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This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.

This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.

Arts & Entertainment

One Of The Greatest Case Study Homes Is Now On The Market For $4.5 Million

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(via Estately)

The Case Study Houses were beautiful experiments in residential architecture, all spawned from an Arts & Architecture project that lasted from 1945 to 1966. Almost all of the homes were built in Los Angeles, and it's not often that you'll find one on the market, but now—of around the twenty remaining—one of them can be yours. Case Study House #21 (PDF), located at 9038 Wonderland Park Ave in the Hollywood Hills, is up for sale with an asking price of $4.5 million. For that you'll get 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, a piece of history, and one of Pierre Koenig's "greatest steel frame design, and the high point of the Case Study Program."

According to the listing, "the public and private rooms are separated by a central core housing bathrooms and mechanical room. The structure is surrounded by water ponds that circulate to the roof and return as fountains." Here's what that looks like:



(via Estately)

The listing also notes that in 1997, "Koenig was asked by the then current owner of the home to restore the house to its former glory, and this was completed in 1998."

The original owners were psychologist Walter Bailey and his wife Mary (it was also called The Bailey House)—they were described by the magazine as "a 'contemporary-minded' couple with no children and an informal lifestyle." They worked on the design with Koenig, who explained: "I was trying to develop [the space] in an efficient, social, and exciting plan that people could afford... I had thrown out all conventional thought because I had no patience with anything that had been done before." His vision was complete when the house was fully built out in 1959.

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In Pierre Koenig: Living with Steel, Neil Jackson wrote, "The Bailey House represents the ultimate refinement of an ideal developed by Koenig in his early houses and built upon through his experience with Soriano and Quincy Jones. It was the simplest of solutions achieved in, apparently, the most effortless way and was a remarkable achievement for such a young man."

You can see original photos and announcement of the house right here. [h/t Curbed]

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