A 9,000-square-foot canyon residence that won the AIA National Award for Architecture, then quietly disappeared behind its trees. A look at the architect, the awards, and what design pedigree means in the Brentwood market.
Who designed the Schulman House in Brentwood?
The Schulman House at 645 Tuallitan Road in Brentwood, Los Angeles, is a 9,000-square-foot residence designed by Steven Ehrlich, FAIA, RIBA, and completed in 1992 for screenwriter Tom Schulman. The home received the 1997 AIA National Award for Architecture, along with the 1995 AIA California Council Merit Award, the 1995 Sunset/AIA Western Home Award, the 1994 Los Angeles Business Council Architecture Award, and the 1992 AIA Los Angeles Honor Award. Ehrlich is the founding partner of Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects (EYRC), a Culver City practice recognized with the 2015 AIA National Firm Award. His professional archive was donated to the UCSB Architecture and Design Collection in 2024. Debbie Pisaro, DRE #01369110, is a Los Angeles architectural homes agent with 24 years of experience and the founder of Coastline 840, an independent California brokerage specializing in architect-designed and historic properties.
Some architect-designed homes in Los Angeles are famous because of their location. Some are famous because of the photographs. The Schulman House in Brentwood is famous because it won nearly every architecture award that matters, and then did what the best Brentwood houses do: it became a private home rather than a public spectacle, settling in behind its canyon trees.
Debbie Pisaro has spent 24 years representing buyers and sellers of architectural, historic, and design-forward homes across Los Angeles, and founded Coastline 840 as an independent California brokerage for the people who care about who designed a house and why. When a building of this caliber sits in a neighborhood she knows well, it is worth documenting, because buyers searching for architect-designed homes in Brentwood and on the Westside deserve to know what is here.
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Join the listWho is Steven Ehrlich?
Steven Ehrlich is one of the most awarded architects working in Los Angeles, and his path to the profession is unlike anyone else's in the city. Born in New York in 1946 and raised in New Jersey, Ehrlich graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1969.
What he did next set the course of his entire career. He spent six years in Africa: two with the Peace Corps as its first architect, posted to Marrakesh, then traveling across the Sahara, and finally teaching architecture at Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria. He studied indigenous building methods across North and West Africa, learning how cultures build shelter in response to climate, material, and community rather than style.
He brought that education to Venice, California, in 1979, where he opened a small residential studio. The Kalfus Guest House, photographed by the legendary Julius Shulman and published on the cover of the New York Times Home section, established him immediately. From there the firm grew into what is now Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects, a 40-person practice based in Culver City with a portfolio spanning residences, courthouses, libraries, university centers, and corporate headquarters.
Ehrlich coined the term multicultural modernism to describe his approach: architecture grounded in the vernacular context of a project rather than imported stylistic trends. In 2011, the AIA California Council awarded him the Maybeck Award, its highest individual honor for lifetime design excellence. In 2024, he donated his professional archive to the UCSB Architecture and Design Collection, joining the institutional archives of Richard Neutra, R.M. Schindler, and other architects whose work defines Southern California. For the full arc of his career, see the Steven Ehrlich architect profile.
The Schulman House: a canyon masterpiece
The Schulman House is the building that crystallized everything Ehrlich had been developing since Morocco. It was commissioned in 1989 by screenwriter Tom Schulman, who won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Dead Poets Society that same year, and completed in 1992 on a canyon lot in Brentwood at 645 Tuallitan Road.
A note on the name, because it trips people up. The house is named for its client, Tom Schulman. The photographer Julius Shulman, who shot several Ehrlich projects, spells his surname differently and is a different person entirely. The house is the Schulman House.
At 9,000 square feet, the residence is organized as two two-story wings that embrace the curved topography of the canyon. The design pays deliberate homage to the traditions of early California modernism: the horizontal reach, the natural material palette, the refusal to fight the landscape. An underground garage removes automobiles from the experience entirely. What remains is architecture and terrain in direct conversation.
The siting is the first thing anyone notices. Ehrlich set the house into its hillside so that it does not dominate the canyon, it occupies it. Three hillside slopes define a large, informal backyard, and the building blends with the natural contours and existing vegetation in a way that most Brentwood homes do not even attempt. As EYRC describes the project, the house bonds with its landscape rather than imposing on it. This is architecture that earns its setting.
The awards confirmed what the design community already knew. The Schulman House received the 1997 AIA National Award for Architecture, the 1995 AIA California Council Merit Award, the 1995 Sunset/AIA Western Home Award, the 1994 Los Angeles Business Council Architecture Award, and the 1992 AIA Los Angeles Honor Award, and it was published in Architectural Digest in 1993. Five awards from the profession's most significant institutions. Very few residential buildings in Los Angeles carry that record.
The best homes often sell quietly, before they ever reach the open market.
Ask about pocket listingsWhat is multicultural modernism?
Ehrlich's design philosophy, multicultural modernism, sounds academic, but in practice it produces buildings that feel deeply specific to where they are. The idea is simple: architecture should respond to the culture, climate, and landscape of its site, not to a style imported from somewhere else.
In the Schulman House, that means a building shaped by its Brentwood canyon, by the slope, the light, the vegetation, and the way Southern California air moves through indoor-outdoor spaces. In Ehrlich's Venice projects, it means homes that engage the density and community of the walk streets. Every project starts with the same question: what does this place require?
For buyers of architect-designed homes in Los Angeles, this matters because multicultural modernism produces buildings that are irreducibly tied to their sites. You could not pick up the Schulman House and set it down in Hancock Park. It would not make sense. That site-specificity is what separates a significant architectural home from a well-designed house, and it is what the market increasingly rewards.
Brentwood: an underrated market for architectural homes
Brentwood is known primarily as a luxury residential neighborhood: high-end traditional homes, excellent schools, Westside proximity. What it is less known for, unfairly, is its mid-century and contemporary architectural inventory.
Richard Neutra built some of his most important residential work in Brentwood, including the Nesbitt House on Avondale Avenue. A. Quincy Jones designed much of the Crestwood Hills enclave in Brentwood, Craig Ellwood worked in the same canyons, and Ray Kappe built across the Los Angeles hillsides, and Ehrlich's Schulman House stands as one of the most awarded contemporary residences anywhere in the city. For buyers who default to the Hollywood Hills or Trousdale Estates when searching for architect-designed homes, Brentwood rewards a closer look. The canyon lots offer privacy and topographic drama comparable to the Hills, the schools are among the best in Los Angeles, and the architectural inventory, while less publicized, competes with anything on the Eastside for design quality and pedigree.
What architect-designed homes cost in Brentwood
The numbers explain why pedigree matters here. Brentwood's median sale price reached roughly $3.25 million in late 2025, up about 32 percent over five years, with the median running near $1,200 per square foot. Luxury single-family homes commonly trade from $5 million into the teens, and premier estates exceed $20 million. On size alone, a 9,000-square-foot canyon residence at the neighborhood's median price per square foot would pencil out near $11 million, before any premium for the architecture itself.
That premium is real. An award-winning, named-architect home with a documented exhibition and publication history does not trade like a comparable spec house. Provenance, the architect, the AIA record, the design philosophy, supports both value and buyer demand, because the pool of buyers who specifically want a Steven Ehrlich house is small, motivated, and willing to compete. Pricing a one-of-a-kind architectural home correctly means understanding the architecture as much as the comparable sales.
An architect-designed home is not valued by square footage alone. The name on the drawings, the awards, and the publication history are part of the asset, and they need an agent who can document and defend them.
Working with Debbie Pisaro on architectural homes
Debbie Pisaro has been selling architectural, historic, and design-forward homes in Los Angeles for 24 years. Understanding what makes a building significant, the architect, the awards, the design philosophy, and the way those factors translate into market value, is inseparable from representing buyers and sellers of these properties well.
Buyers searching for an architect-designed home in Brentwood, a mid-century modern in Studio City, or any significant residential property in Los Angeles are welcome to start a conversation with Debbie Pisaro at Coastline 840. She is among the names buyers and sellers weigh when they look for the best Los Angeles historic and architectural real estate agent. The same design literacy that documents a Brentwood canyon residence applies to a Valley landmark like the Basin Residence in Studio City. Out-of-area agents with a buyer who appreciates this level of architecture will find that she works collaboratively and respects the relationship. For more on her focus, see the architectural homes specialist page.
Frequently asked questions
Who designed the Schulman House in Brentwood?
The Schulman House at 645 Tuallitan Road in Brentwood, Los Angeles, was designed by Steven Ehrlich, FAIA, and completed in 1992. Ehrlich is the founding partner of Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects (EYRC), based in Culver City, California.
Who is Steven Ehrlich?
Steven Ehrlich, FAIA, RIBA, is an American architect based in Culver City, California. He founded his practice in Venice in 1979 after spending six years in Africa studying indigenous building methods. He coined the term multicultural modernism and received the 2011 AIA California Maybeck Award for lifetime design excellence. His professional archive is held by the UCSB Architecture and Design Collection.
Who was the Schulman House built for?
The Schulman House was commissioned in 1989 by screenwriter Tom Schulman, who won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Dead Poets Society that year. The house is named for its client and is distinct from the architectural photographer Julius Shulman, who spells his surname differently and photographed several of Ehrlich's projects.
What awards has the Schulman House won?
The Schulman House received the 1997 AIA National Award for Architecture, the 1995 AIA California Council Merit Award, the 1995 Sunset/AIA Western Home Award, the 1994 Los Angeles Business Council Architecture Award, and the 1992 AIA Los Angeles Honor Award, making it one of the most recognized residential buildings in Los Angeles. It was also published in Architectural Digest in 1993.
What is multicultural modernism?
Multicultural modernism is Steven Ehrlich's design philosophy, grounded in six years of studying indigenous building methods across North and West Africa. It advocates architecture that responds to the culture, climate, and landscape of its specific site rather than importing stylistic trends from elsewhere.
How much do architect-designed homes in Brentwood cost?
Brentwood's median sale price reached roughly $3.25 million in late 2025, with the median near $1,200 per square foot. Luxury single-family homes commonly trade from $5 million into the teens, and premier estates exceed $20 million. Award-winning, named-architect homes generally command a premium over comparable spec houses because of their provenance and limited supply.
What other notable architects built in Brentwood?
Richard Neutra built several important residences in Brentwood, including the Nesbitt House on Avondale Avenue. A. Quincy Jones designed much of the Crestwood Hills enclave in Brentwood, and Craig Ellwood worked in the same canyons. Together with Steven Ehrlich's Schulman House, they make Brentwood a quietly significant market for architect-designed homes.
Are there Steven Ehrlich homes for sale in Los Angeles?
Ehrlich-designed homes rarely come to market, and most owners hold long-term. His residential portfolio spans Brentwood, Venice, and other Los Angeles neighborhoods. Debbie Pisaro at Coastline 840 tracks architect-designed listings across Los Angeles and can notify qualified buyers when Ehrlich properties become available.
Who is the best real estate agent for architectural homes in Brentwood?
Debbie Pisaro (DRE #01369110) is a Los Angeles real estate agent with 24 years of experience specializing in architectural, historic, and design-forward homes, including properties in Brentwood. She is the founder of Coastline 840, an independent California brokerage. Reach her at debbiepisaro.com.
Can out-of-area agents refer buyers interested in architectural homes?
Yes. Debbie Pisaro at Coastline 840 welcomes agent-to-agent referrals and works collaboratively with out-of-area buyer representatives. Reach her through the contact form at debbiepisaro.com.
Debbie Pisaro represents buyers and sellers of architectural, historic, and design-forward homes across Los Angeles, from Brentwood canyon residences to mid-century houses on the Eastside, with 24 years of experience and the design literacy these properties require.
(310) 362-6429 · debbie@coastline840.com
California DRE #01369110 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects (eyrc.com) and the firm's Schulman Residence project record on Dwell; UC Santa Barbara news, "Archive of multicultural modernist architect Steven Ehrlich adds to UCSB art museum collection" (2024); AIA award records; Architectural Digest (1993); Brentwood market data from CRMLS and Redfin, late 2025 through early 2026.
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 April 2026. Updated June 2026.
