In its construction Chem Seal Corporation tested the new chemicals and resins such as roofing materials. This article is adapted from a piece that originally was published in The Times' Home section on April 14, 2005. "Today there are materials that weren't available then," Malin says. Real Estate Market Reports . '", 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. [1] Malin had US$30,000 to spare. 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 UnusualPlaces.org is your guide to quirky, weird and beautiful places to visit around the world. ", 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. With its strong inclination, crystals almost completely prevent light reflection reinforcing this perception. 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. "With this house he found and expressed this almost religious spirit with a perfect architectural language in general, but also in detail. How Lautner's UFO Was Saved From "Unspeakable" Alterations. She said that besides limiting her trips out of the house because of the funicular, living there didn't alter her behavior. The Southern California Gas Co. provided about $25,000 in material and appliances in return for an agreement to outfit the house as a showcase for gas-using appliances, and rights to use both the house and Malin for promotional purposes, he said. Despite its seemingly fragile appearance has withstood several earthquakes and torrential rains. [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. Here are 22 essential L.A. spots for every tourist, Column: We cant afford another writers strike. Chemosphere was characteristically Los Angeles of that time because "it didn't have to look like a house," says Hess. 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. ", Benedikt likens the house to an eagle's nest. The purchase of the decommissioned military aircraft itself set him back $100k, with over $220k worth of work completed on its interior. Maybe because you are floating above the city, above reality in the sky. It had been rented out for 10 to 12 years; it was like the ultimate party house. The house, nicknamed the "Chemosphere" hovers 30 feet over the city of Los Angeles resembling a UFO aircraft. "It's like having a vintage car -- a '55 Mercedes. This was a time, during L.A.'s postwar expansion, when a middle-class client could build in the Hollywood Hills on a modest budget: Malin had $30,000 to spare. When Benedikt Taschen, a globe-trotting publisher of stylish art books, and his then-wife first laid eyes on Chemosphere in 1997, the iconic Los Angeles house had seen better days. "Draw it up," he told his assistant Guy Zebert. Steelstruts shoot out from the single column to support the floor of the house. 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 cost to build Chemosphere, $140,000, was subsidized partly by barter with two sponsoring companies, the Southern California Gas Company and the Chem Seal Corporation. "We wanted to make it as invisible and elegant as possible," says Escher. The house has picked up other legends through the years. Taschen was perfect for the house -- he immediately grasped what the house was about, and he was entirely open to our ideas for the place, like ripping out the glass and commissioning pieces by artists.". "Why not build it now, and pay for it for the rest of my life?" Engineer Leonard Malin's father-in-law gave Malin a sloping plot of land that seemed extremely inhospitable to any type of development. In 1976, the house's second owner, Dr. Richard Kuhn, was stabbed to death in a robbery by two men, who were convicted and sentenced to life in prison. The interior is divided into several designated spaces. The only consistent problem with the house, Taschen says, is that its technology often fails in subtle but frustrating ways. 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. "Everybody loved Spanish, and then shabby chic came in." GuneWardena compares the process to "pruning a garden, to reveal the clarity of the structure.". Landmark Houses: John Lautner's Chemosphere. Malin swore that he would build a home for his wife and kids upon the unconventional plot of land. 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. 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. (Escher wrote the first book on Lautner a few years after moving to Los Angeles in 1988, and oversees the John Lautner Archives.). These are also known as bank-owned or real estate owned (REO). Completed Pics Of Ron Tutors Beverly Park Mega Ma Love this new necklace at Cartier on Rodeo Drive. Malin convinced a handful of companies to help finance his construction project in exchange for a little product placement. Your email address will not be published. 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. 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. 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. "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. 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. "And here," Taschen says, walking toward the living room window that faces the Valley's homes and skyscrapers along the 101 Freeway, "it's all city. But they have a personality to them, ya? ArchDaily 2008-2023. Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users. Chem Seal provided the experimental coatings and resins to put the house together and inspired the name Chemosphere. If you care anything about architecture or the man who was responsible for some of the most spectacular functional works of art - a man ridiculed by the architectural society in his time (as many of the world's most influential thinkers).. you might take an interest in this mind-blowing structure. More difficult. All rights reserved. The large crystals were also sealed with fixed chemical, below ground and applied a layer of insulating material. 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. "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. "You feel safe. "What was great about Lautner," Benedikt Taschen says, "is that he had this dualism about nature and the city." Besides its two bedrooms, the house has a den, kitchen, two bathrooms and a large living room, with a fireplace in the center. The structure of the residence is made of steel and timber, and the roof is supported by curved portal frames of laminated wood. John Lautners ChemospherePhoto by evdropkick/Flickr. The lover, Garland Danny Campbell, then 19, and Alfred Toliver, 20, were convicted of the slaying and sentenced to life in prison. 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. The ground could be cut to create a level platform or the house could be supported on an open steel framework. It is a one-story octagon with around 2,200 square feet (200m2) of living space. The pod is not actually circular, as it appears to be at a distance, but has eight sides and is 65 feet across. 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. This home, built in 1960 may be the solution to a construction in steep terrain, slope of 45 degrees, hardly accessible, leaving almost intact the surrounding landscape and environmental impact. The house actually has been reported as a UFO, Lautner said in an interview. Zestimate Home Value: $2,300,000. 33 Chemosphere House Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images FILTERS CREATIVE EDITORIAL VIDEO 33 Chemosphere House Premium High Res Photos Browse 33 chemosphere house photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more photos and images. Lautner, despite his reputation as having a strong personality, worked hard to suit his clients and their inner lives. (Ricardo DeAratanha/Los Angeles Times).] She worried it might be difficult to live there. If you move and sell the home before you have recouped the costs, you won't end up receiving a financial benefit from refinancing. John Phillips is asking $1.05 million for his striking two-bedroom home in Studio City. 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. Contact: (855) 411-0505. "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. "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.". Perfect for entertaining. 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. "Today there are materials that weren't available then," Malin says. The massive 11,200-square-foot home comes with six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, and two half baths, and is enveloped by disappearing walls of glass, so you can enjoy the stunning views from each and every room. Second a 3 bedroom 2 bath charming craftsman home. Taschen remembers going to a Beverly Hills open house where "a fashionable Hollywood film star" was selling his Neutra home. Built for the client Malin Lautner, a young aircraft engineer, the design of the residence was in fact an engineering challenge due to its location on a forty-five degree slope in an earthquake-prone region. "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. 8330 Elusive Dr, Los Angeles, CA is a single family home that contains 1,783 sq ft and was built in 1975. A house of 205 square meters, of octagonal shape and whose rooms are distributed on the same floor, accessed via a bridge from the side of the hill, where the structure is almost at ground level which is reached by a elevator from the garage below. "Why not build it now, and pay for it for the rest of my life?" "It looked like a rundown motel. "It's pure nature, with all kinds of animals: skunks, bobcats, coyotes, deer. She worried it might be difficult to live there. The young actor, in the publisher's estimate, "had robbed the soul of the house. She said that besides limiting her trips out of the house because of the funicular, living there didn't alter her behavior. Theres so much b.s. The Chemosphere was first used as a futuristic residence in The Duplicate Man, a 1964 episode of the ABC TV-program The Outer Limits. Landmark Houses: John Lautner's Chemosphere. "It's like a wide-screen movie," he says. He briefly attended the University of Michigan and in 1933, he graduated from Northern Michigan University in English and began a six-year job with Frank Lloyd Wright in the first class of Taliesin Fellows at Spring Green WI. 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. Similarly, his 1968 "Elrod. In 1960, John Lautner's "Chemosphere" house in Los Angeles, an octagonal residence that sits on a concrete column, was considered the epitome of modern design. At least its a work that invites reflection and avoids conventional excavation of the mountain, the retaining walls and the increased cost of the project. Although Lautner for his designs had little to do with this trend, always tried to integrate the buildings with the environment, creating an organic flow between the interior and exterior, humanizing built spaces and respecting the environment. But the 1960 house is very much a work of its time and place. . The weight of the 31-ton pad, and the earth compacted above it, hold the house up, like a barbell with one end buried in the earth. Ehrlich bought the lot next door and had architects John Friedman and Alice Kimm design this new building, with a pool in between, making a compound with a great outdoor area. 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. ; It was also used in the 1984 film Body Double, directed by Brian De Palma. "But we didn't want the house to be a museum of the 1960s.". Raised up on a single central pillar reminds her figure some water tanks, watchtowers or any communication tower. ; A similar building also appears in the video game Grand . It could probably win the same title if it were built today, 24 years later. During the 1950s and '60s, the starker, cooler Modernism of the Bauhaus and of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe reigned in intellectual circles, especially in Europe and on the East Coast. When Benedikt Taschen, a globe-trotting publisher of stylish art books, and his then-wife first laid eyes on Chemosphere in 1997, the iconic Los Angeles house had seen better days. My wife is always worried about the baby falling down that slope. The house is one of the best-known works of John Lautner, a Hollywood architect renowned for his unique designs and stubbornly individualistic personality. Today, Chemosphere is furnished sparely with clean-lined pieces including Eames chairs and a coffee table and an oval Florence Knoll dining room table. *** [], By Scott Timberg, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. 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