John Lautner at work in his office
As with any great architect, John Lautner had his signatures: sculptural contours and exaggerated geometries, sweeping planes of glass and concrete, light-filled spaces and multidirectional views. There are times when these trademarks took a more reserved form, as in Glendale’s Schaffer Residence, a sleek wood and glass ranch that played home to the refined title character in the film A Single Man. Then there were the bold affairs such as Chemosphere, an octagonal pod that perches atop a 30-foot-high concrete pole, sprouting from Mulholland Drive like a space-age bloom.
More important than the individual structures created by the man who came to Los Angeles in 1938 and spent 56 years shaping its landscape is what they cohesively reveal about the place in which they were conceived. Lautner would have been 100 this year (he passed away in 1994), and his buildings are no less emblematic of this city today than they were half a century ago when he helped give rise to the Modern movement. His designs captured the Zeitgeist, why LA was—and still is—unlike any other place in the world.
“Houses tell a story of who we are and how we live,” says actress Kelly Lynch, an avid preservationist, who, along with husband Mitch Glazer, purchased Lautner’s Harvey Residence and spent years restoring the 1950 mansion to its original state. If LA’s famed Case Study houses—also built during the thriving postwar period—proved the accessibility of elegant, minimalist design, Lautner established that a habitat could be at once arrestingly radical and wholly integrated into its environment.
“He knew LA was an architectural, cultural and sociopolitical laboratory—a city with a tradition of experimenting,” says Frank Escher, a Lautner archivist and cofounder of the Silver Lake-based Escher GuneWardena Architecture firm. Rather than abide by any particular style or technique, Lautner let his ideas and the natural landscape of each project guide him. Silvertop was shaped to follow the curvature of the Silver Lake hilltop it rests on; Walstrom House is so nestled in the Santa Monica Mountains that upon entry one has the option of stepping into the living room or continuing out to the ridge; and an undulating roof and interior that includes rock formations echo the Beyer Residence’s coastal Malibu setting.
“He was a master of making you use nature in everyday life,” says John McIlwee, an entertainment manager who purchased the Garcia House with his partner, DreamWorks Animation SKG exec Bill Damaschke, from actor Vincent Gallo in 2003. “I literally have to go outside in the morning to get coffee.” The home’s layout features covered walkways that connect the master bedroom to the kitchen, forcing the owners to take in views of the Pacific Ocean along the way. Actress Courteney Cox reiterates the point when referring to the beachfront Segel Residence in Malibu she once owned. “I felt like I was walking into the safest place in the world, where the outside was brought in,” says Cox.
Lautner’s pursuits both define the incomparable qualities and capabilities of LA as well as trace its cultural history. “[His] work would probably not have been possible in any other American city,” says Escher. Indeed, where else would suburban habitats be outfitted with retractable glass walls, or a single-family home built atop a 30-foot pole, or residents obliged to consider the ocean throughout their morning routine? One would be hard-pressed to think of a lifestyle more LA than that. “John Lautner Turns 100 Celebration” events run through November 13
