Structure Type: built works - dwellings - houses

Designers: John Edward Lautner Jr. (architect)

Dates: constructed 1939-1940

2 stories

2007 Micheltorena
Silver Lake, Los Angeles, CA 90039-3538

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Lautner built this one-story, Usonian-inspired residence for himself and his new wife while he supervised construction of the George D. Sturges House in the Brentwood Neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA. Like many of Wright's Usonian Houses of the period, the garage was prominently placed on the front (street) facade, for convenience and to block noise from reaching the bedroom area to the west. To the north on the front, Lautner placed a small sun yard, fenced to the street and adjacent to the kitchen; this area could be used in the morning as a breakfasting spot. The architect, true to Wright's principals, used few interior walls to separate spaces, preferring to allow eating and living areas to flow into each other. An interior with few partitions allowed air to circulate throughout the residence. The Lautner House stepped down its hillside location in Silver Lake in two levels. The change in elevation helped keep the kitchen and its eating space separate from the living room. The living room, on the rear (northwest) of the residence looked through ribbon windows onto an expansive view to the north and west. To minimize clutter in a small house, Lautner equipped his residence with 26 feet of built-in storage space. The main bedroom was divided in two, with a portion enclosed by walls and an open sleeping porch on the southwest corner, overlooking the view. Redwood siding covered the house's wood-frame structure which rested on concrete and stucco foundations, with all trim painted yellow.

Architect's own house; Lautner's first house, designed with his first wife, Mary Faustina Roberts (04/15/1913-04/27/1995), who also was an early Taliesin Fellow; they divorced in 1950, with Mary Lautner, returning to Marquette, MI, with their son, Michael John Lautner.

PCAD id: 55