is about four of his houses: the Bernstein House in Malibu Cove Colony, the Melvin Erenhault House in Trousdale Estates, Condor Crag above Calabasas, and the Reshaw houses in the foothills east of Porterville. Each has come to market since Gesner died in 2022 at 97. Together they run from 1958 to 1975, the middle of a career that lasted into his eighties, and a long stretch of California, from the Pacific to Tulare County.

A Gesner usually stays with the family that commissioned it, which is why a run of four matters. Below is what each house is, where it is, and what Debbie Pisaro looks at before a buyer makes an offer.

The houses

Where are the Harry Gesner houses that came to market?

Four houses, four settings, seventeen years apart from first to last. The dates are the years Gesner finished each one, and the addresses are the full street addresses, so an owner, a neighbor or a buyer can find the house on a map.

Bernstein House1975 · Malibu

26902 Malibu Cove Colony Drive, Malibu, CA 90265. On the sand, at the cul-de-sac end of a private colony road.

Erenhault House1970 · Beverly Hills

624 Cole Place, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. Built into the bedrock of a Trousdale Estates ridge.

Condor Crag1958 · Calabasas

965 Stunt Road, Calabasas, CA 91302. Anchored into a granite cliff in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Reshaw houses1966 · Porterville

31898 Success Valley Drive, Porterville, CA 93257. Two round houses on about 200 acres in the Sierra foothills.

All things architectural

Debbie Pisaro writes All Things Architectural, on the homes and the architects who designed them, the details, the history, and the neighborhoods they shaped.

Join the list or call (310) 362-6429

Malibu

The Bernstein House, Malibu Cove Colony

26902 Malibu Cove Colony Drive · Malibu, CA 90265 · 1975

The Bernstein House is a 1975 Gesner on the beach at 26902 Malibu Cove Colony Drive, a small gated colony off Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. It sits at the quiet cul-de-sac end of the colony's private road with direct access to the sand, and it stayed with the family that built it for about fifty years.

It is a modest house by Malibu standards: about 2,644 square feet, four bedrooms, on a beach lot of 0.17 acre. What makes it a Gesner is the material. There are wood-beam ceilings and wide-plank floors, five fireplaces, stained glass salvaged from a historic church, and a pair of tall, slender bronze front doors taken from the old San Francisco Mint. Gesner liked salvage with a past, and here it is the front door.

When the house came to market for the first time, it was Gesner's son, the actor Zen Gesner, who recognized it as his father's design.

Malibu Colony, a short drive east, carries a footnote to the same story. In 1966 Gesner drew the Gershwin Beach House for a lot there, and it was never built: the client cancelled and sold the property. In 1968 John Lautner built on that lot, and the result is the house in Debbie Pisaro's post on the Lautner Stevens House in Malibu.

Beverly Hills

The Erenhault House, Trousdale Estates

624 Cole Place · Beverly Hills, CA 90210 · 1968 to 1970

The Melvin Erenhault House is a 1970 Gesner at 624 Cole Place, at the end of a cul-de-sac in Trousdale Estates, Beverly Hills. Melvin Erenhault commissioned it in 1968. Gesner built it into the bedrock of the ridge and covered it with a curved roof that rises like a cresting wave, then drops the living room down a level and opens it to the city through floor-to-ceiling glass.

It runs to roughly 6,500 square feet with six bedrooms on about two-thirds of an acre. It went about twenty years without being offered for sale, and for part of that time it was available only to rent. The house appears in Houses of the Sundown Sea, Lisa Germany's book on Gesner's work.

Trousdale is better known for the 1950s and 1960s houses of Hal Levitt and Edward Fickett, low and wide behind their hedges. A Gesner there is an outlier, which is exactly its appeal.

The mountains

Condor Crag, Calabasas

965 Stunt Road · Calabasas, CA 91302 · 1958

Condor Crag is the Fleet Southcott House, a 1958 Gesner at 965 Stunt Road in Calabasas. Gesner designed it for Fleet Southcott, a cinematographer on Gunsmoke, and anchored it directly into a granite cliff in the Santa Monica Mountains with steel beams.

It is early Gesner, and it carries the same instinct as the Wave House, drawn two years earlier: make the house grip the place instead of sitting on top of it. The property runs to about 4.7 acres across three contiguous lots, with a house of roughly 2,500 square feet and three bedrooms. It changed hands in 1980 and again in 2011.

Stunt Road climbs out of Calabasas toward the ridgeline of the Santa Monica Mountains, and Condor Crag belongs to that country: chaparral, rock and long views.

Gesner put houses where other architects would not: on the sand, in the bedrock, on the cliff.

The foothills

The Reshaw houses, Porterville

31898 Success Valley Drive · Porterville, CA 93257 · 1966

The Reshaw houses are a 1966 Gesner design of two round houses side by side at 31898 Success Valley Drive, on about 200 acres in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of Porterville, in Tulare County. Gesner designed them for Wiley Reshaw.

There is a three-bedroom main house and a one-bedroom second residence, both round, plus a guest dwelling. The property sold in 2021. At some point the original main structure was gutted and rebuilt and the garage moved into a building of its own, which matters to a buyer: the site plan and the round forms are Gesner's, but how much original fabric survives is the first question to ask.

The Reshaw houses are also the plainest reminder on this list that Gesner was a California architect, not only a Malibu one. Success Valley is a long way from the surf, and he answered it with circles instead of waves.

Off-market access

Some of the best homes trade before they ever reach the open market. Debbie Pisaro sees them first.

See pocket listings

The architect

Who was Harry Gesner, the self-taught architect behind these houses?

Harry Gesner (1925 to 2022) was a self-taught California architect who surfed, sailed and served in the Second World War, and who built houses that answer their land instead of flattening it. He never earned an architecture degree, worked mostly in Malibu, the Hollywood Hills and the Santa Monica Mountains, and was 97 when he died.

The Wave House is the story everyone tells. In 1956 his old friends and fellow surfers Glenn and Gerry Cooper asked him to design a house on the beach in Malibu. Gesner paddled out, sketched the house in grease pencil on his surfboard while he looked back at the site, and transferred the drawing to paper once he was ashore.

The same years produced Eagle's Watch in Malibu, which burned in 1993 and which Gesner rebuilt in concrete and steel, and the Triangle House, the Richard Kimball House in Tarzana. In 1974 he finished his own house, the Sandcastle, on the sand in Malibu, built almost entirely from salvage for his wife, the actress Nan Martin. Debbie Pisaro has written separately about Harry Gesner's Malibu houses and the Hollywood boathouses.

His contemporaries are part of the picture. John Lautner was building Silvertop in Silver Lake while Gesner was sketching on a surfboard, and Ed Niles later took steel and glass up the same Malibu coast. Debbie Pisaro keeps all of them in her architect register and her guide to the architects of California modernism.

Buying a Gesner

What should a buyer check before buying a Harry Gesner house?

A buyer should confirm three things before making an offer on a Harry Gesner house: that the attribution is documented, how much of the original design survives, and what the setting costs to own. Each Gesner answers its own piece of land, so no two are comparable, and appraisers struggle with that.

Documentation comes first. A house with a clear record in USModernist, in Gesner's own book or in the permit file is a different purchase from one carried on a seller's say-so. Survival comes second: the Bernstein House kept its family and its fabric for fifty years, and the Reshaw main house was gutted. Both are Gesners, and they are not the same house to own.

Setting comes third. A Malibu beach house means the Coastal Commission and the tide line. Trousdale has its own height and view rules. A canyon house in the Santa Monica Mountains means fire insurance before anything else. Check designation as well: a few Gesner houses carry Mills Act contracts written before Los Angeles stopped accepting new applications in 2020, and an existing contract transfers with the title. Debbie Pisaro's Los Feliz work shows what Historic-Cultural Monument designation does to a home value.

Buyer's note

Price the land and the record, not the square footage. A 2,644-square-foot Gesner on the sand and a 6,500-square-foot Gesner on a ridge are priced on their settings and their paperwork, never on comparable sales down the street.

Pricing a house like this is its own discipline, and Debbie Pisaro has written on how to price an architectural home in Los Angeles. She is not the listing agent for 26902 Malibu Cove Colony Drive, 624 Cole Place, 965 Stunt Road or 31898 Success Valley Drive. Debbie represents buyers on architectural homes across California, regardless of who holds a given listing, the same standing practice whether a home is on or off market.

She does it through Coastline 840, the boutique California practice she built for architectural and historic homes, and the reason a boutique practice suits houses like these is set out in why boutique real estate teams outperform the big firms. Her architectural homes specialist page explains how she works.

Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and an Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers across Los Angeles and California's coast and foothills. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market. For a Gesner, from the Malibu sand to Tulare County, that is the work of an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles buyers can lean on, and the rest of her work is at debbiepisaro.com.

My take

My take on the Bernstein House

The detail that stops me is the front door. It's a pair of tall, slender bronze doors that came out of the old San Francisco Mint, hung on a beach house in Malibu Cove Colony. Gesner liked salvage with a past, and here he put it where you'd touch it every day.

What the house does well is restraint. It's about 2,644 square feet with four bedrooms on a 0.17-acre lot, which is small for Malibu, and it doesn't pretend to be bigger. Wood-beam ceilings, wide-plank floors, five fireplaces, stained glass from a historic church. It reads warm rather than glassy, and it sits on the sand at the quiet cul-de-sac end of a private road.

I picture someone who wants the beach more than the square footage. A buyer who'd rather light a fire on a gray June morning than host a party for a hundred. Probably someone who already knows who Harry Gesner was, or who'll want to learn.

The honest part: this house stayed with one family for about fifty years, and it was Gesner's own son who recognized it as his father's design when it came to market. That tells me the paper trail may be thin. Before anyone writes an offer, I'd want the permit history, the USModernist record and a clear read on what's original. On the sand, I'd also get the Coastal Commission questions answered early. That's homework, and it's mine to do.

Bottom line: of the four Gesner houses that came up, this is the one I'd want to own. It isn't the biggest and it isn't the most famous. It's the one that feels most like him: salvaged history, five fireplaces and the Pacific a few steps away.

Questions

Harry Gesner houses, answered

Where are Harry Gesner homes for sale in California?

Four Gesner houses have come to market since he died in 2022: the Bernstein House at 26902 Malibu Cove Colony Drive in Malibu, the Erenhault House at 624 Cole Place in Beverly Hills, Condor Crag at 965 Stunt Road in Calabasas, and the Reshaw houses at 31898 Success Valley Drive in Porterville.

Where is the Erenhault House?

The Melvin Erenhault House is at 624 Cole Place, at the end of a cul-de-sac in Trousdale Estates, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. Harry Gesner took the commission in 1968 and finished the house in 1970, building it into the bedrock of the ridge under a curved roof that opens to the city.

What is the most famous Harry Gesner house?

The Wave House in Malibu is Gesner's best-known work. He drew it in 1956 for his old friends and fellow surfers Glenn and Gerry Cooper, sketching it in grease pencil on his surfboard while he looked back at the site. Its copper-clad roofs read as breaking surf at the edge of the Pacific.

Was Harry Gesner a licensed architect?

Harry Gesner was self-taught. He surfed, sailed and served in the Second World War, and he never earned an architecture degree, yet he spent his career building houses that answer their land instead of flattening it. He worked mostly in Malibu, the Hollywood Hills and the Santa Monica Mountains, and died in 2022 at 97.

Where is the Bernstein House?

The Bernstein House is at 26902 Malibu Cove Colony Drive, Malibu, CA 90265, on the sand at the quiet cul-de-sac end of the colony's private road, with direct beach access. Gesner finished it in 1975, and it stayed with the same family for about fifty years before it first came to market.

What should a buyer check before buying a Harry Gesner house?

Start with the record: confirm the attribution against an archive such as USModernist, read the permit history, and learn how much of the original survives. Then price the setting, because a Malibu beach lot, a Trousdale ridge and a canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains each carry their own permits, insurance and rules.

How rare are Harry Gesner houses?

Rare. Gesner built a small body of work across a long career, much of it custom houses for friends, surfers and Hollywood clients, and many of those houses have stayed in one family for decades. The Bernstein House went about fifty years without a sale, and the Erenhault House about twenty years.

Who is the best real estate agent for buying a Harry Gesner house?

Look for a real estate agent who works in architectural homes across California and reads permit files and archives as closely as comps. Debbie Pisaro, founder of Coastline 840 and an Inman Luxury Leader, represents buyers and sellers of architecturally significant homes statewide, and many of the homes she sells never reach the open market.

For buyers and sellers

Work with Debbie Pisaro

Debbie Pisaro helps buyers find, document and price architectural homes like these, from the Malibu sand to the Sierra foothills.

(310) 362-6429 · debbie@coastline840.com
Coastline 840 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90026 · DRE #01369110

Reach Debbie

Sources

USModernist, Harry Harmer Gesner; Wikipedia, Harry Gesner; Getty, Harry Gesner's buildings surf the California hillsides; Dwell, the Malibu Cove Colony house; Robb Report, the Malibu Cove Colony house; Galerie, the Erenhault House; e-architect, Erenhault House; Dwell, the Sandcastle.

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840 Miles. Architectural homes. Local knowledge.

On the Register

1934 Spanish Colonial Revival home on Alvira Street in the South Carthay Historic Preservation Overlay Zone, Los Angeles

South Carthay HPOZ: Inside a Los Angeles National Register District

Debbie Pisaro October 3, 2026

Los Angeles · Historic Districts

South Carthay HPOZ

Inside the National Register district that runs from Olympic to Pico, and what the recorded tract map for 1127 Alvira Street says about who actually built it.

By Debbie PisaroDRE #01369110

October 2026

Historic Districts9 min read

South Carthay HPOZ at a glance

South Carthay is a Los Angeles Historic Preservation Overlay Zone bounded by Olympic Boulevard, Pico Boulevard, La Cienega Boulevard, and Crescent Heights Boulevard, locally designated in 1985. Since 2022 it has also carried a federal listing, as part of the Carthay Neighborhoods Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places, alongside Carthay Circle and Carthay Square. A home there, such as 1127 Alvira Street, can carry a local HPOZ designation, a National Register listing, and its own Mills Act contract all at once.

What is the South Carthay HPOZ?

South Carthay is a six-block Historic Preservation Overlay Zone in the Pico-Robertson-adjacent flats of mid-city Los Angeles, built almost entirely between 1933 and 1937. Its interior streets, Alvira Street, South Alfred Street, South Orlando Avenue, South La Jolla Avenue, Whitworth Drive, Packard Street, and Olympic Place, carry the Spanish Colonial Revival houses that gave the tract its identity, along with the Storybook, Tudor Revival, Mediterranean Revival, and French Revival houses documented alongside them across the wider Carthay district. The HPOZ excludes the commercial-frontage lots along Pico and La Cienega, so the designation covers the residential interior only.

Debbie Pisaro tracks the district as part of her wider Los Angeles architectural homes coverage, the same lane that holds her Trousdale Estates and Laurel Canyon tract histories. A saved search on 1127 Alvira Street, a 1934 Spanish Colonial Revival, surfaced something the listing sheet alone does not say: the house sits on a recorded 1933 subdivision map, inside a designation that stacks three separate protections on top of each other, the kind of overlap covered network-wide in how California protects historic architectural homes. Reading the map, and then reading ninety years of the block's own sale history, tells a more specific story than the neighborhood's own preservation report does on its own, the same discipline behind the Los Angeles house styles Debbie has documented street by street.

The Tract

Who actually subdivided South Carthay?

The block that includes 1127 Alvira Street is Tract No. 10733, surveyed in June 1933 by engineer Harold M. Tegart and recorded July 31, 1933, in Map Book 182, pages 44 and 45. The tract itself states that it is a subdivision of portions of Lots 92 and 93 of the earlier Tract No. 8109, recorded a few pages earlier in the same book, which is the larger parent parcel South Carthay's interior streets were carved from. The subdivider of record on the recorded map is the Twin Cities Company, with Title Insurance and Trust Company and Title Guarantee and Trust Company standing as trustees. Los Angeles City Engineer J.J. Jessup approved the map on July 20, 1933, the City Council passed its resolution eight days later, and County Surveyor Harold A. Harris signed off on July 31.

The map also carries the unglamorous machinery every 1933 subdivision needed to get built: special assessment bonds not to exceed $68,022.40 spread over five years, and a Los Angeles County Flood Control District bond issue of roughly $908,128.09, due April 12, 1942. None of that appears in an agent's remarks. It appears on the map, which is the actual primary source for who platted these streets, and it names a subdivision company, not an architect and not a builder, the same document-first standard Debbie applies to the Van Buren Place Historic District in West Adams and to every profile in her architectural homes guide.

By the Numbers

1934

Peak Build Year

The single largest year across 290 South Carthay MLS records pulled by street, more than any other year in the tract's 1933-to-1940 build-out.

6,885

Sq. Ft. Lot, Most Common

The most frequent recorded lot size across the same records, part of a tight cluster between roughly 6,375 and 7,020 square feet that reads as one consistent tract module.

1,170

Contributing Buildings

Across the full Carthay Neighborhoods Historic District, Carthay Circle, Carthay Square, and South Carthay combined, per the 2022 National Register nomination.

The Builder

Who was Spyros Ponty?

Spyros George Ponty, sometimes recorded as Spiros G. Ponty, appears across more than two decades of MLS agent remarks on South Carthay's own streets, called a "famed Greek developer," a "renowned builder," and an "area legend" as recently as a 2026 listing and as far back as 2001. The naming is consistent and it is specific to this tract, which is the kind of repetition that is worth taking seriously. What is not well supported, and what Debbie Pisaro points out plainly after twenty-four years of reading these remarks, is the credit agents keep attaching to it: buyers are routinely told, and come to believe, that Ponty designed these houses, when the recorded tract map names no architect at all, only the Twin Cities Company as subdivider. It is a mislabeling nobody has corrected in two decades of listings, repeated so often it reads as fact. The more precise read is that Ponty built houses on lots the Twin Cities Company had already platted and recorded, working the tract as a builder and developer rather than as its architect of record.

This post credits Ponty as South Carthay's developer and builder because the market record supports that role clearly. It does not name an architect of record for the tract's original houses, because nothing in the recorded map, the MLS remarks, or the district's own preservation documents supports one. A separate, 1998 Cultural Heritage Commission approval credits Pica & Sullivan Architects for an addition to 1034 South Orlando Avenue, but that is a later remodel, not the original 1933 construction. Where a source cannot be confirmed, the honest answer is to leave the credit open rather than repeat an unverified one, the same standard behind Debbie's own architectural homes specialist page.

All things architectural

Debbie Pisaro writes All Things Architectural, on the homes and the architects who designed them, the details, the history, and the neighborhoods they shaped.

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The Record

What does the MLS record actually show?

Pulling every recorded sale across South Carthay's interior streets, 290 records in all, turns the tract's marketing language into a dataset. Alvira Street alone accounts for 109 of those records, more than any other street in the district. Build years cluster tightly around the tract's real construction window: 14 homes recorded as built in 1933, 98 in 1934, 78 in 1935, 71 in 1936, and a tapering count through 1940. Lot sizes cluster the same way, with 6,885, 6,750, and 6,747 square feet as the three most common recorded values, the fingerprint of a single subdivider's module rather than an organic, lot-by-lot build-out.

The record is not perfectly clean, and that is worth saying plainly rather than smoothing over. 1100 Alvira Street carries two different recorded build years, 1933 and 1936, across two separate listings years apart. That kind of inconsistency is normal in a tract this old, where an assessor's year and a builder's year do not always agree, and naming it plainly is more useful to a buyer than pretending the record is tidier than it is, the same honesty Debbie brings to the assessor-year gaps documented on whether historic designation lowers home value in Los Feliz.

A recorded tract map does not care what a listing remarks section says. It says what it says, and it was written down in 1933.

The Designation

How does the National Register listing work with the HPOZ?

South Carthay's HPOZ was adopted by the City of Los Angeles in 1985, ahead of its neighbors: Carthay Circle followed as its own HPOZ in 1998, and Carthay Square in 2017. In 2022, all three were combined into a single federal listing, the Carthay Neighborhoods Historic District, on the National Register of Historic Places, covering roughly 1,170 contributing buildings developed between 1922 and the mid-1950s. The nomination was resident-driven: a volunteer Carthay National Register Committee, Walter Dominguez, Ann Rubin, and Susan Sanford among its organizers, raised more than $100,000 and hired the preservation firm Architectural Resources Group to prepare a 545-page nomination, work partly motivated by a wish to protect the district against a newer state up-zoning law. The Los Angeles Conservancy recognized the effort with a 2023 Preservation Award.

The two designations are not redundant. The HPOZ is the local layer, administered by the City of Los Angeles's own historic-cultural monument program, and it is what actually governs a permit application on a contributing house: exterior alterations inside a South Carthay HPOZ go through local design review. For how historic designation works on the Los Feliz side, see what HCM designation means for a home's value. The National Register listing is the federal layer, and it is what opens the door to a Mills Act contract, the state program that ties reduced property taxes to a binding restoration-and-maintenance agreement on a qualifying historic property, the same program explained for owners in selling a Mills Act home in Los Feliz and in Mills Act in West Adams. A South Carthay house with a Mills Act contract, like 1127 Alvira Street, is carrying all three at once: HPOZ, National Register, and Mills Act, each doing a different job.

Off-market access

Some of the best homes trade before they ever reach the open market. Debbie Pisaro sees them first.

See pocket listings

Buyer's Note

A Mills Act contract runs with the property, not the owner. A buyer in an HPOZ inherits the existing contract's terms and its maintenance obligations, and any exterior work still goes through the same local design review that governs every other contributing house on the block.

The Address

What does 1127 Alvira Street tell us?

1127 Alvira Street, Los Angeles, CA 90035, is Lot 55 of Tract No. 10733, assessor's parcel number 5087-011-009, recorded in Map Book 182 at pages 44 and 45. It is a 1934 Spanish Colonial Revival, built in the tract's single busiest construction year, on one of the block's most common lot modules. Its own sale history runs deep enough to read like the tract's in miniature: it sold in May 2005 for a list price of $1,175,000, and again in June 2025 for $2,720,000. Debbie Pisaro is not the listing agent for 1127 Alvira Street. She represents buyers on architectural and historic homes across Los Angeles, regardless of who holds a given listing, the same standing practice whether a home is on or off market.

Debbie Pisaro has shown these streets herself, and first-time buyers are consistently caught off guard by what they find there. South Carthay does not have the biggest houses in Los Angeles. What it has, tucked into six quiet blocks in the middle of the city, are neighbors who actually know each other, and owners who rarely sell, because they already know what they have.

FAQ

South Carthay, answered

Where is South Carthay in Los Angeles?

South Carthay is a mid-city Los Angeles neighborhood bounded by Olympic Boulevard to the north, Pico Boulevard to the south, La Cienega Boulevard to the west, and Crescent Heights Boulevard to the east, near 1127 Alvira Street, in the 90035 zip code between Fairfax and Beverly Hills.

What does it mean to buy a home in the South Carthay HPOZ?

Buying in the South Carthay HPOZ means exterior alterations to a contributing house go through the City of Los Angeles's local historic design review, and the buyer inherits any existing Mills Act contract's restoration and maintenance terms along with the house.

Is South Carthay part of the National Register of Historic Places?

Yes. South Carthay was listed on the National Register in 2022 as part of the Carthay Neighborhoods Historic District, a joint nomination with the neighboring Carthay Circle and Carthay Square HPOZs, covering roughly 1,170 contributing buildings developed between 1922 and the mid-1950s, and recognized with a 2023 Los Angeles Conservancy Preservation Award.

What is the difference between South Carthay, Carthay Circle, and Carthay Square?

All three are separate City of Los Angeles HPOZs, adopted in 1985, 1998, and 2017 respectively, that were later combined into one 2022 National Register nomination as the Carthay Neighborhoods Historic District. Locally, each still keeps its own boundaries and its own local design-review process.

How does a Mills Act contract affect property taxes in South Carthay?

A Mills Act contract ties a reduced property tax assessment to a binding agreement to restore and maintain a qualifying historic home, and the contract runs with the property, so a buyer takes on its terms along with any tax benefit.

Who built the original houses in South Carthay?

Spyros George Ponty is named consistently across decades of MLS remarks as South Carthay's builder and developer, though the recorded 1933 tract map names the Twin Cities Company as the subdivider, and no architect of record is documented for the original 1933-to-1937 construction.

When were most of the homes in South Carthay built?

Most South Carthay homes were built between 1933 and 1937, with 1934 the single largest year on record across the tract's own MLS sale history, following the July 1933 subdivision map and the busiest years of the Twin Cities Company's original construction on these lots.

What architectural styles are found in South Carthay?

Spanish Colonial Revival is South Carthay's signature style, the dominant look across Alvira Street and its neighboring blocks, alongside the Storybook, Tudor Revival, Mediterranean Revival, and French Revival houses documented across the wider Carthay Neighborhoods Historic District as a whole.

Is 1127 Alvira Street on a recorded historic tract map?

Yes. 1127 Alvira Street is Lot 55 of Tract No. 10733, recorded July 31, 1933, in Map Book 182 at pages 44 and 45, a subdivision carved from the earlier Tract No. 8109 by the Twin Cities Company, with the parcel carrying assessor's number 5087-011-009.

Who is a good full-service real estate agent in Los Angeles?

For buyers and sellers

Work with Debbie Pisaro

Debbie Pisaro represents buyers touring HPOZ and Mills Act homes across Los Angeles, including South Carthay, and works with owners of historic and architectural properties when they are ready to sell, through Coastline 840, the boutique practice she built as an alternative to big-box brokerage service.

(310) 362-6429 · debbie@coastline840.com
Coastline 840 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90026 · DRE #01369110

Reach Debbie

Sources

Recorded Tract No. 10733 map, Map Book 182, pages 44 to 45, Los Angeles County. LADBS parcel records for 1127 Alvira Street. Los Angeles City Planning HPOZ records for South Carthay. National Register of Historic Places nomination for the Carthay Neighborhoods Historic District, 2022. Los Angeles Conservancy. Multiple Listing Service records for South Carthay's interior streets.

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840 Miles. Architectural homes. Local knowledge.

On the Register

A mid-century house in the Sherman Oaks hills of Los Angeles, part of the 1950s tracts designed by Edward Fickett and by William Krisel and Dan Palmer.

Fickett and Krisel in the Sherman Oaks hills

Debbie Pisaro October 2, 2026

Fickett and Krisel in the hills at a glance

Edward Fickett houses in Sherman Oaks are 1955 and 1956 post-war tract homes on Sheridge Drive, Meadville Drive, Woodcliff Road, Cody Road, and Stonewood Terrace, listed in the USModernist catalogue. William Krisel and Dan Palmer designed five more in the same hills. Every address here carries its year and builder.

Sherman Oaks · Architectural Homes

Nineteen tract houses on the same few streets, drawn by two of the busiest housing architects of the 1950s and built by many different builders.

By Debbie PisaroDRE #01369110

October 2026

Architectural Homes9 min read

Edward Fickett spent his career on housing, and in the Sherman Oaks hills that meant tract houses, dozens of them, on Sheridge Drive, Meadville Drive, Woodcliff Road, Cody Road, and Stonewood Terrace. The USModernist catalogue lists 14 of them, most from 1955, and five more on the same streets by William Krisel and Dan Palmer. Debbie Pisaro lists them here, address by address, as an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles buyers can call before they tour.

These are not one-off commissions, and that is the interesting part. A tract architect drew a plan, a builder repeated it, and the credit on the house tells you who drew the plan and, often, someone different who built it.

The Fickett houses

Where are the Edward Fickett houses in Sherman Oaks?

Fourteen addresses come up, thirteen of them in the USModernist catalogue of Fickett's work and one, on Scadlock Lane, from a Modern Living LA post. The lists below give them by street, with the year, the builder, and the source.

Meadville Drive

3641 Meadville Drive1955

The Vienna House, built by Sherwood Construction Company.

3696 Meadville Drive1955

The Anderson House, built by GMB Corporation.

Sheridge Drive

3704 Sheridge Drive1955

Listed as the Willa Jean Dorman House, built by GMB Corporation. The name is the original client's, and the listing files it under Los Angeles rather than Sherman Oaks.

3712 Sheridge Drive1955

The Seidenbaum House, built by GMB Corporation.

3726 Sheridge Drive1955

The Dawson House, built by GMB Corporation.

3734 Sheridge Drive1955

The Almo House, built by GMB Corporation.

Woodcliff Road

3641 Woodcliff Road1955

Listed simply as the GMB Corporation House, built by GMB Corporation.

3624 Woodcliff Road1955

The Cron House, built by Wallace McDonald. USModernist says it is an identical model to Fickett's Research House in West Covina.

Cody Road

3530 Cody Road1955

The Trabish House, built by Elwain Steinkamp.

3544 Cody Road1955

Built by Lee L. Lauger for Homemaker Homes, Inc.

3461 Cody Road1956

The Case House, built by Lee L. Lauger for Homemaker Homes Inc. Angeleno Living lists the address as "The Sunset."

Stonewood Terrace and Scadlock Lane

15438 Stonewood Terrace1955

The Maynard House, built by Elwain Steinkamp.

15352 Stonewood Terrace1955

Built by Lee L. Lauger, who developed it.

3908 Scadlock LaneYear not given

Modern Living LA calls it the Martson Residence by noted architect Edward Fickett FAIA, and describes walls of glass and skylights. It gives no year, and USModernist does not list it.

All things architectural

Debbie Pisaro writes All Things Architectural, on the homes and the architects who designed them, the details, the history, and the neighborhoods they shaped.

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The architect

Who was Edward Fickett?

Edward Hale Fickett was born in Los Angeles in 1916 and died in 1999, and Wikipedia records that he was appointed to the Federal Housing Advisory Board in 1959 and named an American Hero by the American Institute of Architects after his death. Debbie's Edward Fickett page covers the rest of his Los Angeles work, including the neighborhoods he helped develop across the Valley.

One architect. Many builders.

The builders

What is the GMB Corporation group?

GMB Corporation is the builder USModernist lists on Sheridge Drive, on 3696 Meadville Drive, and on 3641 Woodcliff Road, all 1955. The same catalogue records a 1954 GMB tract of about 30 post-and-beam houses in six designs, priced to include landscaping and carpeting, that won a design prize at the National Association of Home Builders convention in Chicago. It does not say where those houses stand, or whether any are on these streets.

Other builders worked the same hills. USModernist credits Elwain Steinkamp as builder of Fickett houses on Cody Road and Stonewood Terrace, and Lee L. Lauger as builder for Homemaker Homes. A buyer looking at any one of these houses is looking at a plan that the builder repeated, and the neighbors' plans are often the best evidence of what a house looked like when it was new.

Off-market access

Some of the best homes trade before they ever reach the open market. Debbie Pisaro sees them first.

See pocket listings

Krisel and Palmer

Which houses in the hills did Krisel and Palmer design?

USModernist lists five houses in the hills that William Krisel designed with Dan Palmer, from 1955 and 1956. Krisel and Palmer's Valley tracts are on Debbie's Palmer and Krisel page. A sixth Krisel house, the 1957 Sundberg Residence at 3666 Scadlock Lane, is covered on the Richard Dorman page.

Stonewood, Shernoll, and Cody

15324 Stonewood Terrace1955

The Vista Haven Corporation House, designed with Dan Palmer and built by William R. Anderson.

3548 Stonewood Drive1955

The Elwain Steinkamp House, designed with Dan Saxon Palmer.

3490 Shernoll Place1955

Another Elwain Steinkamp House, designed with Dan Saxon Palmer and built by Jack Bell.

3601 Cody Road1956

The Kennedy House, designed with Dan Palmer and built by G. Oberman Company.

3743 Cody Road1956

The Sperling House, designed with Dan Palmer and built by G. Oberman Company. USModernist records a restoration and addition in 2023.

Two of the five carry Elwain Steinkamp's name as the house name, and an Elwain Steinkamp is credited as builder of Fickett houses on nearby streets. A single street here can hold houses from two different architects.

Buying one

What does a tract architect mean to a buyer?

A named architect on a tract house is a credit for the plan, not a promise about the individual house. The sources on this page give no floor areas or lot sizes, so the useful questions are what has been changed since 1955, what the permit file shows, and whether original drawings exist for that plan on that street.

One of the houses, 3743 Cody Road, was restored with an addition in 2023, according to USModernist, and that is what to look for: a record of what was done and by whom. If you own one of these houses or one like it, a home valuation is where the conversation starts.

A note on these houses

Debbie is not the listing agent for any house on this page. She represents buyers on architectural homes across California, regardless of who holds a given listing, the same standing practice whether a home is on or off market.

Beyond these streets

Where do these houses sit among the Sherman Oaks hills?

Three neighboring pages cover other architects of the same hills: Richard Dorman and the Sherman Oaks Estates, the architectural homes of Royal Woods, and the Neutra Platform Houses of Sherman Oaks. Debbie's guide to the Valley's mid-century neighborhoods covers the wider map, including Corbin Palms in Woodland Hills.

She also works next door in Studio City, and many of the homes she sells never reach the open market, which is explained in pocket listings explained. The full library is on the debbiepisaro.com home page.

Debbie founded Coastline 840, a boutique California practice, and explains the thinking in two pieces, why we built Coastline 840 and why California agents choose boutique. For an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles owners call when a house has a name attached, start with her architectural homes specialist page or her page on historic and architectural homes.

Questions

Fickett and Krisel in Sherman Oaks, answered

Where are the Fickett houses?

USModernist lists Edward Fickett houses in the Sherman Oaks hills on Sheridge Drive, Meadville Drive, Woodcliff Road, Cody Road, and Stonewood Terrace, nearly all from 1955. Modern Living LA credits him with 3908 Scadlock Lane. Debbie Pisaro lists each address on this page with its year, its builder, and the source that names it.

Who was Edward Fickett?

Edward Hale Fickett was a Los Angeles architect, born in 1916 and died in 1999, who worked mostly on housing. Wikipedia says he was appointed to the Federal Housing Advisory Board in 1959, and that the American Institute of Architects named him an American Hero after his death. He was a draftsman under Paul Williams early in his career.

What are the Sheridge Drive houses?

USModernist lists four Edward Fickett houses on Sheridge Drive at 3704, 3712, 3726, and 3734, all dated 1955 and all built by GMB Corporation. They are named for their first owners, the Dorman, Seidenbaum, Dawson, and Almo families. The same builder is credited on Meadville Drive and Woodcliff Road.

Who built the Fickett houses in Sherman Oaks?

Several builders did. USModernist credits GMB Corporation on Sheridge Drive and parts of Meadville Drive and Woodcliff Road, Elwain Steinkamp and Lee L. Lauger on Cody Road and Stonewood Terrace, Sherwood Construction on Meadville Drive, and Wallace McDonald on Woodcliff Road. The architect is the same and the builder changes from street to street.

Did William Krisel design houses in Sherman Oaks?

USModernist lists five houses in the hills that William Krisel designed with Dan Palmer, dating from 1955 and 1956, on Stonewood Terrace, Stonewood Drive, Shernoll Place, and Cody Road. It also lists a 1957 Krisel house at 3666 Scadlock Lane, which the Dorman page on this site covers. Debbie keeps a page on Palmer and Krisel.

Is the Willa Jean Dorman House by Richard Dorman?

No. USModernist lists 3704 Sheridge Drive as the Willa Jean Dorman House and credits the architecture to Edward Fickett, which suggests the name is the original client's and unrelated to Richard Dorman. Richard Dorman is credited with other houses in the same hills, and Debbie Pisaro covers those on a separate page.

Who was GMB Corporation?

GMB Corporation was a home builder. USModernist lists it as the builder of a group of 1955 Fickett houses in Sherman Oaks, and it records GMB's 1954 prize-winning tract of about 30 post-and-beam houses, without saying where they stand. Nothing more turned up on the company, so this page makes no claim beyond that.

What should a buyer ask?

Ask what has been changed since 1955, what the permit file shows, and whether the original plans survive. A tract house was built to a plan repeated on other lots, so the useful evidence is often in a neighbor's set. Ask who the builder was, too, because on these streets the builder changes from house to house.

Who is a good real estate agent for architectural homes in Sherman Oaks?

Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and an Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers across Sherman Oaks and the surrounding neighborhoods. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market. She specializes in architectural and historic homes across California, and she is not the listing agent for any house on this page.

For architectural homes

Work with Debbie Pisaro

Debbie Pisaro represents buyers on architectural homes across California, regardless of who holds a given listing, the same standing practice whether a home is on or off market.

(310) 362-6429 · debbie@coastline840.com
Coastline 840 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90026 · DRE #01369110

Reach Debbie

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 DBA of Side, Inc., CA DRE #02014153. She writes about California real estate at debbiepisaro.com, losfelizliving.com, and coastline840.com. Published October 2026.

Sources

USModernist, Edward Fickett · USModernist, William Krisel · Wikipedia, Edward H. Fickett · Angeleno Living, Sherman Oaks · Modern Living LA, Sherman Oaks

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840 Miles. Architectural homes. Local knowledge.

On the Register

A Richard Dorman post-and-beam house in the Sherman Oaks Estates, tucked into the hillside north of Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles.

Richard Dorman and the Sherman Oaks Estates

Debbie Pisaro October 2, 2026

Richard Dorman in Sherman Oaks at a glance

Richard Dorman houses in Sherman Oaks are post-and-beam homes built from 1957 to 1959 north of Mulholland Drive, on Scadlock Lane, Woodcliff Road, Lisa Place, and South Meadville Drive. Marketing and press credit Dorman, a Los Angeles architect with his own firm from 1956, with eleven of them outright, and call the Scadlock Lane group the Sherman Oaks Estates.

Sherman Oaks · Architectural Homes

Sixteen addresses in the hills north of Mulholland Drive, eleven of them credited to one Los Angeles architect and five more with a collaborator, a builder, or a question mark.

By Debbie PisaroDRE #01369110

October 2026

Architectural Homes9 min read

North of Mulholland Drive, a Los Angeles architect named Richard Dorman is credited with a run of post-and-beam houses on Scadlock Lane, Woodcliff Road, Lisa Place, and South Meadville Drive. They date from 1957 to 1959, the lots run from about 11,400 square feet to nearly an acre, and the press has called the Scadlock Lane group the Sherman Oaks Estates for years. Debbie Pisaro lists them here, address by address, as an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles buyers can call before they tour.

What the houses share, according to the marketing that has followed them, is a vocabulary: post-and-beam frames, exposed wood-beam or tongue-and-groove ceilings, walls of glass, decks along the back, and views over the canyon or the city lights. Most are one story.

The houses

Where are the Richard Dorman houses in Sherman Oaks?

Sixteen addresses come up, eleven credited to Dorman outright and five where the marketing names a collaborator, a builder, or a maybe. The lists below give them by street, with the year and what the marketing says about each house.

Scadlock Lane

3307 Scadlock Lane1959

Nearly an acre, 42,212 square feet, at the end of a cul-de-sac, with terrazzo floors and a garden off every room. Marketed as part of the Sherman Oaks Estates and restored to its original footprint.

3334 Scadlock Lane1959

One story, 2,384 square feet, on a 16,407-square-foot lot. It had one owner from its completion until it sold in 2021.

3337 Scadlock Lane1959

Gated, on a 19,007-square-foot lot, with terrazzo floors and walnut cabinetry. Marketed as part of the Dorman-designed Sherman Oaks Estates and restored to its original footprint and layout.

3455 Scadlock Lane1958

Post and beam, 2,498 square feet on an 11,449-square-foot lot, with mountain and city-light views.

3523 Scadlock Lane1958

Post and beam, 2,008 square feet on an 11,667-square-foot lot, with panoramic views and a wall of glass.

3700 Scadlock Lane1958

A soaring wood-beam ceiling and a living room of glass, 2,121 square feet on an 11,737-square-foot lot.

3754 Scadlock Lane1958

Open-beam ceilings, a skylight, and walls of glass, 2,182 square feet on a 14,140-square-foot lot.

Woodcliff Road

3340 Woodcliff Road1958

High wood ceilings and walls of glass on an 11,556-square-foot lot.

3356 Woodcliff Road1958

1,826 square feet on a 13,704-square-foot lot, with a deck more than 100 feet long.

Lisa Place and South Meadville Drive

3456 Lisa Place1958

Four bedrooms and 2,192 square feet on a 12,058-square-foot lot, with a pool.

3721 South Meadville Drive1957

On a private road, on 23,960 square feet, with a stone fireplace and two atriums.

All things architectural

Debbie Pisaro writes All Things Architectural, on the homes and the architects who designed them, the details, the history, and the neighborhoods they shaped.

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Named designers and builders on the same streets

3667 Scadlock Lane1959

Marketed as a Young Woo design. Woo is described as a USC graduate of 1959 who trained under Dorman. 2,536 square feet on a 14,178-square-foot lot.

3433 Shernoll Place1959

Marketed as a Young Woo design in collaboration with Dorman. 1,788 square feet on an 11,674-square-foot lot.

3434 Woodcliff Road1958

Flat roof, exposed beams, and walls of glass on a 19,595-square-foot lot. The marketing says it was possibly designed by Dorman.

3522 Stonewood Drive1955

Marketed as built by Modern Trend Construction Company and possibly designed by Dorman. 2,057 square feet on an 8,650-square-foot lot.

3627 Cody Road1956 or 1957

The marketing names Modern Trend Construction Company as its developer and connects the company to Dorman. 39,351-square-foot lot, with an atrium entry.

The architect

Who was Richard Dorman?

Richard Dorman was born and raised in Los Angeles in 1922. From 1951 to 1956 he was assistant chief designer at Welton Becket and Associates, then started his own firm in Beverly Hills, working mostly in Southern California. Wikipedia records that the City of Beverly Hills lists him as one of its Master Architects. He died in 2010.

His Sherman Oaks houses come from the first years of that firm. Beyond Shelter says he created multiple residences in Sherman Oaks Estates, and every dated reference to that group says 1959. Debbie keeps a register of the architects behind the houses she writes about, and the architect register is where the rest of them are catalogued. His full career, from Welton Becket to Trousdale Estates and the Forest Knoll Drive landmark, is in Debbie's Richard Dorman profile.

Eleven addresses. One architect. Three years.

Sherman Oaks Estates

What is the Sherman Oaks Estates?

The name comes from press and marketing. Mid Century Home describes a Dorman house restored by Chris Salay Design as part of the Sherman Oaks Estates development, and the marketing for 3307 and 3337 Scadlock Lane uses the same name. Both houses are 1959, and both were restored to their original footprints.

3307 Scadlock Lane is the largest lot in the group, nearly an acre at the end of a cul-de-sac, with a garden off every room. 3337 Scadlock Lane sits behind a gate. 3334 Scadlock Lane had one owner from its completion in 1959 until it sold in 2021, which is a long time for a house this age to stay with one owner.

Off-market access

Some of the best homes trade before they ever reach the open market. Debbie Pisaro sees them first.

See pocket listings

Other hands

Who else drew on Scadlock Lane?

William Krisel is credited with a 1957 house at 3666 Scadlock Lane, which USModernist lists as the Sundberg Residence, and Angeleno Living lists the same address. Krisel's Valley work is on Debbie's Palmer and Krisel page, and the Fickett and Krisel houses on Sheridge, Meadville, Cody, and Stonewood are on their own page.

Young Woo is credited with 3667 Scadlock Lane and 3433 Shernoll Place, both 1959, and the marketing describes him as a USC graduate of 1959 who trained under Dorman. Angeleno Living credits Modern Trend Construction Company as the builder behind the Krisel, Dorman, and Woo houses on these streets, and the marketing for 3522 Stonewood Drive and 3627 Cody Road names the same company.

The lots

What do the lots and floor plans tell a buyer?

Most of the credited lots run from about 11,400 to about 19,000 square feet, with 3721 South Meadville Drive at 23,960 and 3307 Scadlock Lane at 42,212. Floor areas run from about 1,700 to about 2,500 square feet, mostly on one level. These are small houses on generous lots, and the marketing for almost every one of them sells the glass and the deck.

A named architect changes what a buyer should ask. Two of the houses, 3307 and 3337 Scadlock Lane, have been restored to their original footprints, and others have been remodeled, so the useful questions are what is original, what was added and when, and whether the drawings survive. An owner or the permit file can settle them. If you own one of these houses or one like it, a home valuation is where the conversation starts.

A note on these houses

Beyond Scadlock Lane

Where do these sit among Valley mid-century neighborhoods?

Two more Dorman houses stand on Crownridge Drive in Royal Woods, which has its own page, the architectural homes of Royal Woods. Debbie's guide to the Valley's mid-century neighborhoods covers the wider map, including Corbin Palms in Woodland Hills, the first Palmer and Krisel tract, and Woodland West, the Charles Du Bois tract.

Debbie Pisaro represents architectural homes from the Valley foothills to Ojai and the coast, and the same three questions apply in each: who drew it, when, and what has changed since. She also works next door in Studio City. The full library of architects and houses is catalogued from the debbiepisaro.com home page, and many of the homes she sells never reach the open market, which is explained in pocket listings explained.

Questions

Richard Dorman in Sherman Oaks, answered

Where are the Richard Dorman houses in Sherman Oaks?

Marketing and press credit Richard Dorman with post-and-beam houses north of Mulholland Drive, on Scadlock Lane, Woodcliff Road, Lisa Place, and South Meadville Drive. The Scadlock Lane group is the one press calls the Sherman Oaks Estates. Debbie Pisaro lists every credited address on this page, with the year and what the marketing says.

Who was Richard Dorman?

Richard Dorman was a Los Angeles mid-century modern architect, born in 1922 and died in 2010. He was assistant chief designer at Welton Becket and Associates from 1951 to 1956, then started his own firm in Beverly Hills. Wikipedia records that the City of Beverly Hills lists him as one of its Master Architects.

What is the Sherman Oaks Estates?

Sherman Oaks Estates is the name press and listing copy use for a group of Richard Dorman post-and-beam houses on Scadlock Lane, north of Mulholland Drive, built around 1959. Beyond Shelter and Mid Century Home both use the name. The houses at 3307 and 3337 Scadlock Lane are marketed as part of it.

When were the Dorman houses built?

The houses credited to Dorman date from 1957 to 1959. South Meadville Drive is 1957, Woodcliff Road, Lisa Place, and most Scadlock Lane houses are 1958, and 3307, 3334, and 3337 Scadlock Lane are 1959. Dorman started his own firm in 1956, after five years at Welton Becket and Associates.

How big are the Dorman lots?

Most lots run from about 11,400 to about 19,000 square feet. 3307 Scadlock Lane is the outlier at 42,212 square feet, nearly an acre, and 3721 South Meadville Drive sits on 23,960. Floor areas run from about 1,700 to about 2,500 square feet, mostly on one level.

Did William Krisel design on Scadlock Lane too?

Yes. USModernist and Angeleno Living both credit William Krisel with a 1957 house at 3666 Scadlock Lane, which USModernist lists as the Sundberg Residence. Scadlock Lane also carries work by other designers, including Young Woo, who is credited with 3667 Scadlock Lane and with 3433 Shernoll Place.

Who was Young Woo?

Listing copy describes Young Woo as a USC graduate of 1959 who trained under Richard Dorman. His name appears on 3667 Scadlock Lane and on 3433 Shernoll Place, where the marketing calls the design a Young Woo design in collaboration with Dorman. Both houses date to 1959.

How can I tell whether a Sherman Oaks house was really designed by Richard Dorman?

Start with the permit history and the original plan set, then check the address against the houses and press on this page. Marketing credits run from certain to possibly, and several houses on these streets carry other names. Debbie Pisaro checks a name against more than one source before she writes a house up.

Who is a good real estate agent for architectural homes in Sherman Oaks?

For architectural homes

Work with Debbie Pisaro

Debbie Pisaro represents buyers on architectural homes across California, regardless of who holds a given listing, the same standing practice whether a home is on or off market.

(310) 362-6429 · debbie@coastline840.com
Coastline 840 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90026 · DRE #01369110

Reach Debbie

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 DBA of Side, Inc., CA DRE #02014153. She writes about California real estate at debbiepisaro.com, losfelizliving.com, and coastline840.com. Published October 2026.

Sources

Wikipedia, Richard Dorman · Beyond Shelter, Richard Dorman · Mid Century Home, a Dorman house reimagined · USModernist, William Krisel · Angeleno Living, Sherman Oaks

✦ ✦ ✦

840 Miles. Architectural homes. Local knowledge.

On the Register

A mid-century architectural home in Royal Woods, a Sherman Oaks hillside neighborhood east of Sepulveda Boulevard in Los Angeles.

The architectural homes of Royal Woods

Debbie Pisaro October 2, 2026

Royal Woods at a glance

Royal Woods is a Sherman Oaks hillside neighborhood in ZIP 91403, east of Sepulveda Boulevard, and it holds architectural homes Sherman Oaks records credit to named designers: two by Ray Kappe on Royal Woods Drive, two by Richard Dorman on Crownridge Drive, and one built in 1959 by Burt Lamform on Royal Meadow Road.

Sherman Oaks · Architectural Homes

Two Ray Kappe houses, two Richard Dorman houses, and a 1959 build by a former Hollywood set designer, on the hillside streets east of Sepulveda Boulevard.

By Debbie PisaroDRE #01369110

October 2026

Architectural Homes9 min read

In the Sherman Oaks hills east of Sepulveda Boulevard, a short run of street names carries a lot of architecture. Royal Woods Drive has two houses by Ray Kappe. Crownridge Drive has two by Richard Dorman. Royal Meadow Road has a house built in 1959 by a man who spent the late 1930s and the 1940s in film as a sketch artist, set designer, and art director. Debbie Pisaro maps them here as an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles buyers can call before they tour, with the address, the year, and the source for each name.

Royal Woods is the name the listings use for these streets, and the boundary is loose: south of Valley Vista Boulevard, east of Sepulveda, houses going up through the 1950s and the neighborhood built out by the 1960s, on lots that run up to about half an acre.

The houses

Who designed the architectural homes in Royal Woods in Sherman Oaks?

Five addresses carry a named designer, and each name comes with its own source. The list below gives the address first, since an address is what an owner searches for, then the designer, the year, and what the sources say.

3515 Royal Woods DriveBarsha Residence · Ray Kappe · c. 1960 to 1961

Designed for Leon M. and Helen Pollock Barsha. Kappe returned in 1974 to add a second-story primary suite. USModernist and Angeleno Living both list it as his.

3872 Royal Woods DriveHandman House · Ray Kappe · 1963

Two stories and 4,193 square feet, with engineering by Reiss and Brown. Listed as a Kappe house by USModernist and Angeleno Living.

3531 Crownridge DriveRichard Dorman · 1958

One story on a 14,750-square-foot lot. The marketing material that has followed the house names Dorman as its architect and places it in Royal Woods.

3553 Crownridge DriveRichard Dorman · 1958

One story, 3,282 square feet, on a 16,702-square-foot lot, remodeled in 2015. Its marketing material also names Dorman and Royal Woods.

3830 Royal Meadow RoadBurt Lamform · 1959

Built by Lamform, an MIT graduate who worked in film in the late 1930s and 1940s as a sketch artist, set designer, and art director.

All things architectural

Debbie Pisaro writes All Things Architectural, on the homes and the architects who designed them, the details, the history, and the neighborhoods they shaped.

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Ray Kappe

Ray Kappe on Royal Woods Drive

Ray Kappe founded SCI-Arc and built his own family house in Pacific Palisades, but Sherman Oaks is where his family lived while he built the practice. His parents' house at 15541 Woodcrest Drive dates to 1956, and USModernist records that Kappe and his family lived there until their own house was finished in 1967. The LA Conservancy lists it as the Phineas Kappe Residence.

Royal Woods Drive holds two more. The Barsha Residence at 3515 Royal Woods Drive went to Leon M. and Helen Pollock Barsha, and Kappe came back to it in 1974 for the second-story primary suite. The Handman House at 3872 Royal Woods Drive is the larger of the two, 4,193 square feet over two stories, built in 1963 with engineering by Reiss and Brown.

Elsewhere in the Sherman Oaks hills, Stanley and Marjorie Heegel Meyer's 1961 house at 3893 Deervale Drive was badly damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Its later owners commissioned Kappe to rebuild the house he had designed, with Reiss and Brown again handling the engineering, according to USModernist, and Dwell dates the reconstruction to 1996.

The rest of Kappe's Los Angeles work is catalogued on Debbie's Ray Kappe page, including the Tempo House in the Hollywood Hills and a 1958 Kappe house in Beverly Hills.

Royal Woods Drive holds two Ray Kappe houses.

Richard Dorman

What did Richard Dorman draw on Crownridge Drive?

Two one-story houses on Crownridge Drive carry his name. The marketing material for 3531 Crownridge Drive calls it a remodeled contemporary by Richard Dorman in Royal Woods, and the record dates it to 1958. The material for 3553 Crownridge Drive, also 1958, describes a Richard Dorman mid-century on a 16,702-square-foot lot with canyon views, fully remodeled in 2015.

Dorman's name is not limited to these two streets. Marketing material credits him with post-and-beam houses elsewhere in the Sherman Oaks hills, on Scadlock Lane and Woodcliff Road, and Crownridge Drive is where his work reaches into Royal Woods. Where a Dorman house has been remodeled, the useful question is what the remodel kept. The rest of his work, including his houses in Trousdale Estates, is catalogued on Debbie's Richard Dorman page.

Burt Lamform

Who was Burt Lamform, and why is his name on Royal Meadow Road?

Burt Lamform is the outlier in Royal Woods, a builder with a film background rather than an architect with a practice. Modern Living LA says the house at 3830 Royal Meadow Road was built by him in 1959 and describes him as an MIT graduate who worked in film in the late 1930s and 1940s as a sketch artist, set designer, and art director. Dwell's listing page for the same house credits him as its architect.

Both descriptions point to the same person, which is why the house belongs on the list. The biography is the useful part. Nothing in a permit file would say that the man behind a 1959 hillside house had spent the 1940s in film.

Off-market access

Some of the best homes trade before they ever reach the open market. Debbie Pisaro sees them first.

See pocket listings

The lots

What do the lots and floor plans tell a buyer?

The numbers are consistent enough to plan around. The Crownridge Drive lots measure 14,750 and 16,702 square feet, and a local realtor description of the neighborhood puts the larger lots at up to about half an acre. The five named houses run from about 3,000 square feet to the Handman House at 4,193, and the Dorman houses are one story where the Handman House is two.

A named architect changes what a buyer should ask. What is original, what was added and when, and whether the drawings survive are the three questions that matter, and two of the answers are already on the record here: the Barsha Residence gained a second-story suite in 1974, and 3553 Crownridge Drive was remodeled in 2015. An owner or the permit file can settle the rest. If you own one of these houses or one like it, a home valuation is where the conversation starts.

A note on these houses

Beyond Royal Woods

Where does Royal Woods sit among Valley mid-century neighborhoods?

Many of the San Fernando Valley's mid-century neighborhoods are tracts, and Debbie's guide to the Valley's mid-century neighborhoods covers them. Two of the tracts are Corbin Palms in Woodland Hills, the first Palmer and Krisel tract, and Woodland West, also in Woodland Hills, the Charles Du Bois tract. Royal Woods reads differently, with individual houses by named designers on hillside lots, and it belongs on the same map.

Questions

Royal Woods, answered

Where is Royal Woods, Sherman Oaks?

Royal Woods is a hillside neighborhood in Sherman Oaks, ZIP 91403, east of Sepulveda Boulevard and south of Valley Vista Boulevard. Its streets include Royal Woods Drive, Crownridge Drive, Royal Meadow Road, and Valley Meadow Road. Houses went up through the 1950s, and the neighborhood was built out by the 1960s.

Who designed the architectural homes in Royal Woods in Sherman Oaks?

Ray Kappe designed the Barsha Residence at 3515 Royal Woods Drive and the Handman House at 3872 Royal Woods Drive. Richard Dorman is credited with 3531 and 3553 Crownridge Drive, both from 1958. Burt Lamform built 3830 Royal Meadow Road in 1959. Debbie Pisaro names the source behind each attribution on this page.

Did Kappe build elsewhere in Sherman Oaks?

Yes. USModernist lists Kappe's parents' house at 15541 Woodcrest Drive from 1956, the Meyer Residence at 3893 Deervale Drive from 1961, and the Hayes Residence at 3943 Woodfield Drive from 1959. The Meyer house was badly damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and Kappe rebuilt it for its later owners.

How old are Royal Woods houses?

The five named houses date from 1958 to 1963. Both Crownridge Drive houses are 1958, Royal Meadow Road is 1959, the Barsha Residence is 1960 or 1961, and the Handman House is 1963. Royal Woods as a whole was built out through the 1960s, with lots running up to about half an acre.

How big are Royal Woods lots?

The two Crownridge Drive houses sit on lots of 14,750 and 16,702 square feet, and a local realtor description puts the larger lots in the neighborhood at up to about half an acre. Floor areas among the five named houses run from about 3,000 square feet to the Handman House at 4,193.

Who was Burt Lamform?

Burt Lamform is credited with the 1959 house at 3830 Royal Meadow Road. Modern Living LA describes him as an MIT graduate who worked in film in the late 1930s and 1940s as a sketch artist, set designer, and art director. Dwell's listing page for the house credits him as its architect.

How can I check whether a Sherman Oaks house was really designed by a named architect?

Start with the permit history, which shows the original plans and every later addition, then compare the address with architect catalogues and archives. Ask the owner whether the original drawings survive. Debbie Pisaro checks a name against more than one source before she writes a house up, because a name repeated in marketing still needs a document behind it.

Who is a good real estate agent for architectural homes in Sherman Oaks?

Can buyers find Royal Woods homes off market?

Debbie Pisaro's pocket listings list is how off-market homes reach buyers before they are publicly listed. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market. Buyers who name the architect, the street, and the size they want are the easiest to match.

For architectural homes

Work with Debbie Pisaro

Debbie Pisaro represents buyers on architectural homes across California, regardless of who holds a given listing, the same standing practice whether a home is on or off market.

(310) 362-6429 · debbie@coastline840.com
Coastline 840 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90026 · DRE #01369110

Reach Debbie

Sources

USModernist, Ray Kappe · Angeleno Living, Sherman Oaks · Dwell, the Meyer Residence · Modern Living LA, 3830 Royal Meadow Road · LA Conservancy, the Phineas Kappe Residence

✦ ✦ ✦

840 Miles. Architectural homes. Local knowledge.

On the Register

A Stone-Fisher Platform House on Oakfield Drive in Sherman Oaks, a mid-century home by Richard Neutra cantilevered over a steep hillside above Beverly Glen Boulevard.

The Neutra Platform Houses of Sherman Oaks

Debbie Pisaro October 2, 2026

The Neutra Platform Houses at a glance

Neutra houses in Sherman Oaks are the Stone-Fisher Platform Houses, 17 mid-century homes on Oakfield Drive built between 1962 and 1966 on platforms that cantilever over a steep slope above Beverly Glen Boulevard. Richard Neutra began them and withdrew after disagreements with the developer, and architect William S. Beckett finished the designs.

Sherman Oaks · Architectural Homes

Seventeen houses on one street, begun by Richard Neutra for a developer, finished by someone else, and disowned by his own office.

By Debbie PisaroDRE #01369110

October 2026

Architectural Homes8 min read

Oakfield Drive in Sherman Oaks has 17 mid-century houses that hang out over the slope above Beverly Glen Boulevard, and they are sometimes called Neutra houses. Richard Neutra did start them, for a development company called Stone-Fisher, between 1962 and 1966, and then he left the project. Debbie Pisaro lists the addresses here, with what each source says, as an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles buyers can call before they tour.

A Platform House looks modest from the street. The Conservancy describes them as looking like typical mid-century buildings from the street side, while the platforms reach out over the edge of the slope toward the valley below.

The houses

Where are the Neutra houses in Sherman Oaks?

Twelve addresses on Oakfield Drive come up in the sources. Five have a published record of their own, and seven appear only in one blog list. The Conservancy says there are 17 in all, so five are not named anywhere I found.

Addresses with a published record

3701 Oakfield Drive1966

Two bedrooms, 1,432 square feet, on 0.52 acre. A 2013 San Fernando Valley Blog post describes it as Neutra's design in collaboration with William Beckett.

3707 Oakfield Drive1965

Two bedrooms and two baths. Forbes describes it as part of the original 17 and names Donald M. Goldstein as the architect who restored it.

3733 Oakfield Drive1962 to 1966

The address the Los Angeles Conservancy gives for its Platform Houses entry, which marks the street as private residences.

3737 Oakfield Drive1966

Two bedrooms and two baths, 1,800 square feet, on 0.50 acre. Dwell says Neutra completed it in 1966 as one of 17 stilt homes.

3801 Oakfield Drive1966

Two bedrooms and two baths, 1,894 square feet, on 0.41 acre. Listing copy calls it one of the 17 Platform Houses, built along the cliff above Beverly Glen Boulevard.

All things architectural

Debbie Pisaro writes All Things Architectural, on the homes and the architects who designed them, the details, the history, and the neighborhoods they shaped.

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Addresses named in one blog list

3631 Oakfield Drive1962 to 1966

Named as a Stone-Fisher unit in a 2012 San Fernando Valley Blog list. I have not confirmed it against a second source.

3645 Oakfield Drive1962 to 1966

Named in the same 2012 blog list, and unconfirmed elsewhere.

3715 Oakfield Drive1962 to 1966

Named in the same 2012 blog list, and unconfirmed elsewhere.

3723 Oakfield Drive1962 to 1966

Named in the same 2012 blog list, and unconfirmed elsewhere.

3749 Oakfield Drive1962 to 1966

Named in the same 2012 blog list, and unconfirmed elsewhere.

3759 Oakfield Drive1962 to 1966

Named in the same 2012 blog list, and unconfirmed elsewhere.

3847 Oakfield Drive1962 to 1966

Named in the same 2012 blog list, and unconfirmed elsewhere.

The story

Who really designed the Platform Houses?

Richard Neutra began them. The Los Angeles Conservancy says the houses were originally designed by Neutra for Stone-Fisher, that he withdrew after disagreements with the developer, and that architect William S. Beckett finished the buildings' designs and oversaw their construction. Forbes says the same.

The Neutra Institute adds a second turn. It says that because of poor construction techniques, Dion Neutra disavowed the houses on behalf of the office, and it adapts the passage from Barbara Lamprecht's Neutra: Complete Works. Listing copy mostly skips both events and says the houses were designed by Neutra, and that is the version buyers usually meet first.

One street. Three architects. Seventeen platforms.

A name on a house matters most when its story is mixed, and here it is mixed. Neutra's name is on the concept, the Conservancy puts another architect on the finished designs, and the Institute says the office would not stand behind the construction. All three can be true at once, and a buyer is best served by knowing which one they are being told.

Off-market access

Some of the best homes trade before they ever reach the open market. Debbie Pisaro sees them first.

See pocket listings

The structure

What does the Northridge earthquake have to do with it?

The Neutra Institute writes that in 1994 the Northridge earthquake revealed the structural faults of the houses, when three of them became unmoored from their foundations and tumbled down the hillside. It is the only source I found that says so, and I have not found the addresses involved.

That is a reason to ask questions about any single house and no reason to guess about all seventeen. Forbes describes one that has been restored. The useful record is the permit file for the address, the geotechnical report, and any retrofit drawings, and an owner or the city can produce those.

The lots

What do the lots and floor plans tell a buyer?

The addresses with published figures run from 1,432 to 1,894 square feet, on lots from 0.41 to 0.52 acre, and each of them has two bedrooms and two baths. The blog that lists the most addresses gives a wider range, from 1,300 to 2,000 square feet on lots from a quarter acre to an acre.

These are small houses on large slopes, and the views over the valley are what the marketing sells. If you own one, or a house like it, a home valuation is where the conversation about what the record supports starts.

A note on these houses

Beyond Oakfield Drive

Where does Neutra appear elsewhere in Los Angeles?

Debbie's Richard Neutra page catalogues his Los Angeles houses, and she has profiled several of them on their own: the Nesbitt House in Brentwood, the Hendershot House in Nichols Canyon, the Millard Kaufman Residence in the Hollywood Hills, the Bailey House he designed for the Case Study program, and the Serulnic House in La Crescenta. The closest parallel to the platform houses is Neutra Place in Silver Lake, another street where Neutra built a cluster of houses, anchored by the landmarked Reunion House. In Los Feliz, his Lovell Health House and Wirin House round out the picture. Two neighboring hillside pages cover other Sherman Oaks architects: the architectural homes of Royal Woods, and Richard Dorman and the Sherman Oaks Estates.

Her guide to the Valley's mid-century neighborhoods covers the wider map, including Corbin Palms in Woodland Hills. She also works next door in Studio City, and many of the homes she sells never reach the open market, which is explained in pocket listings explained. Start from the debbiepisaro.com home page for the full library.

Debbie founded Coastline 840, a boutique California practice, and explains the thinking in two pieces, why we built Coastline 840 and why California agents choose boutique. For an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles owners call when a house has a famous name and a complicated history, start with her architectural homes specialist page or her page on historic and architectural homes.

Questions

The Neutra Platform Houses, answered

Where are the Platform Houses?

They stand on Oakfield Drive in Sherman Oaks, on the cliff above Beverly Glen Boulevard. The Los Angeles Conservancy says they are built on massive platforms that cantilever out over the edge of a steep slope. Debbie Pisaro lists every address a source ties to the group, with the year and the source, on this page.

What are the Stone-Fisher Platform Houses?

They are 17 mid-century houses built on Oakfield Drive between 1962 and 1966 for a development company called Stone-Fisher, which is why the Conservancy also calls them the Stone-Fisher Speculative Houses. From the street they look like ordinary mid-century houses, while the platforms cantilever out over the slope on the valley side.

How many Platform Houses are there?

Seventeen, according to the Los Angeles Conservancy, Dwell, and Forbes, all built between 1962 and 1966. This page names twelve addresses and gives the source behind each one. Sources agree on the count but not on a single published address range.

Did Richard Neutra really design the Platform Houses?

Neutra began them. The Los Angeles Conservancy says he withdrew after disagreements with the developer, and that architect William S. Beckett finished the designs and oversaw construction. Listing copy and Dwell credit Neutra alone. This page uses the Conservancy's account, because it is the one that names who finished the work.

Why did Dion Neutra disavow them?

The Neutra Institute says that, because of poor construction techniques, Dion Neutra disavowed the Stone-Fisher Platform Houses on behalf of the office. It adapts that passage from Barbara Lamprecht's Neutra Complete Works, published by Taschen in 2000. I found that disavowal in that one source, and no other page repeats it.

What happened to the Platform Houses in the Northridge earthquake?

The Neutra Institute says that in 1994 the Northridge earthquake showed the structural faults in these houses, when three of them became unmoored from their foundations and tumbled down the hillside. I found no other source that describes it, so treat it as the Institute's account and check any house you are considering.

How big are the lots?

The addresses with published figures run from 1,432 to 1,894 square feet, on lots of 0.41 to 0.52 acre, with two bedrooms and two baths. The Valley blog gives a wider range, from 1,300 to 2,000 square feet on lots from a quarter acre to an acre.

What should a buyer ask about a Platform House?

Ask who did the work on it and when, what the permit file shows about the foundation and any structural retrofit, and what a geotechnical report says about the slope. Then ask whether the original plans survive, and who finished the house.

Who is a good real estate agent for architectural homes in Sherman Oaks?

For architectural homes

Work with Debbie Pisaro

Debbie Pisaro represents buyers on architectural homes across California, regardless of who holds a given listing, the same standing practice whether a home is on or off market.

(310) 362-6429 · debbie@coastline840.com
Coastline 840 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90026 · DRE #01369110

Reach Debbie

Sources

Los Angeles Conservancy, Platform Houses · Neutra Institute, Stone-Fisher Platform Houses · Forbes, a Platform House restored · Dwell, 3737 Oakfield Drive · San Fernando Valley Blog, Neutra in the Valley

✦ ✦ ✦

840 Miles. Architectural homes. Local knowledge.

On the Register

The Strimling Residence, a 1964 Ray Kappe mid-century modern house at 17269 Oak View Drive in Encino, Los Angeles

The Strimling Residence, a 1964 Ray Kappe in Encino

Debbie Pisaro October 2, 2026

The Strimling Residence at a glance

The Stanley J. and Joan Strimling Residence is a 1964 Ray Kappe mid-century modern home at 17269 Oak View Drive in Encino, California 91316. It is one of a small number of documented Kappe houses in the San Fernando Valley, built during the decade Kappe was carrying his post-and-beam, indoor-outdoor language across Southern California hillsides.

Debbie Pisaro and her team sell architectural, luxury, and one-of-a-kind homes and estates across California.

Encino · Architectural Homes

A Ray Kappe on the Valley side of the hill is a rarer find than most buyers realize. The house Kappe built for Stanley and Joan Strimling in 1964 is one of the documented few.

By Debbie PisaroDRE #01369110

Published October 2, 2026

Architectural Homes7 min read

Mid-century modern homes in Encino for sale are usually tract-built, well-kept, and unattributed. The house at 17269 Oak View Drive is something else: a documented Ray Kappe. The USModernist Kappe catalogue records it as the Stanley J. and Joan Strimling Residence, built in 1964, on the San Fernando Valley side of the hill Kappe worked most often from the Palisades and Brentwood side. The beauty of this house is the house, but it is also the grounds: Encino has big lots and views and sits close to the Westside, and there is a reason people call it the Beverly Hills of the Valley. This is the record an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles buyers and sellers rely on should keep of a house like that, so here it is.

Is there a Ray Kappe house in Encino?

Yes, at 17269 Oak View Drive, and it is one of only a handful of Kappe commissions documented on the Valley side of the hills rather than in the canyons west of the 405 where most of his best-known work sits. Built in 1964 for Stanley and Joan Strimling, the house carries the same post-and-beam vocabulary Kappe was refining across Southern California in that decade: exposed structure, natural materials, and glass used to erase the line between a room and the ground outside it.

Kappe's Valley-side commissions are genuinely scarce. The bulk of his documented catalogue sits in Rustic Canyon, Brentwood, and the hills above Hollywood; a confirmed Encino address is a different kind of find, and one most buyers searching mid century modern homes Encino for sale would never know to look for by name. Debbie Pisaro documents the house as part of her Kappe registry for exactly that reason: a Kappe in the Encino hills does not announce itself the way a landmark in the Palisades does.

The Strimling Residence, the citable record

1964

Built

100+

Kappe residences

Designed across Southern California over six decades; documented San Fernando Valley addresses are a small share of that total.

Kappe homes in the registry

The Strimling Residence in Encino, the Davis House on Angelo Drive, the Tempo House in the Hollywood Hills, and the Kappe Residence in Pacific Palisades.

All things architectural

Debbie Pisaro writes All Things Architectural, on the architects who built California and the houses they left behind.

Join the list or call (310) 362-6429

Who was Ray Kappe?

Ray Kappe (1927 to 2019) founded SCI-Arc in 1972, chaired the architecture program he founded at Cal Poly Pomona before that, and designed more than one hundred residences that taught Los Angeles a warmer way to be modern. His full story runs through Debbie's profile of Ray Kappe, the architect.

Within that story, the Strimling Residence sits alongside three other documented Kappe homes in the registry: the Kappe Residence in Pacific Palisades, his own 1967 masterpiece and Historic-Cultural Monument 623; the Davis House on Angelo Drive, an early 1958 commission in Beverly Hills; and the Tempo House in the Hollywood Hills, the 1959 Clemmons residence. Together the four anchor Kappe's chapter in the architects guide and the architectural homes registry.

Kappe's canyon houses get the photographs. His Valley houses get overlooked, which is exactly why they matter.

What makes a Kappe in the Encino hills different?

Most of Kappe's celebrated work sits on canyon lots west of the 405, in the Palisades and Brentwood. The Strimling Residence carries the same hillside language over the ridge into the Encino hills, where the lots run larger and the views open out over the Valley. Here the house is only half the story. The grounds are the other half, and Kappe's glass and indoor-outdoor planning were made for exactly that kind of site.

For a buyer or seller, that changes what to look for: original post-and-beam structure, natural materials kept intact, and the glass and site relationships that tie the house to its grounds and its view. Reading which is which, and pricing on architect and integrity rather than a per-foot average, is the discipline in Debbie's guide to pricing an architectural home, and the quiet channels where houses like this actually change hands are explained in pocket listings and off-market homes.

Off-market access

Homes like these trade quietly, often before they ever reach the open market. Debbie Pisaro sees them first.

See pocket listings

Buying or selling architectural modernism in the San Fernando Valley

A documented architect's home asks for the same care in Encino as it does in the Palisades: verified attribution, an honest read of what survives, and presentation to the specific pool of buyers who search by architect rather than by street. That is the work described on the architectural homes specialist page. Those buyers shop statewide, from the Valley north through Santa Barbara and Ojai and out to the desert, which is why Debbie Pisaro's practice runs the length of California rather than stopping at a single market.

Debbie Pisaro is not the listing agent for 17269 Oak View Drive. She represents buyers on architectural homes across the San Fernando Valley and greater Los Angeles, regardless of who holds a given listing, the same standing practice whether a home is on or off market.

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Frequently asked questions

Where is the Strimling Residence?

At 17269 Oak View Drive in Encino, California 91316, on the San Fernando Valley side of the hills Ray Kappe worked from most often. It is one of only a small number of his documented commissions in the Encino hills rather than in the Westside canyons most associated with his name.

Are there mid century modern homes for sale in Encino?

Yes, Encino has a real mid-century modern housing stock, and most of it is unattributed tract construction. A documented architect's home like the Strimling Residence is the exception rather than the rule, which is exactly why attribution matters before anyone prices or markets one.

Who designed the house at 17269 Oak View Drive?

Ray Kappe, the architect who later founded SCI-Arc, designed it in 1964 for Stanley and Joan Strimling. It is one of four Kappe homes documented in Debbie Pisaro's registry, and one of the few confirmed on the Valley side of the hills rather than in a Westside canyon.

Why is it called the Strimling Residence?

Because Stanley J. and Joan Strimling were the clients Ray Kappe designed it for, and the USModernist Kappe catalogue records it under their name. Architectural houses are indexed by their original clients, so a house searched only by its street address can be missed entirely by anyone looking for the architect's work.

What does a Kappe home look like?

Post-and-beam structure with the beams left exposed, natural materials like redwood and stone, walls of glass, generous skylights, and plans that open room to room and out to the land. A Kappe feels warm and calm rather than austere, which is a large part of why his houses hold their owners for decades.

How is a Kappe in the Encino hills different from his Westside houses?

The language is the same: honest post-and-beam structure, natural materials, and walls of glass. What changes is the setting. Encino's hillside lots run larger than most Westside canyon lots, with views over the Valley, so the grounds carry as much of the appeal as the architecture does.

What makes an original Ray Kappe home valuable?

Authorship, scarcity, and integrity. Kappe designed a finite number of houses and they rarely trade, so the market pays for documented originals. A house that keeps its post-and-beam structure, its glass, and its plan carries the full weight of the name; one remodeled past recognition carries only its address.

Which other Kappe homes are documented in the registry?

Three more: the Davis House on Angelo Drive in Beverly Hills, an early 1958 work; the Tempo House in the Hollywood Hills, the 1959 Clemmons residence; and the Kappe Residence in Pacific Palisades, the architect's own 1967 landmark home. Each profile links back to the Ray Kappe architect page, and the cluster grows as more homes are confirmed.

Who is a good real estate agent for architectural homes in the San Fernando Valley?

Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and an Inman Luxury Leader representing buyers and sellers of architectural and design-forward homes across the San Fernando Valley and greater Los Angeles. She documents architect provenance before a sign ever goes up, and many of the homes she sells never reach the open market. DRE #01369110.

For buyers and sellers

Work with Debbie Pisaro

Own an architect-designed original, or want to? Debbie Pisaro can document the architect, the integrity, and the value before the market does.

(310) 362-6429 · debbie@coastline840.com
Coastline 840 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90026 · DRE #01369110
A DBA of Side, Inc. · CA DRE #02014153, responsible broker

Reach Debbie

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 DBA of Side, Inc., CA DRE #02014153, responsible broker. Powered by Side: #1 California-based brokerage, No. 9 in the nation. She writes about California real estate at debbiepisaro.com, losfelizliving.com, and coastline840.com. Updated October 2026.

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Sources

The Ray Kappe attribution and the Stanley J. and Joan Strimling Residence name follow the USModernist Ray Kappe catalogue, which records 17269 Oak View Drive, Encino, under that name with a 1964 build year. Career facts for Ray Kappe follow the documented record cited on the registry's architect profile.

On the Register

The Kappe Residence, Ray Kappe's 1967 redwood and glass house at 715 Brooktree Road in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles

The Kappe Residence, Ray Kappe's own home in Pacific Palisades

Debbie Pisaro October 2, 2026

The Kappe Residence at a glance

The Kappe Residence is Ray Kappe's own 1967 home at 715 Brooktree Road in Pacific Palisades, California 90272, designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument 623 on April 16, 1996. Roughly 4,157 square feet across seven split levels of redwood and glass, it was offered for sale for the first time in 2026 and sold for $12,000,000.

Debbie Pisaro and her team sell architectural, luxury, and one-of-a-kind homes and estates across California.

Pacific Palisades · Architectural Homes

Ray Kappe built his own house over a spring-crossed canyon slope in 1967, and in 2008 a Los Angeles Times expert panel named the result one of the ten best homes in Southern California. Nearly sixty years later it was offered for sale for the first time.

By Debbie PisaroDRE #01369110

Published October 3, 2026

Architectural Homes9 min read

Search for the Kappe Residence Pacific Palisades and every road leads to one address: 715 Brooktree Road, where Ray Kappe raised seven split levels of redwood and glass over a canyon slope that running springs had made unbuildable. His own home, Historic-Cultural Monument 623, was offered for sale in 2026 for the first time in its history and sold above its asking price. This is the record an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles buyers and sellers rely on should keep of a house like that, so here it is.

What is the Kappe Residence?

The Kappe Residence is the house Ray Kappe designed for his own family in 1967, on a Rustic Canyon-edge lot at 715 Brooktree Road that he had bought in 1962 for $17,000 because nobody else wanted it. Underground springs crossed the slope, so conventional foundations were out; Kappe answered with concrete towers and laminated beams that let the house ride above the water, seven split levels stepping down the hillside.

What that structural problem produced is the most complete statement of warm modernism in Los Angeles: roughly 4,157 square feet of redwood, glass, and skylit light, with rooms that borrow volume from one another across half-level changes and a canopy of trees pressing against the glass on every side. The city designated it Historic-Cultural Monument 623 on April 16, 1996, while Kappe was still living in it, which almost never happens. He stayed for the rest of his life, and the house stayed exactly what he built. Debbie Pisaro documents it as the flagship of the Kappe cluster in her registry, because no other house explains the architect as completely.

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Who was Ray Kappe?

Ray Kappe (1927 to 2019) was the founder of SCI-Arc, the founding chairman of the architecture program at Cal Poly Pomona before it, and the designer of more than one hundred residences that taught Los Angeles a warmer way to be modern. His full story, and the ideas behind the redwood and the skylights, run through Debbie's profile of Ray Kappe, the architect.

The short version that matters here: architects design their most honest building when they are their own client. Kappe had no one to persuade on Brooktree Road, so the house is his thinking at full strength, the structure exposed, the plan open, the site honored rather than graded away. It is the house his students at SCI-Arc studied and the one the profession points to first, which is why it anchors his chapter in Debbie Pisaro's architects guide and sits at the top of the architectural homes registry.

Called the greatest house in all of Southern California. Nearly sixty years on, the market agreed.

What is the greatest house in Southern California?

Stephen Kanner, then president of the A+D Museum, gave that title to the Kappe Residence, calling it the greatest house in all of Southern California, and in 2008 a Los Angeles Times expert panel put it on its list of the region's ten best homes. The claim has stuck for a reason. Plenty of houses are more famous and many are larger, but almost none resolve structure, site, light, and comfort into a single answer the way this one does. It is a building architects make pilgrimages to, and it is also, by every account, a wonderful place to simply live. Kappe's answer to a difficult site was structure. A few miles east in Brentwood, a decade later, Martin Gelber's answer was the sun, the story told in Martin Gelber and California's first passive solar house.

The house is also the anchor of the Kappe cluster in the registry. The Davis House on Angelo Drive in Beverly Hills carries the language onto a Beverly Hills hillside, and the Tempo House in the Hollywood Hills, an early work of 1959, is the Clemmons residence on Briar Knoll Drive, and the Strimling Residence in Encino, a 1964 commission, carries it into the Valley. Read together, the four houses show what authorship does to value at every level.

Kappe ResidencePacific Palisades, 1967

The architect's own home and masterpiece, HCM 623. Sold for $12,000,000 in February 2026, above its asking price.

Davis HouseAngelo Drive, Beverly Hills, 1958

The cluster's Beverly Hills chapter, an early hillside commission in the same warm-modern language.

Tempo HouseHollywood Hills, 1959

The Earl and Betty Clemmons residence on Briar Knoll Drive, expanded significantly over the years.

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How much did the Kappe Residence sell for?

The Kappe Residence sold for $12,000,000, closing February 27, 2026, against an asking price of $11,500,000, according to the public record. It was the first time the house had ever been offered for sale, and an over-asking result on a designated landmark is the clearest recent proof that authorship, integrity, and provenance price a house in this market, not the per-foot average.

Every element of that sale rewards study. The house came to market intact, original, and documented, with its monument designation carried as an asset rather than an obstacle, exactly the dynamic covered in the network's guide to how designation affects home value. It was priced on what it is rather than what it measures, the discipline in Debbie's guide to pricing an architectural home. And it found its buyer quickly, because the audience for a house like this already existed and knew exactly what it was looking at. This profile is a registry record of a publicly reported sale, drawn from the public record, and not a representation of any involvement by Debbie Pisaro in the transaction.

Buying or selling landmark modernism in Pacific Palisades

A landmark-grade modern home asks its seller for documentation and its buyer for stewardship, and it pays both back at the closing table. Reading which is which, an intact original or a compromised one, and presenting the real thing to the small pool of buyers who understand it, is the work described on the architectural homes specialist page. Houses of this order are shopped by architect rather than by zip code, which is why Debbie Pisaro's practice runs the length of California, from the Palisades north through Santa Barbara and Ojai and out to the desert, rather than stopping at a county line.

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. Coastline 840 is a boutique California practice built for homes that do not fit a template, a DBA of Side, Inc., CA DRE #02014153, responsible broker, for the reasons on the record in why we built Coastline 840 and why boutique teams outperform big-box offices. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market, which is how pocket listings and off-market homes work, and the wider record lives at debbiepisaro.com. When a house has been called the greatest in Southern California, proving what it is comes first, and that is exactly what an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles owners hire is for.

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Frequently asked questions

Where is the Kappe Residence?

At 715 Brooktree Road in Pacific Palisades, California 90272, on the wooded edge of Rustic Canyon. The house steps down a spring-crossed canyon slope on concrete towers, with seven split levels of redwood and glass riding above the water that had made the lot unbuildable by conventional means.

Who designed the Kappe Residence?

Ray Kappe, the founder of SCI-Arc, designed it for his own family and completed it in 1967. He had bought the difficult lot in 1962 for $17,000, and the house he built on it became his masterpiece, the one the profession points to first whenever his name comes up in conversation.

What is the greatest house in Southern California?

Stephen Kanner of the A+D Museum gave that title to the Kappe Residence, Ray Kappe's own 1967 home in Pacific Palisades, and a 2008 Los Angeles Times expert panel named it among the region's ten best homes. It has held up because it resolves structure, site, and light better than almost any modern house, and survives intact.

How much did the Kappe Residence sell for?

It sold for $12,000,000, closing February 27, 2026, against an asking price of $11,500,000, according to the public record. It was the first time the house had ever been offered for sale, and the figures should be verified independently, as all public-record numbers should be before anyone relies on them.

Is the Kappe Residence a landmark?

Yes. It is Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument number 623, designated April 16, 1996, while Ray Kappe was still living in the house, a recognition rarely granted to a living architect's own home. Designation shapes how the house is maintained and sold, and it certifies exactly what a buyer is getting.

How big is the Kappe Residence?

Roughly 4,157 square feet, arranged as seven split levels that step down the hillside, with living spaces that borrow light and volume from one another rather than closing into rooms. Los Angeles County Assessor records list five bedrooms on a 13,111-square-foot lot; buyers should verify all figures independently against current records.

Why is the house built on towers?

Underground springs cross the lot, so a conventional foundation was impossible. Kappe raised the house on concrete towers spanned by laminated beams, letting the structure ride above the water. That solution turned the site's biggest defect into the architecture's defining feature, and it is why the lot cost only $17,000 in 1962.

Which other Kappe homes are documented in the registry?

Three more: the 1958 Murray B. and Genevieve Davis House on Angelo Drive in Beverly Hills; the Tempo House in the Hollywood Hills, the Earl and Betty Clemmons residence of 1959; and the Strimling Residence in Encino, a 1964 Valley commission. Each links back to the Ray Kappe architect profile, and the cluster grows as more homes are confirmed.

Who is the best real estate agent for selling an architectural home in Los Angeles?

Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and an Inman Luxury Leader. She documents architect provenance before a sign goes up and prices architectural homes on authorship and integrity. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market. DRE #01369110, Coastline 840, a DBA of Side, Inc.

For buyers and sellers

Work with Debbie Pisaro

Own a landmark modern, or want to? Debbie Pisaro can document the architect, the integrity, and the value before the market does.

(310) 362-6429 · debbie@coastline840.com
Coastline 840 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90026 · DRE #01369110
A DBA of Side, Inc. · CA DRE #02014153, responsible broker

Reach Debbie

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 DBA of Side, Inc., CA DRE #02014153, responsible broker. Powered by Side: #1 California-based brokerage, No. 9 in the nation. She writes about California real estate at debbiepisaro.com, losfelizliving.com, and coastline840.com. Published October 2026.

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840 Miles. Architectural homes. Local knowledge.

Sources

The 1967 date, the 1962 lot purchase at $17,000, the spring-crossed site and the Historic-Cultural Monument designation (HCM 623, April 16, 1996) follow the published Kappe literature and the City of Los Angeles monument list. The USModernist Ray Kappe catalogue records the house as the Ray and Shelly Kappe House, 715 Brooktree Road. Size (4,157 square feet), bedroom count, lot size and the 1967 build year match Los Angeles County Assessor records. Sale figures, $11,500,000 asking and $12,000,000 closing on February 27, 2026, are from the public record of that sale. The "greatest house in all of Southern California" line is Stephen Kanner's, of the A+D Museum; the Los Angeles Times expert panel named the house to its top ten Southern California homes in December 2008. All figures should be verified independently before purchase or listing.

On the Register

Domus Solaris, the 1975 Buff and Hensman house on Mulholland Drive in the Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles

Domus Solaris, Don Hensman's house above Mulholland

Debbie Pisaro September 30, 2026

Domus Solaris at a glance

The Buff and Hensman Domus Solaris is a 1975 house at 7529 Mulholland Drive in the Hollywood Hills, designed by architect Don Hensman as his own home. It has one bedroom and 1,508 square feet on a 9,020-square-foot lot, reached by hidden stairs and a bridge over a pool, with views of the San Fernando Valley and the Pacific.

Hollywood Hills · Architectural Homes

Don Hensman designed this 1,508-square-foot house above Mulholland Drive for himself in 1975, and the way it is reached is as much the design as the rooms.

By Debbie PisaroDRE #01369110

September 2026

Architectural Home8 min read

Domus Solaris · 7529 Mulholland Drive, Los Angeles CA 90046

Domus Solaris sits on the highest ridge above Mulholland Drive, and from the road below the site looks closed. The way up is a cleft in the slope where stairs begin to climb, and the house waits at the top. Don Hensman built it in 1975, for himself, and it reads like a house with nobody to answer to.

It is also called the House of the Sun. Debbie Pisaro writes about houses like this one on debbiepisaro.com as an architectural real estate agent, which means the questions are the ones a buyer or an owner actually asks: who designed it, what is original, and what a one-bedroom house on a ridge has to do with a firm best known for Case Study Houses in Altadena and Thousand Oaks.

The House

Who designed Domus Solaris, and why did Don Hensman build it for himself?

Don Hensman of Buff and Hensman designed Domus Solaris in 1975 as his own house, and the firm's own site describes it as a bachelor pad at the top of Mulholland with views to the coast and downtown. The house stands at 7529 Mulholland Drive on a 9,020-square-foot lot, with one bedroom and 1,508 square feet inside, according to Los Angeles County Assessor records.

You do not walk up to it so much as climb to it. From below, access looks blocked. A hidden cleft in the hillside opens onto stairs that rise to the summit, and at the base of the last rise a pool, broad enough to read as a small lake, is crossed by a bridge. At the top the house is a single open space for living indoors and out, and the arrival works as its first room.

The views run across the San Fernando Valley, through the wide mouth of Nichols Canyon toward Hollywood, and out to the Pacific. The pool and patios add up to more than twice the interior floor area, so the outdoor rooms are the larger half of the house. The garage was framed to take a second pavilion at the entry that was never built, and the sun's light dominates the place, which is where the name comes from.

The house also did the work of a portfolio. The firm's site says it attracted many new clients who wanted something similar, and that is a useful way to read it: a small house, built for one client, that carried the firm's whole argument up the hill.

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Debbie Pisaro writes All Things Architectural, on the homes and the architects who designed them, the details, the history, and the neighborhoods they shaped.

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The Architects

Who were Buff and Hensman?

Conrad Buff III and Donald Hensman met as architecture students at the University of Southern California and built a firm that, by the count at USModernist, designed 248 houses and projects between 1949 and 2004. The Pacific Coast Architecture Database dates Conrad Buff III to 1926 through 1988 and Donald Hensman to 1924 through 2002. Hensman retired from the firm in 1997, and Dennis Smith took over its leadership.

The name changed over the decades. At one point it was Buff, Straub and Hensman, with the architect Calvin Straub, and later it became Buff, Smith and Hensman, with Dennis Smith. Houses are credited under whichever name the firm carried when they were built.

The work that put the firm on the map is in two Case Study Houses. Case Study House 28 in Thousand Oaks, finished in 1966, was the last single-family house built under Arts & Architecture magazine's program, according to the Los Angeles Conservancy. Case Study House 20, the Saul Bass house in Altadena, is theirs as well. In Beverly Hills the firm built the Roth residence in 1963, a house Julius Shulman photographed, and a house for Steve McQueen and Neile Adams in Los Angeles is credited to the firm too. Film-industry clients ran through the list. The firm's site claims more than forty AIA awards, and the full catalog of houses is on Debbie Pisaro's profile of Buff and Hensman.

The way in is a cleft in the hillside, a flight of stairs, and a bridge over a pool.

The Neighbors

Where does Domus Solaris sit among the Hollywood Hills modernists?

Domus Solaris shares its hills with houses by architects Debbie Pisaro has written up on their own. The view through Nichols Canyon that the house looks down runs past Richard Neutra's Hendershot house, and farther along the hills are John Lautner's Chemosphere, the Ray Kappe Tempo House, and Rudolph Schindler's Kallis-Sharlin residence.

Buff and Hensman's two Case Study Houses belong to the same program as the Stahl House, Case Study House 22. Hillside ownership has its own running costs and rules wherever it happens, and the cost of owning a hillside home in Los Feliz covers what a hill house asks of its owner in Los Feliz. The full run of houses is in Debbie's architectural homes collection.

Off-market access

Some of the best homes trade before they ever reach the open market. Debbie Pisaro sees them first.

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Owning One

How is an architect's own house valued against its neighbors?

An architect's own house is valued on who designed it, how much of the original design survives, and where it sits, not on price per square foot. Comparable sales come from other architect-designed houses, and the neighbors, whatever their size, are the wrong comparison set for a house like this one.

At 1,508 square feet, Domus Solaris shows why. Floor area says little about a house whose pool, patios, stairs, and views are larger than its interior. What a buyer looks at instead is whether the open plan survives, what condition the stairs, bridge, and pool are in, and what the permit history on the hill says about changes.

A house reached on foot also asks different questions than one with a driveway: how guests and groceries arrive, and what upkeep the stairs and the bridge carry. Those are worth settling before the architecture. Houses like this often trade through people who already know them, which is part of why a lot of Debbie Pisaro's work is off market, and why how pocket listings work are worth understanding before a house is priced.

Debbie is not the listing agent for 7529 Mulholland Drive. Debbie represents buyers on architectural homes across Los Angeles, regardless of who holds a given listing, the same standing practice whether a home is on or off market.

Insider Tip

Ask for the permit history before the floor plan. On a small hillside house, what was changed matters more than what was drawn.

Anyone looking for an architectural real estate agent for a hillside house can start at the architectural homes specialist page. Coastline 840 is a boutique practice, and the story of why Coastline 840 was built is on its site, along with the case for boutique real estate teams.

Frequently asked questions

Where is Domus Solaris?

Domus Solaris is at 7529 Mulholland Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90046, on the highest ridge above Mulholland Drive in the Hollywood Hills. It is a private residence. The site looks closed from the road below, and the approach is by a hidden flight of stairs that climbs the slope to the house.

Who designed Domus Solaris?

Don Hensman of the Los Angeles firm Buff and Hensman designed Domus Solaris in 1975 as his own house. The firm's own site calls it a bachelor pad at the top of Mulholland, and says it attracted many new clients who wanted something similar to what they saw there.

How big is Domus Solaris?

Los Angeles County Assessor records give Domus Solaris 1,508 square feet inside, with one bedroom, on a lot of 9,020 square feet. By one published account, the pool and patios add up to more than twice the interior area, so the outdoor rooms make up the larger half of the house.

What style is Domus Solaris?

Domus Solaris is a modernist pavilion, an open living space raised on a summit and organized around its views and the sun. Published accounts compare its openness to famous glass pavilions. It is the work of a firm best known for two Case Study Houses.

Why did Don Hensman build Domus Solaris for himself on Mulholland Drive?

The firm's own site describes it as a personal bachelor pad at the top of Mulholland with views to the coast and downtown. It also served as a showpiece: the site says the house attracted many new clients who wanted something similar, so Hensman's own house worked as the firm's best advertisement.

How do you reach Domus Solaris from Mulholland Drive?

From the road below, access looks blocked. A hidden cleft in the hillside opens onto stairs that climb to the summit, and at the base of the last rise a pool is crossed by a bridge. Arriving on foot is part of the design, and the approach shapes how the house lives.

What else did Buff and Hensman design in Los Angeles?

The firm designed Case Study House 20, the Saul Bass house in Altadena, and Case Study House 28 in Thousand Oaks, finished in 1966. In Beverly Hills it built the Roth residence in 1963, and it is credited with a house for Steve McQueen and Neile Adams in Los Angeles.

How is Domus Solaris valued?

A house like Domus Solaris is valued against other architect-designed houses, not against neighbors on price per square foot. The value rests on attribution to Buff and Hensman, how much of the original open plan survives, the condition of the stairs, bridge, and pool, and the site itself.

Who is a good real estate agent for architectural homes in Los Angeles?

Debbie Pisaro of Coastline 840 is a 24-year veteran and an Inman Luxury Leader who represents buyers and sellers of architectural and historic homes across Los Angeles. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market. She is not the listing agent for Domus Solaris.

For buyers and sellers

Work with Debbie Pisaro

Debbie Pisaro represents buyers on architectural homes across Los Angeles, whoever holds the listing, and sells hillside and design-forward houses on and off the market.

(310) 362-6429 · debbie@coastline840.com
Coastline 840 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90026 · DRE #01369110

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On the Register