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. The Hammer Museum included the Chemosphere in a retrospect of John Lautners work, in 2008. "Everybody loved Spanish, and then shabby chic came in." Maybe because you are floating above the city, above reality in the sky. 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. The land was leafy and overgrown, with extravagant views of the San Fernando Valley. 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. You can't be afraid of a house like that: You have to, in some cases, be kind of forceful.". His firm, which he runs with partner Ravi GuneWardena, had been partly inspired by classic California Modernism, and here he could delve into a great Modernist's original conception. "From the outside it looks like a spaceship which you cannot enter," Angelika Taschen says from Berlin, where she now lives. Lautner, a brilliant but reputedly prickly man, sketched a bold vertical line, a cross, and a curve above it. 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. 8330 Elusive Dr, Los Angeles, CA is a single family home that contains 1,783 sq ft and was built in 1975. "Why not build it now, and pay for it for the rest of my life?" The house is on the North side of the Hollywood Hills and has wrap-around windows to take advantage of sweeping views over the San Fernando Valley: The Chemosphere is located at 7776 Torreyson Drive off of Mulholland Drive. "Everybody loved Spanish, and then shabby chic came in." 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. 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. Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users. Too bad you still have to pay for it. Advertisement. It's not the only contradiction the place contains. It's warm and human, not a cold place. Chemosphere was characteristically Los Angeles of that time because "it didn't have to look like a house," says Hess. "Why not build it now, and pay for it for the rest of my life?" "You have the reality of Southern California life, and the image of Southern California life, summed up in one house.". He presented Lautner with his problem lot and John thought he could foist this design on me because I was stupid enough to build it, Malin joked. 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. 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. Perfect for entertaining. (Read This Before Going), One of the most treacherous roads in Georgia: The Road to Tusheti. All images are each office/photographer mentioned. [11], The house forms part of a retrospective of Lautner's work which was shown at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles between August and October 2008. 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. His only major plan is to replace the bird-cage-like funicular with a more open one. 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.. Despite being more compact than many new single-family houses, it has most of the essential elements. Ironically, the house was the scene of a real-life murder in 1976, when its second owner, Dr. Richard F. Kuhn, was stabbed to death in a robbery by two men, one of them a homosexual lover of the doctors. Lautner designed a system of filters for air intake coming through the bottom of the platform and once walked the perimeter is expelled through an outlet located at the top of the cover by a dome that could open and close. It is a one-story octagon with around 2,200 square feet (200m2) of living space. How Lautner's UFO Was Saved From "Unspeakable" Alterations. Schindler. "What was great about Lautner," Benedikt Taschen says, "is that he had this dualism about nature and the city." If you make tiny changes that don't fit the integrity of the house, you destroy it. When I first came to Los Angeles and was driving along Mulholland Drive and saw it for the first time, I was just bowled over by it., He bought it some years later after an architect friend told me it was on the market.. 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. "Draw it up," he told his assistant Guy Zebert. "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. Some parts of this article have been translated using Googles translation engine. One of the most modern buildings of it's time, the Chemosphere by architect John Lautner, is praised for it's unique design and for it's ingenious solution to the problem of building on a lot with a dramatic angled slope of 45 degrees, making construction nearly impossible. He made an exception for Body Double because director Brian De Palma was very persuasive, and they offered me a lot of money--$30,000 for four days, and its all tax free because of the IRS code that you dont pay taxes on rental income of less than 14 days., He said he agreed only on condition that the movie makers not only treat the house well, but that the house not be the scene of any graphic sex or violence . This method also left the natural surroundings untouched and unspoiled. Real Estate Market Reports . During restoration the architects added details that were unavailable 40 years before, as the technology simply did not exist. For privacy, the residents can simply raise and lock the funicular, the modern equivalent of raising the drawbridge to the castle. The Peninsula Beverly Hills celebrates its 20th an Miu Miu hosts Hollywood bash - Los Angeles-Platinu Coldwell Bankers' This Weekend's VIEW Magazine is Buyers Guide to Understanding Todays Seller | Lo @kendyl AS you can see very low key, my Macro lens My clients new 20,000 square foot construction pro Indoor air quality | 4 ideas to drop home pollutio My view right now in Holmby Hills. Everything is much more complicated. These are also known as bank-owned or real estate owned (REO). The Rent Zestimate for this home is $6,757/mo, which has increased by $630/mo in the last 30 days. 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. 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. 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. 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. [14] It appears in the end credits of the 2015 Disney fantasy film, Tomorrowland, starring George Clooney. Angelika describes the place as having a spiritual impact, almost like a church. "I bought it right away -- as fast as possible," says Taschen. Heres how to claim your share, Scooter operators say strict rules, rampant theft threaten business in San Diego, Striking Medieval Times workers struck by car on picket line, These are the EV models that will get you the full $7,500 tax credit, Column: Hate Fox News? It's hard not to see the house, which sits on a 29-foot-high, 5-foot-wide concrete column over a long-considered-unbuildable Hollywood Hills site, as a hovering flying saucer or a prototype for the 23rd century architecture of "The Jetsons.". . Chem Seal provided the experimental coatings and resins to put the house together and inspired the name Chemosphere. Chemosphere 7776 Torreyson Dr., Los Angeles, CA . 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. Body Double (1984). ", "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. Lautner deliberately angled the house pod back from the lower edge of the wraparound windows, he said, so that those inside would not be able to see anything beneath them, to emphasize the feeling that they were floating over the hill. He decided the home should be a one story, octagon house, built on a 30 feet high concrete pole which is supported by a pedestal buried in the earth. 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. Lautner was born in Marquette MI from academic parents at what is now called Northern Michigan University. Its the best living condition from every standpoint that you could get on that site. 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.". More help may be on the way, California has already run out of cash to help first-time home buyers. That is not true, said the first owner, Leonard Malin, now a Yucca Valley real estate broker. She said that besides limiting her trips out of the house because of the funicular, living there didn't alter her behavior. Exterior scenes for the television episode were shot on location; a detailed sound stage set of the house's interior was built. "These Lautner houses are like custom-made clothes," Escher says, "so you really have to find the right tenant for them. It's like a movie where you add a scene of someone with a mobile phone in 1958, or a style of shirt or car that wouldn't have existed until years later. He was glad the client was an engineer, Lautner said, because an engineer wasnt afraid of an original idea. Malin convinced a handful of companies to help finance his construction project in exchange for a little product placement. The home sits on 6.2 acres and has 10 bedrooms and 13 baths. Floating in the air this home also has a massive roof deck that captures the jet liner views from every angle. You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Le Corbusier called his homes "machines for living in," and sometimes they felt that way, with their narrow hallways and rigidly prescribed paths. She worried it might be difficult to live there. 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. ", Benedikt likens the house to an eagle's nest. "It was an architecture newly defined. [10] It was also included in a list of all-time top 10 houses in Los Angeles in a Los Angeles Times survey of experts in December 2008. 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. The architect describes the job as a philosophical challenge. 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. AD Classics: Malin "Chemosphere" Residence / John Lautner, All rights reserved. The structure of the Chemosphereis made of steel, timber and the roof is supported by curved frames of laminated wood. The Chemosphere restoration won an award from the Los Angeles Conservancy as well as the approval of its original tenant. "The maintenance is 10 times higher than in any other building. "But if you go inside, it feels very cozy very Zen and calming. The only consistent problem with the house, Taschen says, is that its technology often fails in subtle but frustrating ways. the magnificent location of the house, located between the countryside and the city. The large crystals were also sealed with fixed chemical, below ground and applied a layer of insulating material. 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. One side of the house is public, with a small kitchen and blended living and dining rooms including built-in couches below glass windows. Alan Hess, an architectural historian and author of "The Architecture of John Lautner," considers Chemosphere as perfect an expression of Southland culture as Greene & Greene's Gamble House, Charles and Ray Eames' Case Study house and the finest work of Neutra and R.M. The Zestimate for this house is $2,033,400, which has increased by $13,100 in the last 30 days. "It was an architecture newly defined. 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. 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. People would want to see the view, and that was about it. The only catch: At roughly 45 degrees, the slope was all but unbuildable. The Chemosphere: A Futuristic Gravity Defying House Leave it to an aerospace engineer to insist on building a flying saucer shaped house on a dangerously steep hillside. "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.". John Phillips is asking $1.05 million for his striking two-bedroom home in Studio City. The perimeter of the house is lined with windows to provide stunning views of the surroundings. It should disappear." His firm, which he runs with partner Ravi GuneWardena, had been partly inspired by classic California Modernism, and here he could delve into a great Modernist's original conception. Similarly, his 1968 "Elrod. "The place is much better than when I was in there -- and it's in keeping with Lautner's vision. We will show it to some people if they have an architectural background and write for an appointment in advance, he said, but they do not cater to gawkers. Not Hollywood, not L.A., not the country, They found work in Russia. The second Cullen house was in Vancouver, BC In Stephenie Meyer's trilogy, the Cullen coven lives in the most coveted house in town. "Organic Modernism was just as modern in its use of materials," Hess says, "but it had a different sense of space, which was flowing. The young actor, in the publisher's estimate, "had robbed the soul of the house. The pair were subsequently convicted and sentenced to life in prison. ", In fact, during much of that decade, the place had been on the market. Thats a lot of baloney, responded Lautner. The only consistent problem with the house, Taschen says, is that its technology often fails in subtle but frustrating ways. 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. The sleek, octagonal design, arguably the boldest work by the singular architect John Lautner, is considered a masterpiece of California Modernism and is beloved by cultists of midcentury design. The owners commissioned a pastiche rug by German painter Albert Oehlen and a hanging lamp of bent plexiglas strips by Jorge Pardo, a Los Angeles artist. "It's pure nature, with all kinds of animals: skunks, bobcats, coyotes, deer. You feel disconnected from the planet and completely free and happy.". To get cable or Internet, they have to come 10 times. Lautner'sfuturistic "flying saucer" quickly caught the eyes of the Hollywood industry and the house has since appeared in filmsincluding Body Double and Charlie's Angels. But the 1960 house is very much a work of its time and place. However counterintuitive the scheme, it was also one of very few imaginable that allowed the plot to be utilized. Angelika Taschen, a PhD in art history, knew the house from Shulman's photos before she saw the real thing. "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. Like a tree, the building sprouts from the hill. The Malins and their four children lived there until rising costs and the demise of the aerospace industry forced them to sell in 1972. 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. 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. Much better than when I was in there -- and it 's warm and human, not the only:. `` Chemosphere '' Residence / John Lautner, a brilliant but reputedly prickly man, sketched a vertical. Time and place the last 30 days liner views from every standpoint that you could get that! Not Hollywood, not the only consistent problem with the house is $ 6,757/mo, which has by... Feet ( 200m2 ) of living space architects added details that were 40! 6.2 acres and has 10 bedrooms and 13 baths asking $ 1.05 million for his striking home... 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