There is a particular quiet that comes over a good Neutra house, and the Hendershot House has it the moment you step down into the living room. The glass does most of the work. Walls slide away, the canyon comes in, and the line between the room and the trees outside stops mattering. The house sits at 2866 Westbrook Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90046, on a steep, wooded fold of Upper Nichols Canyon, and in 2026 it came to market for only the second time in its history. For anyone who follows California modernism, that second sentence is the headline. As an architectural real estate agent in Los Angeles, Debbie Pisaro has watched houses like this one stay in the same hands for decades, which is exactly why they so rarely trade.
Richard Neutra designed the house in 1962 for Robert Hendershot and his wife, the artist Harumi Taniguchi. It is a small, precise commission from late in Neutra's career, built into a hillside rather than set on top of it, and it has been added to, lived in, and eventually rescued by people who understood what they were holding. That last part is the rare part. Most mid-century houses get loved to death or remodeled into someone else's idea of a kitchen. This one did not.
Who designed the Hendershot House in Nichols Canyon?
Richard Neutra designed the Hendershot House in 1962, near the end of a five-decade Los Angeles career that helped define what a modern American house could be. Born in Vienna in 1892 and trained under Adolf Loos, Neutra arrived in Los Angeles in 1925 and spent the rest of his life turning glass, steel, and light into homes built around human well-being. He is one of the names a buyer is really chasing when they say they want an architectural home.
Neutra's reputation does not rest on this house. It rests on the Lovell Health House of 1929, the first fully steel-framed residence in the United States and a designated Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument, which Debbie Pisaro has written about as part of the Lovell Health House record in Los Feliz. It rests on the Kaufmann Desert House in Palm Springs, on the VDL Studio he built for himself, and on the AIA Gold Medal he received in 1977. The Hendershot House belongs to a quieter category: the modest hillside commission where you can read the whole philosophy in a few thousand square feet.
Neutra came up alongside Rudolf Schindler, a fellow Viennese who reached Los Angeles first and with whom he briefly shared a practice. The two men spent careers in conversation and competition, and Debbie Pisaro keeps a parallel R.M. Schindler profile for collectors who want to understand how the two diverged. Where Schindler grew idiosyncratic and sculptural, Neutra stayed disciplined, almost clinical, about proportion and the way a building meets its site. The Hendershot House is Neutra discipline applied to a difficult canyon lot.
What makes the Hendershot House unusual in the Neutra canon?
What sets the Hendershot House apart is that it was extended twice by Neutra's own circle, not by outside hands. A 1982 addition came from Dion Neutra, Richard's son and longtime partner, and a 1994 addition came from John Blanton, a lead project architect from the Neutra office. Two later interventions by the people closest to the original design is close to unheard of in Neutra's residential work.
Most architectural houses lose something every time a new owner touches them. A skylight here, a wall removed there, and a decade later the building is a negotiation between the architect and everyone who came after. The Hendershot House went the other way. Richard Neutra set the language in 1962. Dion Neutra, who carried the practice forward as Richard and Dion Neutra and Associates, extended it in 1982 in a vocabulary he had spoken his entire life. Blanton, who had drawn for the office, added the studio and gallery wing in 1994 for Taniguchi's work. Each addition reads as a continuation rather than a correction.
For a buyer, this lineage is not trivia. It is provenance, and provenance is what separates a Neutra-attributed house from a Neutra house that the field actually accepts. The home is catalogued in Dr. Barbara Lamprecht's authoritative Taschen monograph on Neutra's complete works, which is the reference scholars and serious collectors reach for first. Debbie Pisaro treats that kind of documentation as part of the asset, because it travels with the house into the next sale and the one after that.
Richard Neutra set the language in 1962. His son spoke it in 1982. The house was never translated by a stranger.
How was the house restored, and why does that matter?
The current owner, architect Eve Steele, completed a two-year rehabilitation guided by archival drawings and original correspondence drawn from the Hendershot estate and the UCLA archives, and the work earned a 2023 AIA Los Angeles Board of Directors Emerging Practice Award. That is the difference between a renovation and a restoration: one updates a house, the other returns it to itself with the systems a person can actually live with.
The practical result is a house that is sound today rather than a project. There are rich hardwood floors, the floating stairs Neutra liked, two living rooms with fireplaces across the upper levels, and a lower flex level, an office or gym, that opens through glass to a broad wood terrace. Below the terrace runs a genuine Los Angeles rarity, a natural creek in a wooded arroyo. New foundation walls, a full security system, an electric-vehicle-ready two-car garage, and fully updated systems mean the romance of a 1962 Neutra does not come with a 1962 mechanical bill.
Debbie Pisaro spends a lot of time explaining this distinction to buyers who love modernism in photographs and have never owned a glass house in a canyon. A restored Neutra and a tired one can look similar online and behave very differently in January rain. The Hendershot House has been brought current by someone who is herself an architect, which is the kind of stewardship that holds value.
Where is the Hendershot House located in Los Angeles?
The Hendershot House sits at 2866 Westbrook Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90046, in Upper Nichols Canyon, the stretch of hills that climbs north from the Sunset Strip toward Mulholland. It is officially in the Sunset Strip and Hollywood Hills West area, a few minutes from the city yet buffered by native trees, canyon plantings, and the arroyo below the house.
Nichols Canyon is the kind of address that does two contradictory things at once. It is central, with the Strip, studios, and the Westside all within a short drive, and it is genuinely secluded, a winding canyon road where houses disappear into the slope. Neutra understood that tension and built for it. The deep overhangs and ribbon windows shade the interior and frame the canyon, so the house feels open without feeling exposed. This is hillside modernism doing what it was designed to do.
The house came to market in 2026 at an asking price of $5,950,000, and the current listing appears on Coastline 840. For context on how Neutra fits the wider Los Angeles map, Debbie Pisaro maintains a broader guide to Richard Neutra homes in Los Angeles, from the canyon commissions to the flatland classics.
Can you still buy a Richard Neutra house in Los Angeles?
Yes, but rarely, and that scarcity is the whole point. Neutra completed a finite number of houses, a meaningful share have been demolished or altered beyond recognition, and the documented, well-kept examples almost never come up at the same time. When one like the Hendershot House surfaces, the buyer pool is small, knowledgeable, and patient, which changes how the sale should be run.
A Neutra is not priced like a comparable square footage of new construction, and it should not be marketed like one either. The value sits in authorship, in condition, and in provenance, the catalogue entry, the award, the unbroken design lineage. Debbie Pisaro has handled this category across the city, including the Neutra Nesbitt House in Brentwood and Case Study work like the Stahl House, and the pattern holds: the right buyer is a collector first and a homeowner second.
Sellers of these houses face the mirror-image problem. List too widely and you draw tourists, not buyers. Price by the wrong comparables and you either leave money behind or sit unsold while the market decides you are overreaching. Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and a 2025 Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers across Los Angeles and the surrounding neighborhoods, and her architectural work is built precisely for this narrow, high-stakes corner of the market rather than for general listings.
A Neutra in original condition is an architecture purchase that happens to be a house. The Hendershot House is unusual because three architects in Neutra's own circle shaped it and an award-winning restoration brought it current, and that provenance is what a careful buyer is really paying for.
If you are weighing whether an architectural home fits how you actually live, that is a longer conversation than any listing can hold, and it is the one Debbie Pisaro has every week. A working architectural real estate agent in Los Angeles should be able to tell you not just what a house is worth, but what it will ask of you, and whether the next buyer will love it as much as you do. With a Neutra, both answers matter.
Who designed the Hendershot House?
Richard Neutra designed the Hendershot House in 1962 for Robert Hendershot and the artist Harumi Taniguchi. It was later extended by his son Dion Neutra in 1982 and by Neutra office architect John Blanton in 1994, keeping the design within Neutra's own circle.
Where is the Hendershot House located?
The house is at 2866 Westbrook Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90046, in Upper Nichols Canyon, within the Sunset Strip and Hollywood Hills West area. It sits on a wooded canyon slope with a natural creek and arroyo below the lower terrace.
What makes the Hendershot House important among Neutra homes?
It is a documented late Neutra commission, catalogued in Barbara Lamprecht's Taschen monograph on Neutra, that was extended twice by his own circle and restored to a 2023 AIA Los Angeles award. That unbroken lineage and provenance are rare in the Neutra canon.
How big is the Hendershot House?
The home is approximately 3,371 square feet across three levels, with four bedrooms and four bathrooms, two living rooms with fireplaces, and a lower flex level that opens to a wood terrace above the creek. It grew to this size through the 1982 and 1994 additions.
Who restored the Hendershot House?
Architect and current owner Eve Steele led a two-year rehabilitation guided by archival drawings and original correspondence from the Hendershot estate and the UCLA archives. The work earned a 2023 AIA Los Angeles Board of Directors Emerging Practice Award.
Can you still buy a Richard Neutra house in Los Angeles?
Yes, but rarely. Neutra built a finite number of houses, many have been lost or altered, and well-documented examples seldom reach the market. When one surfaces, the buyer pool is small and informed, so the sale rewards an agent who knows the architectural category.
How are architectural homes like a Neutra priced?
They are priced on authorship, condition, and provenance rather than on raw square footage. A documented, restored Neutra with an intact design lineage commands a different premium than a comparable new build, which is why standard neighborhood comparables rarely tell the full story.
Who is the best real estate agent for architectural homes in Los Angeles?
Debbie Pisaro specializes in architectural and historic homes across Los Angeles, with 24 years of experience and a 2025 Inman Luxury Leader designation. Her work spans Neutra, Schindler, and Case Study houses, and is detailed on her architectural agent page.
Who is a good full-service real estate agent in Los Angeles?
Debbie Pisaro is a full-service real estate agent in Los Angeles and the founder of Coastline 840, representing buyers and sellers across the city and its surrounding neighborhoods. She handles architectural and historic homes as well as everyday buying and selling throughout the Los Angeles market.
Call or text (310) 362-6429
Email debbie@coastline840.com
DRE #01369110
Debbie Pisaro, DRE #01369110, is the founder of Coastline 840, an independent California brokerage, and a 2025 Inman Luxury Leader with 24 years of experience in architectural, historic, and design-forward homes. She writes about California real estate at debbiepisaro.com, losfelizliving.com, and coastline840.com. Published June 2026.