Houses by Richard Neutra, R.M. Schindler and other masters of Los Angeles modernism line the steep streets of the Silver Lake district, though many are well concealed. Now, an unsung gem has come up for sale: a residence that John Lautner designed in 1955 for artist Joseph Baldwin and his wife, Rosemary. She survived him and lived there for 71 years until her death earlier this year. They changed nothing, so the Baldwin Residence is a time capsule, down to the space-age stove; modest in scale but packed with invention.
Explore Baldwin Residence by John Lautner, now on the market
Lautner is best known for the monumental houses of his later years, including the Chemosphere, Silvertop and the Elrod House in Palm Springs. These concrete palaces overshadow his early work in wood and brick, though they share the humanity that the architect brought to all his homes.
In an interview a year before his death in 1994, Lautner insisted that architecture ‘has to be something that improves human life, with some spirit, some feeling, some real ideas contributing to human welfare; joyful; with light, air, free spaces; things that are alive, that are art.’
The Baldwin Residence embodies all those qualities. It is perched on a downslope, and you enter at the junction of a bedroom wing that hugs the hillside and the wedge-shaped living room that is cantilevered out from two concrete piers. The kitchen, dining area and the three bedrooms are tiny by contemporary standards, but high ceilings combined with the play of light make up for that limitation.
The house is a frugal masterpiece of inventive detail and expressive materials. Joists project out over a narrow sculpture garden to form a pergola. Sunlight filters through trees, highlighting the redwood and earth-toned stucco walls. The playful geometry of the interior parallels that of Schindler, and there’s even an echo of Frank Lloyd Wright in the triangular wall openings. Look up in the smaller bathroom, and the ceiling seems to be in motion.
Terrazzo floors give way to parquet, and Douglas fir wood is employed for built-in furniture, panelling, and to shade lighting. The expansive, glass-walled living room is bathed in northern light and doubles as an artist’s studio. It opens onto a wood deck and a panoramic view of the San Fernando Valley and San Gabriel Mountains. It’s anchored by a brick chimney and animated by a subtly folded ceiling. The void beneath may be built out, as Escher GuneWardena Architecture have done in their restoration of Lautner’s own 1939 house, a block north.
The Rosemary and Joseph Baldwin Residence, John Lautner (1955) is presented by Louis Magnano and the Modern California House at $2,099,999.