case study house 20 b

Case Study House 20… b

Anatomy of a home.

• Architecture
• graphic design

Above: Saul and Dr. Ruth Bass poolside at Case Study House #20(B). Located in Altadena, California the home was designed by Buff, Straub, and Hensman in 1958. Photo: Julius Shulman / Getty Archives 

Each house must be capable of duplication and in no sense be an individual ‘performance’… It is important that the best material available be used in the best possible way in order to arrive at a ‘good’ solution of each problem, which in the overall program will be general enough to be of practical assistance to the average American in search of a home in which he can afford to live.” John Entenza, editor of Arts & Architecture Magazine  of the Case Study House program

It has always struck me as a little odd that there are two Case Study Houses numbered 20. Perhaps John Entenza, editor of Arts & Architecture magazine who spearheaded the Case Study House program (and himself lived in CSH #9), simply lost count when assigning the commissions. The first Case Study House 20(A) is the Stuart Bailey House located in the Pacific Palisades and designed by architect Richard Neutra in 1948. The second Case Study House number 20 was built ten years later. Designed by the architectural firm of Buff, Straub Hensman Case Study House 20(B) – the Bass House – is located in Altadena, California and was completed in 1958. This article is about the latter, the ‘B’ house.

Architectural model of Case Study House 20(B) – the Bass House located in Altadena, California and completed in 1958. Shown in the model the barrel-vaulted roof with allowed for more natural light into the home. Photo: Julius Shulman / Getty Archives

Architectural model of Case Study House 20(B) – the Bass House located in Altadena, California and completed in 1958. To the center left of the image you can see the representation of a large tree that the owners insisted remain on site. Photo: Julius Shulman / Getty Archives

Case Study House 20B differs is many ways from many of the other Case Study Houses with one of the primary differences is that the home is framed in wood rather than steel. Working closely with the owners – renowned graphic illustrator Saul Bass and his wife biochemist Dr. Ruth Bass – the architects were very interested in the possibilities of wood as it pertained to mass production in home construction. The home owners also wanted a house that was more sculptural in form so features such as curved interior ceiling, barrel-vaulted roof, and circular brick fireplace were incorporated to reflect a home that was well suited to the home owner’s needs and desires. An unusual request of the Bass’ was that a large tree that was located on the site remain with the result being one wall of the home resting against the massive trunk of the tree as it soars through the open lattice of the terrace roof. The tree has since been removed.

Elevation of Case Study House #20(B) designed by Buff, Straub, and Hensman in 1958.

Floor plan of Case Study House #20(B) designed by Buff, Straub, and Hensman in 1958.

Case study House 20(B) is one of my personal favorites of the Case Study Program. It also happened to one of the smallest and was the least expensive of the Case Study Houses to build. CSH 20(B) also demonstrates quite well that the relationship between the architects and the home owners need not be a clash of personal ‘wants’ versus design ‘solutions’. The result is a home that, like so many well-designed modern homes of the era, is a masterstroke of architecture that offers an almost seamless blend of interior and exterior spaces with an open plan that allows for natural light from all sides as well as the vaulted ceiling. CSH 20(B) is also a brilliant testament that functional and attractive design can be achieved on a relatively modest budget. It’s a wonderful house that’s still there today, although I believe the barrel-vaulted roof has been replaced with a flat one.

Case Study House 20(B) as it is today. Photo: Kansas Sebastian / flickr

Click here for the original August, 1959 Arts & Architecture magazine article about Case Study House #20(B)

About illustrator Saul Bass via wikipedia

Saul Bass (1920 – 1996) was instrumental in create a new American Minimalism in modern graphic design. With economy of color and utilizing almost rough, elemental forms his designs have become icons of the era, with many of his logo and corporate identity works still in use today.

Saul Bass (May 8, 1920 – April 25, 1996) was an American graphic designer and Academy Award winning filmmaker, best known for his design of motion picture title sequences, film posters, and corporate logos.

During his 40-year career Bass worked for some of Hollywood’s most prominent filmmakers, including Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese. Among his most famous title sequences are the animated paper cut-out of a heroin addict’s arm for Preminger’s The Man with the Golden Arm, the credits racing up and down what eventually becomes a high-angle shot of a skyscraper in Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, and the disjointed text that races together and apart in Psycho.

Bass designed some of the most iconic corporate logos in North America, including the Bell System logo in 1969, as well as AT&T’s globe logo in 1983 after the breakup of the Bell System. He also designed Continental Airlines’ 1968 jet stream logo and United Airlines’ 1974 tulip logo, which became some of the most recognized airline industry logos of the era.

The iconic designs of Illustrator Saul Bass. Click on image for full view

The whimsical signature of illustrator Saul Bass

Check out these great book about the case study program and Saul Bass!

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The Case Study houses that made Los Angeles a modernist mecca

Mapping the homes that helped to define an era

Los Angeles is full of fantastic residential architecture styles, from Spanish Colonial Revival to Streamline Moderne. But the modernist Case Study Houses , sponsored by Arts & Architecture and designed between the 1940s and 1960s, are both native to Southern California and particularly emblematic of the region.

The Case Study series showcased homes commissioned by the magazine and designed by some of the most influential designers and architects of the era, including Charles and Ray Eames, Richard Neutra, and Pierre Koenig. The residences were intended to be relatively affordable, replicable houses for post-World War II family living, with an emphasis on “new materials and new techniques in house construction,” as the magazine’s program intro put it.

Technological innovation and practical, economical design features were emphasized—though the homes’ scintillating locations, on roomy lots in neighborhoods like Pacific Palisades and the Hollywood Hills , gave them a luxurious allure.

With the help of photographer Julius Shulman , who shot most of the homes, the most impressive of the homes came to represent not only new styles of home design, but the postwar lifestyle of the booming Southern California region.

A total of 36 houses and apartment buildings were commissioned; a couple dozen were built, and about 20 still stand in the greater Los Angeles area (there’s also one in Northern California, a set near San Diego, and a small apartment complex in Phoenix). Some have been remodeled, but others have been well preserved. Eleven were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.

Here’s a guide to all the houses left to see—but keep in mind that, true to LA form, most are still private residences. The Eames and Stahl houses, two of the most famous Case Study Houses, are regularly open to visitors.

As for the unconventional house numbering, post-1962 A&A publisher David Travers writes that the explanation is “inexplicable, locked in the past.”

Case Study House No. 1

J.R. Davidson (with Greta Davidson) designed this house in 1948 (it was actually his second go at Case Study House No. 1). It was intended for “a hypothetical family" with two working parents and was designed to require "minimum maintenance.”

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Case Study House No. 2

Case Study House No. 2 was designed in 1947 by Sumner Spaulding and John Rex. Arts & Architecture wrote that the home’s layout “achieves a sense of spaciousness and flexibility,” with an open living area and glass doors that lead out to adjoining terraces.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Samuel Dematraz (@samueldematraz) on Oct 28, 2018 at 1:07am PDT

Case Study House No. 7

Case Study House No. 7 was designed in 1948 by Thornton M. Abell. It has a “three-zone living area,” with space for study, activity, and relaxation/conversation; the areas can be separated by sliding panels or combined.

Eames House (Case Study House No. 8)

Legendary designer couple Charles and Ray Eames designed the Eames House in 1949 and even Arts & Architecture seemed kind of blown away by it. The home is built into a hillside behind a row of Eucalyptus trees on a bluff above Pacific Palisades. It's recognizable by its bright blue, red, and yellow panels. The Eameses lived in the house until their deaths. It’s now open to visitors five days per week, though reservations are required.

Entenza House (Case Study House No. 9)

The Entenza House was built in 1949 and designed by Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen for Arts & Architecture editor John Entenza. According to the magazine, “In general, the purpose was to enclose as much space as possible within a reasonably simple construction.”

Case Study House No. 10

Case Study House No. 10 was designed in 1947 by Kemper Nomland. The house is built on several levels to mold into its sloping site. Recently restored, the home sold to Kristen Wiig in 2017.

Case Study House No. 15

Designed by J.R. Davidson in 1947, Case Study House No. 15 has south walls made of huge glass panels. Its flagstone patio and indoor floor are at the same level for that seamless indoor-outdoor feel. According to the magazine, the floorplan “is basically that of another Davidson house, Case Study House No. 11,” which has been demolished.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Samuel Dematraz (@samueldematraz) on Nov 15, 2018 at 6:13am PST

Case Study House for 1953

Craig Ellwood’s Case Study House for 1953 is usually numbered as 16 in the Case Study series . It has a modular steel structure and “the basic plan is a four-foot modular rectangle.” But the interior walls stick out past the exterior walls to bring the indoors out and the outdoors in. The Bel Air house hit the market in November with a $3 million price tag.

Case Study House No. 17 (A)

Case Study House No. 17 (A) was designed by Rodney Walker in 1947. A tight budget kept the house at just 1,560 square feet, “but more space was gained through the use of many glass areas.” The house also has a large front terrace with a fireplace that connects the indoor living room fireplace. The house has been remodeled .

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Case Study House #17, 1947 (@casestudy17) on Jun 11, 2016 at 2:20pm PDT

Case Study House No. 17 (B)

Case Study House No. 17 (B) was designed in 1956 by Craig Ellwood, but “governed by a specific program set forth by the client.” Ellwood took into account the clients' collection of contemporary paintings and made the living room “purposely undersized” to work best for small gatherings. The house was extensively remodeled in the sixties by Hollywood Regency architect John Elgin Woolf and his partner, interior designer Robert Koch Woolf.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by BAUKUNST™ El Arte de Construir (@i_volante) on Aug 13, 2017 at 4:42pm PDT

West House (Case Study House No. 18 [A])

Case Study House No. 18 (A) was designed by Rodney Walker in 1948. The house is oriented toward the ocean, but set back from the cliff edge it sits on to avoid noise issues. As A&A says, "High above the ocean, the privacy of the open south and east exposures of Case Study House No. 18 can be threatened only by an occasional sea-gull." The house features a "bricked garden room" separated from the living room by a two-sided fireplace.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by CaseStudyHouse18A (@casestudyhouse18a) on Oct 6, 2018 at 8:44pm PDT

Fields House (Case Study House No. 18 [B])

Case Study House No. 18 (B) was designed by Craig Ellwood in 1958. Ellwood didn’t attempt to hide that the house was prefabricated (the magazine explains that he believed “that the increasing cost of labor and the decline of the craftsman will within not too many years force a complete mechanization of residential construction methods”). The components of the house, however, are “strongly defined with color: ceiling and panels are off-white and the steel framework is blue.” According to A&A' s website, the house has been remodeled.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by MCM Daily (@dc_hillier) on Oct 29, 2018 at 8:32pm PDT

Case Study House No. 20 [A])

This two-bedroom house was meant “to serve young parents who find they can afford just that much,” according to architect Richard Neutra’s description. He also wrote that he used several different kinds of natural wood in the house.

Bass House (Case Study House No. 20 [B])

The Bass House was designed in 1958 by Buff, Straub, and Hensman for famed graphic designer Saul Bass. It's “unique in that it was based upon the experimental use of several prefabricated Douglas fir plywood products as part of the structural concept,” including hollow-core plywood vaults that covered the central part of the house.

Case Study House No. 21

Pierre Koenig designed Case Study House No. 21 in 1958. It was originally completely surrounded by water, with a walkway and driveway spanning the moat at the front door and carport, respectively. The house was severely messed with over the years, but restored in the ’90s with help from Koenig.

Stahl House (Case Study House No. 22)

Pierre Koenig's Stahl House , designed in 1960, is probably the most famous house in Los Angeles, thanks to an iconic photo by Julius Shulman . The house isn't much to look at from the street, but its backside is mostly glass surrounding a cliff's-edge pool. Tours are available Mondays, Wednesdays, and Friday—but book well ahead of time, as they sell out quickly.

Case Study House for 1950

The unnumbered Case Study House for 1950 was designed by Raphael Soriano. It's rectangular, with living room and bedrooms facing out to the view. However, in the kitchen and eating areas, the house “turns upon itself and living develops around a large kitchen-dining plan opening upon a terrace which leads directly into the living room interrupted only by the mass of two fireplaces.” According to A&A 's website, the house has been remodeled.

Frank House (Case Study House No. 25)

The two-story Frank House was designed by Killingsworth, Brady, and Smith and Associates in 1962 and it sits on a canal in Long Beach. A reflecting pool with stepping stones leads to its huge front door and inside to an 18-foot high courtyard. The house sold in 2015 with some unfortunate remodeling .

Case Study House No. 28

Case Study House No. 28 was designed in 1966 by Conrad Buff and Donald Hensman. According to the magazine, “the architects were asked to design a house that incorporated face brick as the primary structural material to demonstrate its particular advantages.” They came up with a plan for two symmetrical wings joined by glass galleries.

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Etan Does LA

#26: case study house 20b (buff, straub & hensman – altadena), buff, straub & hensman’s post & beam home for one of hollywood’s all-time great graphic designers, saul bass.

Added to the National Register of Historic Places on  July 24, 2013

Completed in 1958, this was one of the later houses in the Case Study program begun by Arts & Architecture Magazine in the late ‘40s as a sort of incubator for new residential architecture. It was designed by the respected firm of Buff, Straub & Hensman, who made a name for themselves building post-WWII housing in SoCal (They’ve got several other houses on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Norton and Frank residents in San Rafael Heights, just west of Pasadena).

The original owners were Saul Bass , a graphic designer responsible for iconic title sequences and posters for Hitchcock, Wilder, Kubrick & Scorsese, and his first wife Dr. Ruth Bass, a biochemist.

+ Read about Buff, Straub & Hensman @ LA Conservancy website

Fun fact: the house is located on a stretch of Santa Rosa Ave. known as Christmas Tree Lane ( see visit #27 ), another Altadena landmark on the National Register of Historic Places.

Watch the below video to see my dad, a former architect, explain what’s special about the Bass House’s construction!

Recommended Reading

+ Intro to the Case Study House program, including the 1945 announcement from Arts & Architecture

+ Map of Case Study Houses in LA (Curbed)

+ My visit to Case Study House 1 in Toluca Lake

Music omnivore, student of LA history, beer snob and amateur father. Working my way through the canon.

• #207-208: Historic Downtown LA Fire Stations May 4, 2024
• #202 - 206: Whole Bunch o’ Bungalow Courts, pt. 2 (Pasadena) April 24, 2024
• Inside Richard Neutra’s Jardinette Apartments (East Hollywood) April 14, 2024
• #201: Beverly Hills Post Office (Beverly Hills) April 7, 2024
• #200: Lloyd Wright House and Studio (West Hollywood) March 31, 2024

Case Study House 20. Buff, Straub and Hensman

Case Study House #20, dubbed ‘The Bass House” was constructed in 1958 and can be found on Santa Rosa Avenue in Altadena, California. The house itself represents a departure from the norm with regards to the Case Study program as it was built primarily out of wood, rather than steel as the majority of the other Case Study Houses.

The structure’s architects, Buff, Straub and Hensman, wanted the house to reflect the American Craftsman style that began in the last years of the 19 th century . In order to create this effect, the design of the house heavily utilizes wood. As well as pleasantly reflecting the local regions artisan heritage, the use of wood also enabled the architects to explore the possibilities and positive aspects of wooden construction that were made increasingly possible by the advances in mass production happening in the early to mid-1900’s.

Case Study House #20 was the perfect vehicle, in the perfectly appropriate location of Pasadena, through which to experiment with this age-old building material.

In order to impart on the construction the American Craftsman style design that so accurately and lovingly reflects the artisan background of the local region in which the house is situated, the architects utilized the smooth curving forms of barrel vaults and broad roof overhangings in the structure’s design. This enables the house to exude the modesty of a carpenter’s abode while still retaining the sleek, sophistication that flows so naturally through the domestic designs of Buff, Straub and Hensman.

In the case of The Bass House, the architects shared with their clients, a designer and a biochemist, a preference for plasticity and sculptural forms that were not only introduced in the ovular ceiling spaces and smooth structural curves but also in other forms.

Inside the house a circular brick fireplace retains the undulating lines that permeate the structure’s design while still maintaining the characteristics of a craftsman’s home whereas, outside, a large ovoid pool reflects the subtle luxury and attention to easy living so common throughout the Case Study House project. Alongside the pool, the lean of a large pine tree, incorporated within an open eave of the house’s rear overhang, dictates a certain harmony marriage between structure and nature.

As with all Buff, Straub and Hensman designs, practicality is not substituted in the place of aesthetics and contemporary design. The house utilizes a sophisticated roof system that employs lightweight, prefabricated plywood components that showcase a way in which traditional building materials like wood can be used in a contemporary context. Certain other elements of the structure were also made out of plywood including the box beams, barrel vaults and flat stressed skin panels which, not only work as a testament to the practicality of wood as a building material but also as a testament to its affordability.

Case Study House #20, like so many of its counterparts, proves that innovative and intelligent domestic design can work towards improving quality of life while still remaining aesthetically joyous.

The Case Study Houses Program: Richard Neutra’s Bailey House

The Case Study Houses Program: Craig Ellwood’s Case Study House 18

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Buff, Straub & Hensman

Buff, Straub & Hensman created hundreds of contemporary homes during the postwar housing boom in Southern California. But it was Case Study House #20 , designed in 1958 for Saul and Ruth Bass, that cemented their legacy in the celebrated Case Study Program and Los Angeles’ Modernism movement.  

The home’s clean lines, use of prefabricated, cost-effective materials, and integration of indoor/outdoor living perfectly captured the Modernist philosophy. Yet unlike other steel Case Study homes fashioned by design luminaries in the late 1950s, the Bass House was built of wood. The post wood and beam design was admired as the partnership’s mid-twentieth-century trademark.

The Pasadena-based firm was born out of pragmatism. As gifted undergraduate students at USC’s School of Architecture, Conrad Buff (1926-1989) and Donald Hensman (1924-2002) were already designing hundreds of affordable tract homes for a prominent California builder before starting their own practice, Buff & Hensman (1952-1957).  

While still undergraduates, both students were invited by the dean of the architecture school to start teaching in the department. Calvin Straub (1920-1998) was already an established architecture professor at USC when he asked the young and talented twosome to join forces.  

Rather than compete for the same residential commissions, the three Trojans formed the award-winning firm of Buff, Straub & Hensman (1958-1963).  The practice was prolific, creating classic Modern dwellings throughout Los Angeles, including the notable Poppy Peak Historic District in Pasadena.  

As U.S. Navy veterans and longtime residents of Los Angeles, all three partners had a profound understanding of the economic and environmental needs of postwar Southern California.  As USC architecture professor Victor Regnier told the Los Angeles Times in 2002, “Almost every California architect educated since the early 1950s has been influenced by the work of Hensman, Buff and Straub in one way or another.”

After Calvin Straub relocated to accept a professorship at Arizona State University in 1963, Buff & Hensman & Associates was formed (1964-1988). The dynamic duo continued to garner significant commissions, including the Governor’s Mansion for Ronald Reagan.

In 1988, associate Dennis Smith was made partner and the firm was renamed Buff, Smith & Hensman. Led by Smith, the firm still practices today, continuing the legacy started by Buff, Straub & Hensman.

Related Places

Poppy Peak National Register Historic District

Bass House (Case Study House #20B)

Case Study House #20 was designed by Conrad Buff, Calvin Straub, and Donald Hensman. This house was built in 1947 for Saul Bass and is located in Altadena, California.

In the case study house #20, the architects choose to use traditional and innovative material for its construction. Wood was used for framing the house while they choose stressed skin fir plywood panels for continuous light weigh beams. The roof was all plywood except for the hollow core plywood vaults. The panels, vaults and box beams were trucked to the site and handled by forklift hoist, which made rapid erection possible. The vaults covering the central area of the house were positioned and initially secured in less than an hour and a half. No special difficulties were encountered other than assembling the components together. The beams were made of plywood forming a 12-inch hollow box. They span 16 feet and formed a series of 8-foot bays. The bays are roofed with sandwich panels and factory-formed vaults.

The vaults were custom-built for the job to the same 2-inch thickness as the panels, and were pressure-glued and bent into the required forms.

"We wonder for a while about the validity of detaching the roof and denying the system already established in the rectangle," Straub said: "But for this particular client we wanted to break down the uniformity and arrive at a new expression."

Posts, beams and connecting plywood panels were constructed in Berkeley, California, of Douglas fir plywood and brought to Altadena where workers awaited them. The house was one of the first to be prefabricated; not for mass production, but for ease of construction.

Conrad Buff III, Calvin Straub and Donald Hensman, still young faculty member at the University of South California, had become interested in the factory-formed plywood vault while designing a vacation house project for "Look" magazine. Saul Bass found the vault concept stimulating; the architects were invited to experiment.Although the architects were the first to use the vaults, they consider the space relationships more radical in nature than the factory products. Nevertheless, they had their difficulties in obtaining a permit from the city building department.

"We presented them all sorts of calculations-so did the plywood engineers-but the city wasn't satisfied until one vault was erected and jumped on," the architects recalled.

The house differed from others designed by the firm in two respects, according to Straub: "The character of space was very precise, and there were no overhangs. Overhangs were omitted because of the numerous trees on the property and adjoining lots, while the preciseness is a consequence of the engineered house." The 1/8-inch tolerance was the closest ever used in a wood house.

The house plan was planned and design inward and organized into social living. It is devised as kitchen, formal in informal dining, children's wing and adult wing, the latter including but separated from Saul Bass's studio. All major rooms open directly onto courts and decks.

Obviously, Saul Bass was impressed with the architects work: "It is my business to visualized," he said, "but the house was full of surprises. The architects must take full credit."

About the vault he said: " They are an important visual aspect, but the beauty of the spaces does not depend upon them. They add the richness of curved space, and the sensuous satisfaction of curved volumes, but what was most pleasing were the vistas from every point. As in the piazza system of European cityscapes, you move around a bend and space are revealed. You wander through space." Although he collaborated very little on the actual design, he did install the tiles in the pool in the rear yard, and created the white tile mural at the front of the house that softens the starkness of the carport. Unfortunately Saul Bass didn't live in the house very long. His divorce forced its sale.

One important visual aspect of the house was the giant Italian pine tree. The architects used it as an umbrella. Unfortunately the tree had to be cut down which sadden Calvin Straub very much. On a visit in the late 80's for a documentary, Straub discovered that only an enormous stump remained (cut clean as of today). It had been a victim of itself, beginning to displace the house and threaten the windows during windstorm. "You could hear its branches hit the glass, and during parties people would literally jump over the sofas when they heard the tree sway," said a former owner.

Elizabeth Smith and her crew from MOCA museum (The Museum of Contemporary art, Los Angeles) studied, photographed and filmed the house in the late 80's. It resulted in an exhibit presented at the MOCA museum from 17, 1989 - Feb. 18, 1990: "Blueprints for Modern Living: History and Legacy of the Case Study Houses." Calvin Straub and Saul Bass were reunited for the first time in 30 years.

Like many experimental project, saving cost is almost impossible when testing new technologies and method of construction. Many hours was spent on studying the sandwich panels, vault and box beams to make them compatible with architecture. Meeting with city building department was also time consuming. Although foundation and frame was built using traditional techniques and skill construction worker, real craftsmen were used to take over the frame. All this raises the cost of construction considerably. The only way plywood elements could have been proven an economy was for the architects to carry their knowledge into tract housing.

However this was not done.

• Case Study Houses 1945-1962, by Esther McCoy, Hennesey & Ingalls Editiors, Altadena Weekly July 27- August 2 1989

All our texts and many of our images appear under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License ( CC BY-SA ). All our content is written and edited by our community.

Case Study House No 18 B

Stahl House

Plastic Tent House

Richard Neutra’s Bailey House Hits the Market—Along With a Lavish Mansion—for $20M

Set on a lush, 1.53-acre lot in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Pacific Palisades, Case Study House #20 was designed by Richard Neutra in 1948. The pioneering architect was approached by the Baileys, a young couple, to build an affordable house that could easily be expanded as their family (and wallets) grew with time. Today, it’s not only the house, but also the site that has grown—a contemporary mansion now sits behind the renovated midcentury residence.

Richard Neutra built the Bailey House in 1948 as an affordable house for a young couple on a tight budget.

Sam Simon, co-creator of the popular animated show The Simpsons, originally purchased the Bailey House in 2004 and built the second house in 2010.

Working with limited square footage and a low budget, Neutra designed the Bailey House with flexible living areas that could expand into the large lot. Inside, natural materials clad the walls and ceilings, helping to reduce decorating costs and maintenance.

 The Bailey House and the larger home are currently for sale, and both come fully furnished.

Behind the Bailey House lies a contemporary LEED Gold-certified mansion that spans nearly 9,000 square feet with three expansive bedrooms. Other notable features include a chef’s kitchen, and living areas with double-height ceilings and curved archways. Manicured lawns cover the entire compound, and the shared grounds also feature a large swimming pool and koi pond.

The Bailey House features wood-paneled walls and numerous windows throughout. The entire home is fully modernized and restored thanks to the work of Marmol Radziner.

The firm kept some original details, including wooden cabinets in the kitchen, while replicating others—such as the vintage-style fridge that is similar to the original one seen in photos from the ’50s.

The Bailey House has two bedrooms. Here, one of the bedrooms features an original brick fireplace and windows overlooking the lush property.

Today, the property is owned by Lorna Jane Clarkson and her partner, Bill, the founders of the Australian activewear brand Lorna Jane, who enlisted the firm Marmol Radziner to restore the Bailey House.

In a previous Dwell interview , Lorna explains how they sought to stay close to Neutra’s original vision. "We wanted to showcase the midcentury design while creating a relaxed and inspiring space for me to work," she notes. "It was also important we create an active living space to share with our team and our customers."

Ready to turn the keys over to new owners, the duo recently listed the fully furnished, two-home property for $20,000,000. Keep scrolling to see more of both structures.

The original paved terrace outside the Bailey House was also restored. The modern residence can be seen in the background.

Surrounded by over an acre of lush vegetation, multiple walkways connect the two homes.

Steps away from the Bailey House, the larger residence opens to the patio via a wall of folding glass doors. Curved archways lead into the double-height living area.

A mezzanine and several interior balconies overlook the living and dining areas. A large kitchen sits in an alcove at the back.

Each of the larger home’s bedrooms offer spaces for sleeping and relaxing. Here, a look at the sunny master bedroom.

A curved glass door mimics arched features throughout the home while providing access to a balcony overlooking the backyard and pool.

The grand master bathroom features a large vanity, shower, and tub.

An office space also overlooks the backyard, with glass doors providing direct access to a patio.

A long swimming pools runs the length of the home. Spiral staircases provide access to the second level, as well as a rooftop terrace.

A nighttime view of the Bailey House right behind the pool and patio.

14800 Corona Del Mar in Pacific Palisades, California, is currently listed for $20,000,000 by Jacqueline Chernov and Kristin Alexander of Compass.

Know of a home for sale or rent that should be featured on Dwell.com? Find out how to submit to Dwell.

Related reading:  Inside Fitness Mogul Lorna Jane's Elegant L.A. Retreat

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Case Study House #20, Altadena, CA (1958)

AKA: Bass, Saul House, Altadena, CA

Structure Type: built works - dwellings - houses

Designers: Buff, Straub, and Hensman, Architects (firm); Eckbo, Dean and Williams, Landscape Architects (firm); Conrad Buff III (architect); Francis Dean (landscape architect); Garrett N. Eckbo (landscape architect); Donald Charles Hensman (architect); Calvin Chester Straub (architect); Edward Augustus Williams (landscape architect)

Dates: constructed 1958

1 story, total floor area: 2,200 sq. ft.

The Bass House had a U-shaped plan, shaped around the carport and a central courtyard. One side of the U was occupied by a work room and the master bedroom; the other side wing contained 2 more bedrooms, the kitchen and an adjoined family room. A deck led off the family room. The middle of the U contained a large living/dining space highlighted by a round hearth. The landscape plan--by Eckbo, Dean and Williams--was carefully integrated with the interior configuration to maximize the number of outdoor living areas.

Designed for the noted graphic designer, Saul Bass, on a wooded lot in Altadena, CA; Bass worked closely with the architects on the design of his house and even produced a ceramic tile screen for the entryway that he called "Bass Relief." in 2002, the house had been for sale for some time and was in a state of mild dilapidation; the Bass House possessed 2,220 square feet of enclosed space and cost $35,000, excluding supplier subsidies.

PCAD id: 729

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Dr. and Mrs. Stuart Bailey House (Case Study House #20)

This home is located on a five-acre tract purchased for the purpose of building case study houses by John Entenza, the editor of Arts & Architecture magazine. The site, which overlooks the Pacific, also hosted three other case study houses, including Charles and Ray Eames’ house of 1949. Entenza sold one lot to Stuart Bailey, a 30-year-old dentist, who turned to Richard Neutra to design his home on the recommendation of a friend. As part of the Case Study House program, Bailey was eligible for discounts on building and furnishing materials from manufacturers including furniture, steel doors, and a prefabricated utility core called the Ingersoll unit. 51 years later, Bailey praised the continued durability of this unit, which located his plumbing and heating equipment at a central location. Neutra’s design for the house realized several ideas that he had been experimenting with for years, including his notion of a “Four-Courter House.” The resulting space had four articulated wings that extended out into the landscape. While this approach recalls the designs for the Kaufmann house, built a year earlier, and the Tremaine house, built a year later, this house was on a more modest scale of 1,320 square feet, and the wings are much shorter in length. Outside, the “four courts” that are dedicated to socializing, play, dining, and work double the house’s living spaces. Bailey’s correspondence with Neutra demonstrates his interest in the lighting of the house, and he campaigned for “cove lights, trough lights, klieg lights, clerestories, lights in closets and cupboards, and all manner of decorative lights,” no matter the cost. But when Bailey called for the closets to be painted white to make their interiors more visible, Neutra refused, arguing that “the closest must recede” through the use of dark paint and threatening to “remove [his] name from the project” should they be painted white. Ultimately, Neutra continued to work on perfecting the house for many years after its completion, designing two 700 square foot additions for the family in 1950 and 1958.

Adapted from  Neutra – Complete Works  by Barbara Lamprecht (Taschen, 2000), p. 193.

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Richard Neutra

Dr. and Mrs. Stuart Bailey

Pacific Palisades, CA

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A Virtual Look Into Pierre Koenig's Case Study House #21, The Bailey House

• Written by David Tran and Pascal Babey, Archilogic
• Published on October 30, 2015

Pierre Koenig ’s Case Study House 21 (Bailey House) represents an icon in the Case Study program, the visionary project for reimagining modern living developed by John Entenza for Arts & Architecture magazine . On being completed in 1959, Arts & Architecture applauded it as “some of the cleanest and most immaculate thinking in the development of the small contemporary house”, and it remains an influential single family house for architects worldwide. Now Archilogic has modelled this icon in 3D, so you can explore it yourself.

Koenig worked for several years on the steel house prototype. The challenge was to find a means of using steel that was both standardized enough to be economical, and at the same time of the quality and finish that would be desirable in a luxury family home. The Bailey House represents the culmination of this research. From the deceptively simple geometry to the perfect detailing of joints, the house was a kind of manifesto for modern living.

Entenza identified Koenig’s talent early on, and had been looking for an ideal client to pair the young architect with, when the Baileys came along. It was the perfect match. The couple was hip, wealthy and educated. Walter Bailey was a prominent psychologist, and together with Mary, his wife, wanted an up-to-date 1200 to 1300 square foot house for an empty site nestled in the Hollywood canyon. A childless couple, they welcomed the possibility of an open and fluid spatial design.

The ambience of the finished house is defined by water, which surrounds it more like a close fitting garment than a defensive moat. Koenig’s design introduces a new concept of water as both a structural and a landscape element, linking the house to the landscape rather than separating it. The water reflects and amplifies the clean lines of the structure while adding serenity and aesthetic beauty. As Entenza announced “The mirror-like quality of the water is subject to continual changes of mood and character”, as light played across its surface, superimposing reflections of both nature and architecture. It also—pragmatically in the hot LA summer—helps cool the house. Koenig was ahead of his time in considering natural ventilation as a primary concern for all his houses. No less innovative was Koenig’s placement of bathing facilities in an open courtyard in the center of the house. This clever stroke welcomed air and light into the bathroom, but also removed the need for small bathroom windows on the exterior walls, helping to maintain the sleek discretion of the exterior.

In 1969, after ten years of living in the house, Walter Bailey reluctantly relocated to the East Coast. Over the next thirty years the house was virtually vandalized by owners who had no appreciation of its design. A fireplace was added, and the original kitchen was demolished to be replaced with a fashionable kitchen island. On seeing the house many years later, the architect Pierre Koenig said, “even though I knew what had been going on in this house it was a great shock to see it. My houses are like children to me.”

In 1997, however, history caught up with the Bailey house. An ambitious young film producer and fan of mid-century modernism, Dan Cracchiolo, became fascinated with the house after seeing it in photographs by Julius Shulman . On finding the original house in disrepair, he made an irresistible offer to the owners of 1.5 million dollars and then engaged Pierre Koenig with the task of “resuscitating” the original design. The restoration was a labour of love that would last for nearly twice the duration of the original construction, and a research project nearly as difficult as the original design. Koenig talked of the difficulty of “finding the parts.” The mosaic tiles that covered the walls of the interior courtyard—one of the most brilliant strokes of the original design—were particularly difficult. The original white goods were no longer made, so Koenig, the perfectionist, modified three under the counter Sub-Zero refrigerators by inverting their motor locations, so that they would conform to the original plan. He also retro-fitted the house with a state of the art water heater. Koenig described “a weird sense of déjà vu in working on the same building forty years after I built it the first time” but confessing “a wonderful feeling about getting it right, again.”

Cracchiolo’s energy and enthusiasm was the perfect complement to Koenig’s attention to detail. With all the persuasive skill of his profession, Cracchiolo went beyond the architecture to persuade furniture makers to re-make long discontinued original furnishings for the house, such as the Formica entry cabinet from Jerry McCabe. In July 1999, Architectural Digest celebrated the restoration, and Koenig received a City of Los Angeles Historic Preservation 2000 Award of Excellence.

Archilogic’s model allows you to see Koenig’s work in all its purity . You can furnish the house in the mod style of the Baileys, or experiment with creating an environment for your family. It’s up to you. Click on the square brackets at the bottom right to go full screen. Build walls of cupboards to separate the bedroom from the living room, or improvise a sophisticated campsite on the terrace. Archilogic’s engine allows you to interact with the model, rather than just gawk at it, so go ahead and design your own heaven or hell.

For all of the 3d experts out there; any custom model can be uploaded to Archilogic’s platform. Check out the tutorials, sign up for the 3d artist account and upload your best models .

Don't miss Archilogic's Virtual Looks Into The Eames Case Study House #8 and Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House and Barcelona Pavilion .

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(Director of Center for Situational Monitoring and Regional Studies, The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, 82/5, Prospect Vernadskogo, 119571Moscow, Russian Federation.)

(Institute of Geography Russian Academy of Sciences, Staromonetniy Pereulok, 29, 119017Moscow, Russian Federation.)

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