For decades, the Stahl House in the Hollywood Hills has been a rarity: a world-renowned icon of midcentury modernism and Los Angeles glamour, still in the hands of the family who commissioned it in 1960. But now it's for sale.
The asking price is $25 million, which might seem like a surprising number for a two-bedroom, 2,300-square-foot home on a cozy lot. But that figure may not surprise lovers of modernist architecture who know it as Case Study House #22.
It was designed for the Stahl family by architect Pierre Koenig, captured in black and white by photographer Julius Shulman and has since been admired around the world.
the architect Newspaper he called it “one of the most famous buildings in the world.” Los Angeles magazine called Shulman's image “perhaps the most famous photograph ever taken of Los Angeles.”
“There are no comparisons for the Stahl house. It is incomparable,” said William Baker, director of architecture at real estate firm Agency Beverly Hills. The house was included in the company's assets. fall catalog November 12.
By Friday afternoon, Baker said, he had received hundreds of query calls. When considering offers, Baker said, the family is open to individuals or institutions: “someone who understands it, honors the house and the history about it.”
The Stahls purchased the lot in 1954 for $13,500 and hired Koenig to design the house after other architects were intimidated by the lot's slope. Koenig's solution was an L-shaped cantilevered structure with steel and glass walls, a pool, and a freestanding stone-clad fireplace between the living and dining areas.
The second bedroom is only accessible through the master bedroom, “an efficient use of space” for a family of five, Baker said. The Stahl family has said the house cost $37,500 to build.
Shortly after the house was completed, photographer Julius Shulman took a black and white photograph that became emblematic of the era. It shows the house at night, with two young women sitting inside in a cantilevered corner, its floor-to-ceiling windows revealing the lights of the LA Basin glowing in the background.
To turn on the lights, Shulman later told Los Angeles magazine, he used a seven-minute exposure. The resulting image, along with others Shulman made of the house, is now owned by the Getty Research Institute.
Since then, the house has served as a filming location for many film and television productions, including the 1968 pilot episode of “Columbo” and the films “Galaxy Quest” (1999) and “Nurse Betty” (2000).
“This home has been the center of our lives for decades, but as we have aged, it has become increasingly difficult to care for it with the attention and energy it so richly deserves,” the Stahl family announced on their website. Bruce and Shari Stahl, the surviving children of original owners Buck and Carlotta Stahl, added: “[O]“Our touring schedule will continue unchanged for the time being and we will give you plenty of notice before making any adjustments.”
For the past 17 years, the house has been open for guided tours, most recently on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, starting at $60 per adult during the day and $90 at night, with advance reservations required and strict limits on photography. However, the Stahl website indicates that all tours are sold out until the end of February.
The real estate listing notes that the house is “a protected landmark and the only case study home with original family ownership.”
Nominating it for the National Register of Historic Places in 2009, Amanda Stewart of the Los Angeles Conservancy called it “perhaps the most iconic house built in the Case Study Houses Program.” That program, sponsored by John Entenza's Arts & Architecture magazine from 1945 to 1966, produced 25 completed houses, today considered the finest examples of midcentury home design.
“There aren't many of these case study houses left. I think there are 19 now,” Baker said. (Baker also said he had recently handled the sale of Case study house #10 in Pasadena to a buyer who lost a home in the Pacific Palisades fire in January).
Stahl's home is located on Woods Drive, just north of the West Hollywood city limit, about a quarter mile from Chateau Marmont.
Many architecturally significant modern homes in Southern California have fallen into the hands of institutions, including Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House (1921), owned by the city of Los Angeles; Schindler House (1922), owned by the Friends of Schindler House and operated by the MAK Center for Art and Architecture; and the Eames House (1949), owned by the Eames Foundation, a nonprofit organization. The Sheats-Goldstein residence, designed by John Lautner in 1961-63 and renovated by Lautner in the 1990s, has been promised by owner James Goldstein to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
