But they have a personality to them, ya? 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 Chemosphere restoration won an award from the Los Angeles Conservancy as well as the approval of its original tenant. 32 Chemosphere Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images FILTERS CREATIVE EDITORIAL VIDEO 32 Chemosphere Premium High Res Photos Browse 32 chemosphere stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. "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. Some of the titles, along with dozens of art magazines, are scattered around the house and its unobtrusive furniture. It is now for sale for $1.05 million. ", Benedikt likens the house to an eagle's nest. The Rent Zestimate for this home is $6,757/mo, which has increased by $630/mo in the last 30 days. Heck, I was an exhibit at the county fair, standing in a booth with pictures of my house.. They are owned by a bank or a lender who took ownership through foreclosure proceedings. "That's something that's important to all our projects: We don't try to draw attention to a detail. The roof deck joints were sealed with epoxy to prevent leaks and get isolation. "It's like a wide-screen movie," he says. 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. Perched on a single concrete column, the Chemosphere is a brilliant structural solution to the problems of building on a precipitous site, one originally considered to be unbuildable. The large crystals were also sealed with fixed chemical, below ground and applied a layer of insulating material. The way a building was put together was like a tree or a flower or a cave -- natural forms. He was glad the client was an engineer, Lautner said, because an engineer wasnt afraid of an original idea. If you make tiny changes that don't fit the integrity of the house, you destroy it. ", 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. 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. Angelika Taschen, a PhD in art history, knew the house from Shulman's photos before she saw the real thing. The column goes four feet below the ground, where it expands into a steel reinforced concrete pad 20 feet in diameter, which goes another three feet down into the bedrock. Leave it to an aerospace engineer to insist on building a flying saucer shaped house on a dangerously steep hillside. However counterintuitive the scheme, it was also one of very few imaginable that allowed the plot to be utilized. "And yet whenever that house is used in the movies, it's always a decadent bachelor pad," Hess says. Frank Escher, who was brought in as restoration architect, vividly remembers the place's condition. the magnificent location of the house, located between the countryside and the city. [15], Location of Chemosphere in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, Landmark Houses: John Lautner's Chemosphere, "From California Design to Junk Art | Unframed", "Leonard Jay Malin Obituary (1931 - 2021) Los Angeles Times", Party at the Chemosphere: The Flying Saucer House Soars Again, "John Lautner, 'Technologist' Architect, Dies at 83", "Youth Convicted of Slaying and Robbing Doctor", "Bonding Humanity and Landscape in a Perfect Circle", "Troy McClure's hilltop bachelor pad, The Simpsons", "Going Back to the Future for 'Tomorrowland,' From Disney", John Lautner Foundation page on Chemosphere with photographs and sketches, Chemosphere on Google Earth Community page, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chemosphere&oldid=1142375271, This page was last edited on 2 March 2023, at 01:46. ; It was also used in the 1984 film Body Double, directed by Brian De Palma. The Chemosphere has been featured in numerous TV shows and films. 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 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. "The place is much better than when I was in there -- and it's in keeping with Lautner's vision. ", 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. '", 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 the responsibility of the owner to preserve it for future generations," Taschen says, "because a house like this doesn't belong to one or two people: It belongs to mankind.". 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. [1][9] The recent restoration, by Escher GuneWardena Architecture, won an award from the Los Angeles Conservancy. One of the main companies was a chemical company, which is why the Malin residence was nicknamed The Chemosphere. The Chemosphere was even equipped with its own funiculara small cable car designed to traverse steep inclines. Chem Seal provided the experimental coatings and resins to put the house together and inspired the name Chemosphere. Several years later, after he was living in the house, he took a job as payload integration manager for the Titan III missile program at Aerospace Corp., he said, which probably began the legend that the flying saucer house had been designed for an aeronautical or rocket fuel engineer. Thats a lot of baloney, responded Lautner. It actually does not even continue up into the interior. 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. The restoration team removed layers of paint, paneled the walls with the same shade of ash wood used for the original built-in couches and cabinets (some of which needed repair or restoration), and replaced the fixed-paneled windows with frameless glass. "It looked like a rundown motel. Portions 2009 Bring the Blog, LLC and used with permission. The Apennine Colossus: A Marvel in Villa Demidoff, Lake Resia: Italys Submerged Church Tower, Is Georgia Safe to visit in 2023? Lautner, a brilliant but reputedly prickly man, sketched a bold vertical line, a cross, and a curve above it. (Escher wrote the first book on Lautner a few years after moving to Los Angeles in 1988, and oversees the John Lautner Archives.). The outside shell covers about 25,000 square feet. You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! 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. ", "There was no market for that house," says Julie Jones, the Realtor in the sale, who had watched the place languish after she listed the house. He says the home's northern edge, which contains the bedroom and his office, is very quiet. Here are 22 essential L.A. spots for every tourist, Column: We cant afford another writers strike. "He interrupted me in about half a minute and said in German, 'Herr Escher, why don't you do what you think is right? These days, now that Taschen has an office in Hollywood and a bookstore in Beverly Hills, the place has reverted to being, mostly, a house for him and fiancee Lauren Wiener. By Scott Timberg, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, Tours of more than 100 Southern California homes, Beverly Hills Real Estate-Beverly Hills Homes For Sale, Christophe Choo Real Estate Group on Facebook. Despite being more compact than many new single-family houses, it has most of the essential elements. Landmark Houses: John Lautner's Chemosphere. In addition, we feature unusual hotels and restaurants. ", Hess finds the house fascinating partly because it was built for a couple and their four children. 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. '", 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. Engineer Leonard Malins father-in-law gave Malin a sloping plot of land that seemed extremely inhospitable to any type of development. Le Corbusier called his homes "machines for living in," and sometimes they felt that way, with their narrow hallways and rigidly prescribed paths. One of the biggest challenges was bringing art into the house, difficult when a home already exerts a bold personality. Since 1998, it has been the Los Angeles home of Benedikt Taschen, of the German publishing house Taschen, who has had the house restored; the only current problem with the residence is the relatively high cost of maintenance. The concrete column, however, is not the element that supports the roof of the residence. The house had its origin when his father-in-law, who owned a house up the hill, gave him and his wife the unbuildable slope, Malin said. (The house is reached by a funicular.). There are constant requests to use the house in films and commercials, Phillips said, but he rejects almost all of them. By 2004, the Chemosphere was officially declared a historical monument. "You feel safe. 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. Landmark House: John Lautner's Chemosphere - Los A Should You Pay Your Mortgage Bi-Weekly? But the 1960 house is very much a work of its time and place. And because of a concrete pedestal, almost 20 feet in diameter, buried under the earth and supporting the post, the house has survived earthquakes and heavy rains. For the pillar concrete base is used, the holding arms are steel platform, like the compression ring which is joined laminated wooden beams making up the rest of the structure. . Today, it still has a reputation as a party house under Taschen's ownership. The original house was awarded an AIA/LA Decade award as one of the best buildings of the last ten years. Andrew Holbrooke/Getty Images Visionary inventor and philosopher Buckminster Fuller conceived the geodesic dome as a housing solution for a struggling planet. The lover, Garland Danny Campbell, then 19, and Alfred Toliver, 20, were convicted of the slaying and sentenced to life in prison. 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 homes don't force their inhabitants into an ant farm's existence the way some houses do. What filled in when it came time to film New Moon? Despite the private ownership, the Chemosphere still manages to maintain a reputation for wild parties that are literally on the edge. Too bad you still have to pay for it. The only consistent problem with the house, Taschen says, is that its technology often fails in subtle but frustrating ways. Lautner, a brilliant but reputedly prickly man, sketched a bold vertical line, a cross, and a curve above it. Its regarded as an example of Lautners way of dealing with a difficult lot and also as a typical example of a far-out, L.A. way of designing a house, said Alson Clark, director of USCs Art and Architecture Library. When anyone asks me why I built that house, I tell them it was because I had a total lack of comprehension of what I was getting into.. "But we didn't want the house to be a museum of the 1960s.". The Chemosphere is accessible only by a private funicular that ascends the hillside. [5] The plans were later cancelled due to fears the annex would visually compete with the main house. Foreclosures These properties are currently listed for sale. The typical way to approach it would have been to bulldoze out a lot and put in 30-foot-high retaining walls to try to hold up the mountain, which is just insane.. That may be steep for a two-bedroom, 2,200-square-foot house, but its owners are putting a high value on its reputation. "With this house he found and expressed this almost religious spirit with a perfect architectural language in general, but also in detail. 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 bequest, to be announced at a news conference at the house Wednesday afternoon, includes an endowment of $17 million for a maintenance fund, as well as a so-called skyspace artwork by James. My wife is always worried about the baby falling down that slope. 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. Unlike a lot of the more didactic and theory-driven homes of Modernists from Le Corbusier to Philip Johnson, it's actually pleasant, most of the time, to live inside a Lautner. Taschen remembers going to a Beverly Hills open house where "a fashionable Hollywood film star" was selling his Neutra home. Frank Escher, who was brought in as restoration architect, vividly remembers the place's condition. 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. The transition to the outside is made through the edge detail. The Chemosphere House designed by the architect John Lautner for Nouard Gootgeld. These are also known as bank-owned or real estate owned (REO). Window openings were placed along the perimeter of the house, and there is even a window on the bottom part of the structure looking over the car port. In 2004 the city of Los Angeles declared the resident a historic-cultural monument. The interior is divided into several designated spaces. The land was leafy and overgrown, with extravagant views of the San Fernando Valley. The building, which the Encyclopdia Britannica once called "the most modern home built in the world",[1] is admired both for the ingenuity of its solution to the problem of the site and for its unique octagonal design. Mid-Century Home 2017. Their values are completely different from mine., Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, This exclusive island town might be Californias biggest violator of affordable housing law, Looking to finance an ADU? 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