‘An idealized version of LA’: fabled mid-century Stahl house on sale for first time

The Stahl house – a paragon of Los Angeles mid-century modern architectural design – is for sale for the first time in the home’s history. The cantilevered home, perched in the Hollywood Hills, hit the listings market this week. The asking price: $25m. The Stahl family, which has owned the home for its entire 65-year history, shared a statement on the decision to sell, saying the property had become too difficult to maintain. “This home has been the center of our lives for decades, but as we’ve gotten older, it has become increasingly challenging to care for it with the attention and energy it so richly deserves,” wrote Bruce and Shari Stahl, the children of the original owners. They added that the time had come to find a new “steward” of the house – “someone who not only appreciates its architectural significance but also understands its place in the cultural landscape of Los Angeles and beyond”. The origins of the Stahl house date to May 1954, when CH “Buck” and Carlotta Stahl bought a hilly patch of land in the then undeveloped Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles for $13,500. Although the Stahl house became a famous symbol of Los Angeles, “nobody famous ever lived here”, Buck often said, calling his family a “blue-collar family living in a white-collar house”. Buck worked as a graphic designer and sign painter, and he and Carlotta transported concrete from city construction projects to the property on their weekends. Buck created the original design for the Stahl house over the summer of 1956, though many architects were originally wary to build it on the precarious hillside. In November 1957, the Stahls interviewed the architect Pierre Koenig, who agreed to undertake the task. With the support of the Case Study program, a project spearheaded by the editor of Arts & Architecture magazine, John Entenza, the Stahls received subsidies to hire Koenig. The modernist program “was about experimentation” and “using new materials and building in places that maybe previously the technology didn’t really allow”, said Adrian Scott Fine, the president and chief executive of the Los Angeles Conservancy. “All those things are wrapped up into a place like the Stahl house, which was avant-garde, modern and unthinkable in terms of how it was built on that site that everyone else thought, at the time, was unbuildable.” The Stahl house became Case Study house No 22, and construction began in May 1959. According to the family, construction cost “a mere $37,500” and the home was move-in ready by May 1960. The result was “an idealized version of what everyone thinks LA is and should be”, said Fine. Soon after construction was finished, the architectural photographer Julius Shulman took perhaps the most famous image of the home. Taken through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, the photo features two women seated in the home’s living room but appearing to float over the Los Angeles skyline. “I think the enduring impact of Shulman’s photo is due to the way it conveys an idea about living in Los Angeles, an ambivalence about being both in the city and removed from it,” said Kevin Daly, founder of Kevin Daly Architects and an adjunct professor at the University of California Los Angeles school of architecture and urban design. The home made historic appearances in film, television and music videos, including Playing by Heart (1998), Galaxy Quest (1999) and Nurse Betty (2000). In 1999, Los Angeles declared the Stahl house a historic-cultural landmark, and in 2013, the house was listed as a protected property on the National Register of Historic Places. The home remains open for tours, as it has been for the past 17 years, although all are currently sold out through February. In their statement announcing the sale of the home, the family said they would give “ample notice” before discontinuing the tours. The listing for the home emphasizes finding a buyer who will preserve the character of the space. “For collectors of design, patrons of architecture, or institutions seeking to safeguard an American masterpiece, there is simply nothing comparable,” the listing reads. “This is not merely a sale; it is a passing of responsibility – a search for the next custodian who will honor the house’s history, respect its architectural purity, and ensure its preservation for generations to come.” Fine agreed that the choice of buyer would be an important one, given the home’s history. “I think any time a longtime owner, and a stewardship like this, is transferring hands of a property like this, it always gives us a little bit of a pause – because you never know what the next owner, what their intentions will be. And will they understand and appreciate the house, as in this particular case the Stahl family has?”