"Day-to-day life is really easy," she says, often easier "than in a conventional home where the architect has not thought so much about every single detail.". Malin convinced a handful of companies to help finance his construction project in exchange for a little product placement. "Organic Modernism was just as modern in its use of materials," Hess says, "but it had a different sense of space, which was flowing. If he was a banker, he would have insisted on a colonial house on a bulldozed lot. Lautner, a former student of Frank Lloyd Wright who sometimes designs swimming pools that wander through the living room or homes built around trees or rocks, is not the sort of architect who does colonial houses on bulldozed cuts. Foreclosed These properties are owned by a bank or a lender who took ownership through foreclosure proceedings. Though Lautner could appear imperious, a quality he may have learned from his mentor Frank Lloyd Wright, he was also a deeply practical and hard-headed problem-solver. During the first few years the Taschens lived there, the house became locally famous for their parties, where photographer Bill Claxton and his model wife Peggy Moffett would carouse with porn stars, jazz musicians and director Billy Wilder. Though Lautner could appear imperious, a quality he may have learned from his mentor Frank Lloyd Wright, he was also a deeply practical and hard-headed problem-solver. (The house is reached by a funicular.). ; It was also used in the 1984 film Body Double, directed by Brian De Palma. "With this house he found and expressed this almost religious spirit with a perfect architectural language in general, but also in detail. My wife is always worried about the baby falling down that slope. More than one onlooker who was surprised by the sight of Malins unconventional home has asked why no one told them that space creatures now had a California command station with a killer view of the San Fernando Valley. Lautner, a brilliant but reputedly prickly man, sketched a bold vertical line, a cross, and a curve above it. "The maintenance is 10 times higher than in any other building. "I bought it right away -- as fast as possible," says Taschen. The bottom perimeter fence surrounding the house is also a component of the structure. He canceled plans for a guesthouse designed by Rem Koolhaas at Chemosphere's base because he feared it would visually compete with the main house. The Chemosphere restoration won an award from the Los Angeles Conservancy as well as the approval of its original tenant. To those inside, the height, panoramic view and absence of any visible means of support give the impression of being in a penthouse floating in the sky or on the command deck of a flying saucer swooping down to strafe North Hollywood with laser cannon. This new house is one of the very first that will be certified LEED for Homes in Southern California. ", In fact, during much of that decade, the place had been on the market. He and De la Vaux, a builder, first had to construct a system of utility poles and cables, like a ski lift, to haul material to the site, he said. Photos via mcmdaily.comJulius Shulman / Getty Archives, Your email address will not be published. Although flying saucers were in fashion when it was designed in the late 1950s, that had nothing to do with the design, according to the architect. The house is the product of a fortuitous union of architect, client, time and place. "It's like having a vintage car -- a '55 Mercedes. "My philosophy at the time was, most people work their whole lives to build their dream house," Malin says from Arizona, where he's constructing a new home. What can have very different feelings from both sides of it. It could take on its own brand-new shape. The mountain-to-mountain view, from Glendale to the west end of the San Fernando Valley, looks down on the roofs of the tallest office buildings in the East Valley and even on airplane and helicopter traffic. If you make tiny changes that don't fit the integrity of the house, you destroy it. By 2004, the Chemosphere was officially declared a historical monument. "We wanted to make it as invisible and elegant as possible," says Escher. Escher's restoration ran the flagstone pattern inside and out, across the bridge that connects the front door to the funicular. Its a practically unbuildable hillside with no access from the top, Lautner said. The lower perimeter edge houses built in wardrobes, a sofa and a balcony built. "I think the hardest thing was developing an intellectual strategy for how to deal with it," Escher says, calling the task, "a combination of research into history and technology, and to some degree into Lautner's psychology. The new house was intended to hold an art collection and library and to provide rooms enough for the four children the Taschens have between them. Due to the low budget available to the owner sought sponsors to carry out the worlds most modern home as he called the Encyclopedia Britannica of the time. The Malin residence remains one of the state of Californias most eccentric buildings. That is not true, said the first owner, Leonard Malin, now a Yucca Valley real estate broker. "It was an architecture newly defined. "From the outside it looks like a spaceship which you cannot enter," Angelika Taschen says from Berlin, where she now lives. It's not the only contradiction the place contains. The architects also replaced the original thick framed windows with frameless glass. The appearance of flying saucer, as has also been called to the house, is given by its structure, in this case is the structure that determines the form. The structure of the residence is made of steel and timber, and the roof is supported by curved portal frames of laminated wood. "It's pure nature, with all kinds of animals: skunks, bobcats, coyotes, deer. They are not shy; you almost have nose prints on the window. "The West would not be possible without technology: Water, electricity, everything that it took to overcome dryness and distance was dependent in some form on technology. These materials were chosen due to the earthquake zone it's located in, and the house has actually withstood hurricanes and floods, proving its structure successful. The architect describes the job as a philosophical challenge. "The place is much better than when I was in there -- and it's in keeping with Lautner's vision. The pod is not actually circular, as it appears to be at a distance, but has eight sides and is 65 feet across. But the Taschens saw dirty, disco-era, wall-to-wall carpet on much of its 2,200 square feet, an old aluminum door, smudged windows and seven layers of paint on what was originally a gently austere, exposed brick wall. From the side facing the San Fernando Valley, is the great city, houses, skyscrapers, Highway 101, While on the mountain that faces feel the nature and animals. One is that it was originally constructed for a pilot or aerospace engineer, as an appropriate residence for man who dealt with speed and flight. Leonard Malin was a young aerospace engineer in late-1950s L.A. whose father-in-law had just given him a plot north of Mulholland Drive, near Laurel Canyon. The view of the L.A. Country club from a fabulous 'Make it Right': Get home renovations right the fi Jose Eber Salon | Shopping: Jos Eber opens new Be Real estate: Sales of $20-million-plus L.A. homes New this week in Beverly Hills! The house was named the Chemosphere for promotional purposes by the Chem- seal Corp. of America, which contributed materials. For such an intricately designed home, the downside of high maintenance caused the original owner Leonard Malin to sell the house in 1972 which subsequently was left to run down. The northern side facing the views contains the public spaces such as theliving room, kitchen and dining area, while the side facing the hills contains four bedrooms and bathrooms.if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'midcenturyhome_com-medrectangle-4','ezslot_2',119,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-midcenturyhome_com-medrectangle-4-0'); At the center of the house, theres a spectacular fireplace, surrounded by an exposed brick wall and a skylight above, to let the daylight flow in freely. There is also a small path, accessible by foot that leads off the topside of the hill. (Lautner originally wanted to call the house Chapiteau. You would not expect it from outside.". "Day-to-day life is really easy," she says, often easier "than in a conventional home where the architect has not thought so much about every single detail.". . Most distinctively, the house is perched atop a 5-foot-wide (1.5m) concrete column nearly 30 feet (9m) high. ", Escher, the preservation architect, considers Lautner "the missing link between the classic Modernism of the Case Study Houses and the work we now associate with Los Angeles -- the more expressive, more sculptural forms. John Phillips is asking $1.05 million for his striking two-bedroom home in Studio City. The inside of the house is a column-free open space. More difficult. After the car is parked a private furnicular, or an inclined railway, ascends up the slope and lands at a narrow bridge which spans from the ground to the entrance near the kitchen. It actually does not even continue up into the interior. [2] The cost to build Chemosphere, US$140,000 (equivalent to $1.28million in 2021), was subsidized partly by barter with two sponsoring companies, the Southern California Gas Company and the Chem Seal Corporation. Malin enlisted innovative architect John Lautner to design a one story octagonal house supported by several beams that rested on a large slab of concrete. The house, which looks like a UFO hedgehopping the Santa Monica Mountains above Studio City, has become a Los Angeles landmark and an internationally known architectural treasure. Lautner, a brilliant but reputedly prickly man, sketched a bold vertical line, a cross, and a curve above it. Because of a concrete pedestal, almost 20 feet (6m) in diameter, buried under the earth and supporting the column, the house has survived earthquakes and heavy rains. Heres what happened, Free cash coming to Facebook users. '", For Escher, a native of Switzerland who loves the rational, structure-inspired work of Lautner, Neutra and the late Pierre Koenig, this was a gift from the gods. It's like a movie where you add a scene of someone with a mobile phone in 1958, or a style of shirt or car that wouldn't have existed until years later. But the 1960 house is very much a work of its time and place. Is the house worth more than a million dollars? To get cable or Internet, they have to come 10 times. All rights reserved. *** [], By Scott Timberg, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. The Malin Residence or Chemosphere House, 1960, Designed by John Lautner. The ground could be cut to create a level platform or the house could be supported on an open steel framework. For privacy, the residents can simply raise and lock the funicular, the modern equivalent of raising the drawbridge to the castle. [1] Malin had US$30,000 to spare. Lautner'sfuturistic "flying saucer" quickly caught the eyes of the Hollywood industry and the house has since appeared in filmsincluding Body Double and Charlie's Angels. He said the house was named the Chemosphere for promotional purposes by the Chem-seal Corp. of America, which contributed material used in the roof coating and other parts of the house. Here are 22 essential L.A. spots for every tourist, Column: We cant afford another writers strike. The lover, Garland Danny Campbell, then 19, and Alfred Toliver, 20, were convicted of the slaying and sentenced to life in prison. Schindler. (Ricardo DeAratanha/Los Angeles Times).] Some of the titles, along with dozens of art magazines, are scattered around the house and its unobtrusive furniture. You would not expect it from outside.". Frank Gehry has said that as a student, he considered Lautner to be a god.". The roof deck joints were sealed with epoxy to prevent leaks and get isolation. Chemosphere is bisected by a central, exposed brick wall with a fireplace, abutted by subdued seating, in the middle. "The maintenance is 10 times higher than in any other building. The young actor, in the publisher's estimate, "had robbed the soul of the house. Like a tree, the building sprouts from the hill. The house's private half includes a master bedroom with bathroom, small storage and laundry rooms, an office made of two children's bedrooms, and an additional bathroom. "The West would not be possible without technology: Water, electricity, everything that it took to overcome dryness and distance was dependent in some form on technology. Lautner, despite his reputation as having a strong personality, worked hard to suit his clients and their inner lives. The Taschen, new owners of the Chemosphere in 1977, commissioned the house recovering after years of neglect, the architect Frank Escher who introduced details and finishes designed by Lautner at the time but at the time it was built were impossible performed either by budget or simply a lack of technology. Today, Chemosphere is furnished sparely with clean-lined pieces including Eames chairs and a coffee table and an oval Florence Knoll dining room table. The interior is divided into several designated spaces. There are constant requests to use the house in films and commercials, Phillips said, but he rejects almost all of them. "Always changing.". the magnificent location of the house, located between the countryside and the city. The sleek, octagonal design, arguably the boldest work by the singular architect John Lautner, is considered a masterpiece of California Modernism and is beloved by cultists of midcentury design. The house is reached by a funicular, a cross between an elevator and a cable car, that rises about 120 feet up the hillside in 45 seconds. The Rent Zestimate for this home is $6,757/mo, which has increased by $630/mo in the last 30 days. One drawback to living in a widely publicized work of art, however, is that architects, architectural students and the just plain curious from around the world want to examine it, he said. A wave movement, which is what an earthquake is, cracks up a conventional house at the corners.. Taschen commissioned the suspended lamps of bent plexiglass strips by Cuban-born L.A. artist Jorge Pardo and the pastiche rug designed by German painter Albert Oehlen. The Rocket Homes Logo is a service mark licensed to Rocket Homes Real Estate LLC . 931 Orangewood Court, Lemoore, CA 93245 CRAIG SMITH & ASSOCIATES, INC. $299,500 3 bds 2 ba 1,468 sqft - House for sale Price cut: $15,500 (Mar 28) 583 Visconti Street, Lemoore, CA 93245 KELLER WILLIAMS REALTY TULARE COUNTY $395,000 4 bds 3 ba 1,848 sqft - House for sale 23 days on Zillow 122 Champion St, Lemoore, CA 93245 $449,000 5 bds 2 ba [5], In 1976, the house's second owner, Dr. Richard Kuhn, was stabbed to death there in a robbery by his lover and another man. She said that besides limiting her trips out of the house because of the funicular, living there didn't alter her behavior. If you move and sell the home before you have recouped the costs, you won't end up receiving a financial benefit from refinancing. Rather, he said, it was an effort to deal with an architectural problem, the 45-degree slope of the lot, which was a gift to the owner because it appeared to be worthless. "It looked like a rundown motel. He made an exception for Body Double because director Brian De Palma was very persuasive, and they offered me a lot of money--$30,000 for four days, and its all tax free because of the IRS code that you dont pay taxes on rental income of less than 14 days., He said he agreed only on condition that the movie makers not only treat the house well, but that the house not be the scene of any graphic sex or violence . Still, "it was love at first sight," says the laconic German, wearing a red Muhammad Ali bathrobe as he shows off the place on a hazy morning. )[5] In the end Malin paid US$80,000 in cash. After the high cost of living drove Malin and his family out of Los Angeles, the Chemosphere was rented out to untamed partiers who trashed the place. Through him, Malin met others who lived in the distinctive houses created by Lautner and I decided that was the man I wanted to design my house, he said. "It looked like a rundown motel. ", Taschen admires the bold dichotomies the architect worked with. (The house is reached by a funicular.). It displays the optimism of its time: that technology can be used to solve any problem, just as Century City and Googie's," the Lautner-designed Sunset Boulevard coffee shop, did. Le Corbusier called his homes "machines for living in," and sometimes they felt that way, with their narrow hallways and rigidly prescribed paths. ", Taschen says it's hard to get bored with the place -- despite the rain this winter -- since the enormous windows offer an expansive view on the world. The original house was awarded an AIA/LA Decade award as one of the best buildings of the last ten years. Rocket Homes is a registered trademark licensed to Rocket Homes Real Estate LLC. Due to the steepness of the site, reaching the residence requires the owners to park their cars a few feet below the house and take a funicular up the hill to the entrance located near the kitchen. Built on a steep hillside in Hollywood, California, one side overlooking the San Fernando Valley, other mountain, detail highlighting its new owners, the family Taschen. Still, "it was love at first sight," says the laconic German, wearing a red Muhammad Ali bathrobe as he shows off the place on a hazy morning. The original Twilight house sold in March, 2022 for a whopping $2,500,000 which amounts to $510/square foot. However counterintuitive the scheme, it was also one of very few imaginable that allowed the plot to be utilized. AD Classics: Malin "Chemosphere" Residence / John Lautner, All rights reserved. In 2004 the city of Los Angeles declared the resident a historic-cultural monument. It sits on a column of steel-reinforced concrete, 30 feet tall and five feet thick. As in many of his works John Lautner geometry used in this project, becoming an example of the architecture of the time in the Los Angeles, where a house had no reason to pretend to be. The Chemosphere House designed by the architect John Lautner for Nouard Gootgeld. [1] Preservation architect Frank Escher wrote the first book on Lautner a few years after moving to Los Angeles in 1988, and oversees the John Lautner Archives. The house has been written about in publications from Architectural Digest to Newsweek and in German, French and Russian magazines. Landmark Houses: John Lautner's Chemosphere. The Chemosphere was also used in the 1984 film Body Double, directed by Brian De Palma and it directly inspired a house in the 2000 Charlie's Angels movie. Lautner perched the entire one-storyoctagon on a single 30-foot concrete column, leaving the natural surroundings untouched. One of the most modern buildings of its time,the Chemosphere by architect John Lautner, is praised for its unique design and for its ingenious solution to the problem of building on a lot with a dramatic angled slope of 45 degrees, making construction nearly impossible. "And yet whenever that house is used in the movies, it's always a decadent bachelor pad," Hess says. The home sits on 6.2 acres and has 10 bedrooms and 13 baths. The cost to build Chemosphere, US$140,000 (equivalent to $1.28 million in 2021), was subsidized partly by barter with two sponsoring companies, the Southern California Gas Company and the Chem Seal Corporation. 8330 Elusive Dr, Los Angeles, CA is a single family home that contains 1,783 sq ft and was built in 1975. They also tried to match what they thought Lautner would have chosen if he'd had access to contemporary workmanship and a larger budget: The original drawings, for instance, described a floor of random broken slate, but the day's technology would not allow the stone to be cut thinly enough to keep from destabilizing the house. , despite his reputation as having a strong personality, worked hard to suit clients. 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