Case Study House Property Goes Up for Sale

January 15, 2009

Libby Motika , Senior Editor

'The intention of the Entenza house is to eliminate structure . . . to be as anonymous as possible.'

Edgardo Contini, who was the structural engineer for Case Study House No. 9 was describing the house's concealed columns and beams, but he could have been commenting on the house itself, which for 50 years has been hidden within a secluded enclave off Chautauqua Boulevard, with head-on views of the Pacific Ocean.

Designed by Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen in 1949, the Entenza house was restored 14 years ago and now serves as the guesthouse for a 9,700-sq.-ft. estate designed by Barry Berkus. The entire estate is on the market for $14 million.

Strolling through the Entenza house this week, one could have been walking right into the Julius Shulman photos taken in 1950. 'The house was a mess before Berkus brought it back to its original state,' said Jan Horn, the Coldwell Banker listing agent (in the Beverly Hills office).

From its structural clarity to the interior design, the house could truly serve as a 'case study' of mid-20th-century American architecture.

The Entenza House, built for Arts & Architecture editor John Entenza, was never intended for the architectural attention it holds today'in 1991, it was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural monument. This protects it from demolition or extensive remodeling.

Indeed, the design for the house had been submitted to Arts & Architecture for its postwar housing competition in 1943, which challenged some of the most important architects of the region (including Charles and Ray Eames, Craig Ellwood, Pierre Koening and Raphael Soriano) to help shape the course of the post-World War II building boom toward widespread acceptance of modern architecture and to offer technologically based and affordable housing.

The Entenza plan won the magazine's first prize. Case Study No. 8 (the Eames House) and Case Study No. 20 (the Bailey House, by Richard Neutra), completed the Case Study enclave on Chautauqua.

Looked upon as the architectural opposite of its neighbor, the Eames house, which flaunts its steel structure, the Entenza house conceals its steel-and-glass structure under concrete and wood paneling.

One of the first steel-framed Case Study houses, Entenza follows a simple design'a straightforward 42-ft. by 42-ft. cube in plan. It consists of two small bedrooms, three baths and kitchenette and extensive space for entertaining. Four slender columns in the center support the frame and shift the load to the outer rim. This frame and all but one of the four columns are completely concealed under plaster walls and a wood-paneled ceiling.

All the drama is concentrated in the 36-foot-long open space, which serves as a flexible living and entertaining area and looks to the view through the floor-to-ceiling glassed south wall.

John Entenza required minimal bedroom space, guest and bath facilities, and reserved a small windowless study for himself.

The house today maintains the original architects' concern for the organic unity of furniture and architecture. Eames and Saarinen had developed this idea while working together at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan in the early 1940s, where they designed their award-winning molded wood furniture for The Museum of Modern Art's Organic Design in Home Furnishing competition of 1940-41.

In choosing the furnishings, the two men paid attention to the house's overall visual and functional scheme. The freestanding steel-and-brick fireplace, between the built-in couch and the carpeted, raised living area, is painted orange-red to contrast with the neutral colorings of the beige carpet, linen sofa covering and wood-and-plaster interior surfaces. Several plywood chairs and the plastic-laminated plywood coffee table designed by Charles and Ray Eames, and the bench/bank by George Nelson are in situ, as is the built-in cabinetry by Charles Eames in the living room.