"Inside LA's Most Famous House Built on the Edge of a Cliff" | Architectural Digest

For my recurring series of Famous Homes, I wrote about the Stahl House in a post here, back in 2017 (was it really that long ago?).

The Stahl House--or Case House Study #22--was built in 1959 by Pierre Koenig in the Hollywood Hills area of Los Angeles as part of the Case Study House program sponsored by Arts & Architecture magazine (previous prestigious homes in that series include the Charles and Ray Eames House or Case Study House #8, previously here). The Stahl family commissioned Koenig to build their dream house on the lot they had purchased four years earlier.

Recently, Architectural Digest made a short film in which siblings Bruce Stahl and Shari Gronwald share the remarkable story of growing up inside Pierre Koenig's iconic mid-century modern masterpiece, from its ambitious construction and groundbreaking steel design to Julius Shulman's world-famous photograph that helped define California modernism. Take a look!

As Bruce and Shari talk about in the video, the Stahl house has been featured in so many advertisements, films and television shows over the years. Films include "Smog" (1962); "The First Power" (1990); "The Marrying Man" (1991); "Corrina, Corrina" (1994); "Playing by Heart" (1998), where Jon Stewart’s character lived; "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" (1998); "Galaxy Quest" (1999), where Tim Allen's character lived; "The Thirteenth Floor" (1999); "Nurse Betty" (2000); and "Where the Truth Lies" (2005). Television shows include "Adam-12"; "Emergency!"; and "Columbo." The house can also be seen in the music videos for "I Don't Wanna Stop" (2003) by ATB, "Missing Cleveland" by Scott Weiland, and "Release Me" by Wilson Phillips.

Here is a shot from the "Columbo" episode...

...and it even showed up on an episode of "The Simpsons!"

The Stahl House was declared a Historic-Cultural landmark of the City of Los Angeles in 1999. In 2007, the American Institute of Architects listed the Stahl House as one of the top 150 structures on their “America’s Favorite Architecture” list, one of only 11 in Southern California. The house was included in a list of all time top 10 houses in Los Angeles in a Los Angeles Times survey of experts in December 2008. In 2013, the Stahl House became listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

You can visit this historic landmark on guided tours offered by the Stahl House, Inc.
Visit http://stahlhouse.com/ for more information.

Happy designing!

Famous Homes: Habitat 67

The home for today's Famous Homes is not really a single home but a collection of homes in a brilliant minimalist masterpiece of architecture called Habitat 67.

Habitat 67 | Photo by James Brittain from his Revisited: Habitat 67 series

Architect Moshe Safide was only 23 years old when he designed the structure that would become Habitat 67 as a thesis project for his architecture program at McGill University. After leaving school, his former thesis advisor and architect Sandy van Ginkel approached him about developing the master plan for the upcoming International Expo 67, a World's Fair to be held from April to October 1967 in Montreal, Canada. Once working on the plan, Safdie proposed his thesis as one of the pavilions and was given permission. He withdrew from the planning commission to be an independent architect on Habitat.

Located on a manmade peninsula at Cité du Havre, on the Saint Lawrence River, Habitat 67 is a unique collection of 354 identical prefabricated concrete forms arranged in different combinations, divided into three pyramids, each reaching up to 12 residential stories. Together these units currently create 146 private residences of varying sizes and configurations. Safdie's original vision was a proposed solution to what he saw as a bleak future of more and more densely populated cities. Each unit has access to a terrace, some up to 1,000 sq ft large (!) located on the roof of a structure below. The physical location of the entire Habitat coupled with this access to greenery, light, and fresh air made the idea of "apartment living" very enticing. Indeed, units are now bought for much higher prices than Safdie or the original Habitat team could have ever imagined. The prestige building is now owned by its tenants, who formed a limited partnership after purchasing the building from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation in 1985.

Habitat 67, southwest view | Photo by Thomas Ledl

The enduring fascination with this structure surely lies in its monolithic Brutalism, a style that has seen renewed interest. The layout, like tumbling blocks or a gigantic whimsical Lego creation on a staggering scale, is still startling to see, even after more than fifty years. Residents describe living in the buildings as akin to living on a ship with a nearly 300 degree view of the city across the river. Some homes still have the original and sought-after Formica kitchen, and many terraces have been covered and turned into year-round solariums where one can enjoy the changing of the seasons from the comfort and warmth of one's own home.

Walkway inside Habitat 67 | Photo by James Brittain from his Revisited: Habitat 67 series

Detail of Habitat 67 | Photo by James Brittain from his Revisited: Habitat 67 series

Interior residence of Habitat 67 | Photo by James Brittain from his Revisited: Habitat 67 series

Interior residence of Habitat 67 | Photo by James Brittain from his Revisited: Habitat 67 series

Interior residence of Habitat 67 | Photo by James Brittain

Habitat 67 is not open to the public but for a limited time each year, there are a select number of guided tours. Check their website to secure tickets!

Happy designing!

Happy World Interiors Day 2024!

I will be celebrating World Interiors Day this Saturday, May 25, 2024, which is an event sponsored by IFI (The International Federation of Interior Architects/ Designers).

Working with an interior designer can greatly improve the experience of your home, how you live in it, and ultimately the value of your space. Life is so much better if you love where you live!

Interior designers can help with:
* Floor plans
* Space planning
* Color palette
* Paint selection
* Lighting selection and design
* Furniture and furnishings selection
* Art selection and placement
* Bath and kitchen remodels

* Whole house remodels

In my own practice, I can help with any or all of these steps. If you have unlimited time and patience, you could tackle some of these yourself, but why bother when an educated, knowledgeable professional can save you time and heartache (and heartburn). But most importantly, an interior designer can save you money by helping you to avoid mistakes that would be costly to amend, fix, or do over, which is especially true with kitchen and bathroom remodels. It is not as easy as it looks on HGTV!

I am an advocate for my clients, introducing them to products and materials that they might not otherwise know of. I can help to expand design sensibilities into new, exciting areas. And I can bring to the project advantageous relationships with vendors, suppliers, and tradespeople that clients normally would not have.

If you have been a fan of design but have never worked with an interior designer before, or if you have been thinking of perhaps working with an interior designer on a possible project in your home, or if you have started a project on your own but can't quite seem to finish it, I encourage you to contact me. I can help to greatly enhance your home and your life in it with thoughtful design. My business motto is, "Shape your home, shape your surroundings, shape your life."

Click on my business logo to the right to see my website, my portfolio, and to contact me!
Happy designing!

Famous Homes: Georgia O'Keeffe's Abiquiú Home

Few famous homes have such an iconic connection between both location and inhabitant as the adobe structure in Abiquiú, New Mexico that legendary painter Georgia O'Keeffe called home.

After living just a few miles away at Ghost Ranch for several summers, she realized that the ranch was not suited for year-round living (especially in the colder winter months) and went in search of a permanent home. She found it in the small village of Abiquiú. The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum now owns both homes and the website has a succinct accounting:

Georgia O’Keeffe maintained two homes in Northern New Mexico. Her summer house, twelve miles from Abiquiú, sits on 12 acres at the edge of a 21,000-acre property called Ghost Ranch. When O’Keeffe purchased the parcel in 1940, the greater Ghost Ranch operated as a dude ranch—a destination for visitors and tourists...Though breathtakingly situated, O’Keeffe’s Ghost Ranch home was not suitable for her to live in year-round. O’Keeffe purchased a larger home, in the village of Abiquiú, for its well-irrigated garden and the comfort it offered in winter. While both houses are owned by the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, only the Abiquiú Home and Studio is open for public tours.

The O’Keeffe Home and Studio reflects a blend of Native American and Spanish Colonial building styles, regional architectural traditions dating back centuries. The oldest rooms of the house were probably built in 1744. The house was expanded in the 19th century into a pueblo-style adobe (mud brick) hacienda, with rows of rooms organized around a common open space, or plazuela.

It was one of the courtyard walls of the home that first attracted O’Keeffe. She recalled: “As I climbed and walked about in the ruin I found a patio with a very pretty well house and bucket to draw up water. It was a good-sized patio with a long wall with a door on one side. That wall with a door in it was something I had to have.”

The 5,000-square-foot compound was in ruins in 1945 when she purchased the home from the Catholic Church. For the next four years, O’Keeffe supervised its restoration, which was carried out by her friend, Maria Chabot. O’Keeffe finally made Abiquiú her permanent home in 1949. The special character of the property, a quiet sanctuary from which to draw inspiration, perfectly suited O’Keeffe’s needs. O’Keeffe lived in the home from 1949 until 1984. She died in Santa Fe on March 6, 1986, at the age of 98. The O’Keeffe Home and Studio was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1998 and is now part of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.

There are several things that strike me about O'Keeffe's home and her personal style. She famously said when renovating the home that she did not want a Native American home, she did not want a Spanish Colonial home, she wanted "my home." Yet it is a blending of all those elements--the Native style straw-and-mud adobe texture outside and in as well as the spartan and functional design with open kiva fireplaces in corners that solidify the unique profile of this house. The near Zen-like interiors are a prefect foil for the type of pared-down sensibility of Modernism and Mid-Century Modern furniture styles. She preferred objects like Eero Saarinen's 1946 Womb Chair, his 1957 Tulip chair (previously here), the Eames' 1946 Molded Plywood Lounge Chair (previously here), and Alexander Calder mobiles. And it all works perfectly together.

A vintage view of the living room at Georgia O'Keefe's home with Saarinen's Womb Chair, at left.

A current view of the living room with the Womb Chair and ottoman.

The Eames-designed Molded Plywood Lounge Chair in red in the foreground.

A Le Corbusier-style lounge chair to the right of the fireplace with an O'Keefe sculpture on the hearth.

I just love this portrait of O'Keefe by photographer Christopher Springmann from 1974. He is a very talented portraitist because he got O'Keeffe to relax into a sweet sort of smile...

You can visit the Georgia O'Keeffe House in Abiquiú! Make reservations here. And then head to Santa Fe to view her work at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, tickets available here.

Happy designing!

Famous Homes: The Round House

Greetings readers! If you've been following this blog and my Famous Houses series over the years, you will see that there is always something unique that makes a house a Famous House. And this installment's house is maybe one of the most unique you will find.

Sometime around 1966, modernist architect and Philip Johnson-collaborator Richard Foster (Foster worked with Johnson on the iconic New York State Pavilion for the 1964 World's Fair as well as Johnson's famed Glass House previously here) was driving on Olmstead Hill, Road near Wilton, Connecticut and came upon a green dip in the landscape which he referred to as "a perfect amphitheater." Shortly thereafter this four acre plot would become the site of his "Circambulant House" or as it is also known: The Round House.

Over the next two years he worked with various contractors and craftsman to construct a unique home for his family, one that could rotate 360 degrees and provide any room in the house a picturesque vantage point of the landscape. The house combines engineering from Germany, local Connecticut Steel and stone from the Dolemites. Foster went through 5 design concepts before arriving on the circular home. He felt that such a house would compliment the landscape by giving the inhabitants unfettered views from any room at any time.

The Fosters made the Round House their home for 35 years. The mechanisms that rotate the house have required little maintenance over the years. Features such as the corten steel circular porch, wood shingles, stone pavers have given the home a well worn patina while also connecting it to the local surroundings. When Richard Foster died in 2002 the home passed out of the family’s hands and eventually arrived into new ownership.

Thankfully, in 2012 the home underwent a deep restoration. Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects re-envisioned the interior of the space along with a renovation of the exterior garage and driveway. Home systems that were cutting edge in the late sixties were upgraded for the day and the exterior of the house was restored very much to its original finish.

But its most unique feature remains intact: at the flip of a switch, the house slowly spins--clockwise or counterclockwise--up to 5 feet per minute and takes 45 minutes to make a full rotation.

Happy designing!

Nine New Colors From Farrow & Ball

Unveiled at last week's London Design Week: nine new Farrow & Ball colors. Yes, they are expensive, but the depth of color and pigments is stunning.

Here they are (and please do watch the 30 second clips for explanations of the inspiration for each color and name):

Bancha

De Nimes

Jitney

Paean Black

Preference Red

Rangwali

School House White

Sulking Room Pink

Treron

And in case you couldn't get to London Design Week, here is a fast look at their immersive installation!

Happy designing!