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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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Coastline 840 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90026 · DRE #01369110
Debbie Pisaro, DRE #01369110, is the founder of Coastline 840, a boutique California practice, and an Inman Luxury Leader with 24 years of experience in architectural, historic, and design-forward homes. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market. Coastline 840 is a 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.
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).
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.
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