- 13 hours ago
- #22
Architectural Digest visits the legendary Stahl House (Case Study House #22), one of the most famous houses in Los Angeles and an influential piece of modern architecture. Bruce Stahl and Shari Gronwald share the remarkable story of growing up inside Pierre Koenig's iconic mid-century modern masterpiece, from its ambitious construction and groundbreaking steel design to Julius Shulman's world-famous photograph that helped define California modernism. Discover how an ordinary family built an extraordinary dream home that became one of the most recognizable houses in the world.
Imagery credits:
© J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2004.R.10), Julius Shulman Photographs
© J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2006.m.30), Pierre Koenig Papers and Drawings, Stahl House, Case Study House #22, Stahl Residence
© J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2006.m.30), Pierre Koenig Papers and Drawings, Bethlehem Steel
Stahl House Archives
Cameron Carothers/Carothers Photo
Jilbert Daniel
VisualMediaLA.com
Imagery credits:
© J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2004.R.10), Julius Shulman Photographs
© J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2006.m.30), Pierre Koenig Papers and Drawings, Stahl House, Case Study House #22, Stahl Residence
© J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2006.m.30), Pierre Koenig Papers and Drawings, Bethlehem Steel
Stahl House Archives
Cameron Carothers/Carothers Photo
Jilbert Daniel
VisualMediaLA.com
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:06it's pretty awe-inspiring when you come through because it's not a normal house it hits people
00:12differently it's hard to say what makes the connection they've either seen it on a print
00:17ad or a commercial or in a movie to this day when people come on tours they come through that
00:23door
00:23they get that moment and it affects everybody differently some are moved so much they can't
00:30even describe what they're feeling and that's my mom and dad's vision of what was supposed to sit
00:36here i'm sherry granwald and i'm bruce stall this is our childhood home which is called the stall
00:43house but more formally case study house number 22.
00:54when the house was first built it wasn't famous so we had no idea what we were growing in this
00:58was just home to us it's famous now it's got that word iconic attached to it i took a lot
01:04of work to
01:04get to that iconic stage but i think i started realizing it was special when i got into middle
01:11school i bring friends up and they go what you live here dad was a purchasing agent and he made
01:18a call
01:19out to north american aviation and my mom was the receptionist there and that's where they first met
01:25in 1954 they were married in las vegas they were renting a small lower flat to a house across the
01:32canyon over here so they watched these lots being graded and they liked this one they had already
01:38started calling it their own this lot was always called the runt of the lots it was the smallest the
01:43lot nobody wanted right except my dad he knew this is the one but one day they decided to come
01:48over
01:48and have a look they parked their car right here probably where the pool is and just were amazed
01:53with the view that they saw the lot used to be called pecker point for the young kids place where
01:59you drove your car and you sat and looked at the view and made out that same day that they
02:03came up to
02:04look at the lot they heard another car coming up the road it was a gentleman named george bia he
02:09actually owned this lot so after about an hour or so my dad made a deal with him thirteen thousand
02:15five hundred dollars and a handshake and a hundred dollar bill that was it back then it was honor and
02:20then mr bia carried the loan for them they just paid him back and they didn't start building until
02:25the property was paid for thirteen thousand five hundred sounds like nothing today let me put it in
02:29perspective you could have bought a house down on the city floor three bedroom two bath for ten thousand
02:35dollars dad got advice that if he would square up the corners it would give him more square footage to
02:41build on my dad went around to all the construction sites to find all the concrete blocks to extend the
02:46lot size six feet he was going to gain all the way around can you imagine putting all that concrete
02:52in
02:52the trunk your car and bringing it up here there's one story of him blowing a transmission trying to
02:56come up yeah but the reverse still worked so he backed up the hill the whole way to unload it
03:01to unload
03:02it they were determined my mother and my father to get this built they knew what they wanted it was
03:06their dream
03:07and nothing was going to stop them this is our front door to the house which is not a front
03:14door
03:14it's a door to the courtyard in the middle section glass here you see some initials ch s a lot
03:20of
03:20people think it's a mistake for a case study house but my mom honored to my father because his name
03:25is
03:26clarence henry stall because pierre always had the recognition of designing this home but really the
03:31original was pretty darn close to what ended up being this is the original model that my father
03:36built in 1956 one year before you even met pierre koenig it was mainly designed to show architects
03:44what my folks wanted what was most important was the view once the model was completed they started
03:49architect shopping and they ended up talking to three of them all three turned them down because
03:54of what they wanted it was unbuildable but it was unbuildable because they weren't thinking steel
03:58once pierre got into the picture he just took it on normally in a house you need walls for strength
04:04pierre realized that you couldn't build a structure like this with wood it had to be made of steel
04:12i get a big chuckle on tours people go is the furniture original and i just laugh they go it's
04:17a glass house original furniture would be a pile of dust right now mom was asked where do you hang
04:22your artwork and my mom says why do i need artwork dad when there was no house here he told
04:29the architects
04:30and i want to be able to look this way and see the ocean i want to look this way
04:35and see the mountains
04:36but i don't want to walk from one side of my house to the other i just want to turn
04:39my head
04:41him blurring the lines between indoor and outdoor living i think he captured it really well during
04:46the summer times we can open all these windows and that's an extension of our home the way pierre's
04:51design the house it makes the house flow right into the city the original design the living room
05:00was supposed to be another 10 feet further out but the city said no absolutely not we're not gonna let
05:05you do that they redid the plans they cantilevered the corner shortened it and the city was still
05:10saying no koning pointed to the code book and he says show me in the code book where i can't
05:15do it
05:15and if you can't show me that i can't do it i'm building it once my parents found the architect
05:22then
05:23they had to find financing they ended up going to as many different banks as they could but banks
05:28weren't loaning for the homes up here at the time it was too risky finally pierre came in with his
05:32book
05:33he found broadway federal savings and loan a black-owned bank that was the only one willing to finance
05:39their dream house but there were some rules with that home loan they would have to
05:44make it a two-car carport and they have to build a pool if infinity pools were a thing back
05:50when
05:50they built this house they probably would have built an infinity pool but you get that affinity feel
05:54just based on the view which is the endless city it's magical would the pool mean to us it was
06:02our
06:02babysitter we used to live in the pool we wouldn't get out of the pool eat lunch she'd bring the
06:07lunch
06:07over to the pool edge for us yeah the pool was an amazing way to grow up when we woke
06:12up in the
06:12morning we had to put on life vests or else the windows didn't open up until we were safe once
06:18we could swim good we learned how to jump off the roof it was dad who like you know i'm
06:23just gonna
06:23go jump off that roof and then it started a whole generational desire just to get up and jump that
06:29roof
06:35as kids we grew up eating here mom was the short order cook over here she was always facing the
06:41view
06:42homes in the 60s a lot of the kitchens were buried in a corner with a small window where yeah
06:47it was
06:47prepared mom didn't want any of that and i think she had a lot to do with the way this
06:51she was very
06:52outspoken about what she wanted in her yeah but what koenig did here everything is raised in here but he
06:57dropped the ceiling too to give it more of a cozier warm feeling and that's why it's made of wood
07:03i tell
07:03people he built a structure within a structure we have a scale in this house one side's originality
07:08the other side is practicality when we can't bring something back we go to the next best thing like
07:14the kitchen has white floors well that's not original but that's a pure koenig thing yeah we looked
07:20through koenig's book in case study 21 had pure white floors sweat that'll work it's practical it's not
07:27original but it's practical we redid this recently brought back the frosted glass up there the sink
07:32is original the original appliances were all ge this was a push button electric range top and have
07:39the coil yeah it was pink so were the ovens so was the fridge they had a choice between pink
07:44or yellow
07:44i'm sure mom picked pink of course these panels pull out they blocked the sun for her while she's
07:50cooking it also will cover the mess if she's has a mess in here and somebody comes up but this
07:55was more
07:55used for the sun because it was brutal in the summer you know dad parked himself there we left that
08:00up
08:00because that's his sense of humor this is where our family really bonded in here this is where we
08:06talked this is where we ate this is where we giggled this is our kitchen table
08:18the case study houses were all supposed to be affordable easy to build new innovative ideas
08:24for low-cost housing all the major architects of the time soriano koenig neutra these are names that
08:31everybody thinks about now because their designs were so creative and different the program lasted from like
08:3745 to 66 we were towards the latter part of it the case study program ended up giving incentives to
08:44the people that want the case study houses built because they get discounts bethlehem steel gave our
08:48parents good discount i don't know whether they would have been able to build it if there wasn't those
08:53discounts before we could even move in if you were a case study house you had to be open to
08:57the
08:57public for a month i think julius he had to come in and take his famous pictures but the house
09:03wasn't
09:03done yet there was no furniture it was chaos here koenig was bringing products from his own house to
09:09fill in there's one photo called the playboy it's a gentleman looking over the city leaning against the
09:14glass well that's a representative from bethlehem steel the two girls in julius's famous shot were
09:22girlfriends of people that were just helping him out shulman had stepped outside because they were setting
09:28up for a different shot and he saw these two girls sitting in the positions they were at in the
09:32frame
09:33time magazine put together the top 100 most influential photos ever taken and that picture
09:38made that book everybody looked at that said this is the life i want i want to go to california
09:43you
09:43know i want to go have this life he said one time when he was being interviewed he goes i
09:48didn't capture
09:49the perfect shot of real estate i captured a mood people goes what was like growing up here i go
09:55fantastic
09:56we used to roller skate up and down the aisle in between the living room and dining room and kitchen
10:01which i think is crazy because the windows were all plate glass yeah one roller skate into those
10:06windows and i know would have been the end of us probably how many people lived in this house at
10:12one time there was five total but only two bedrooms now mom and dad planned on two that was sherry
10:19and i
10:19and then eight years later my brother mark was a pleasant surprise so my dad decided to
10:27build a wall here and then it had over here an accordion door my brother used to say i didn't
10:31know it at the time but i shared half of a half yeah but all we had to do was
10:35open this window and
10:36then our room just got so much bigger dad didn't believe in hallways he thought they were wasted
10:40space wasted space and if you're trying to achieve a view from every room where do you put a hallway
10:45if
10:46you put it in the back you're going to lose a whole lot of square footage he just decided to
10:50eliminate the
10:50hallway so you have to cross through the primary bedroom to the guest bedroom but my dad designed
10:57it so that door would close and the key will open that lock to let you into your room he
11:02was once
11:03asked by a woman why didn't you put any windows on the side he said why there's no view and
11:07it just
11:08lets in noise yeah so he made it entirely solid wall dad mom could have built a much bigger house
11:14but i think having a view from every room would have been lost they just needed enough room for
11:19their family every square inch of this house was utilized and used the way it was set up it all
11:25works
11:25perfect seeing the view through the house over the pool it all is in harmony mid-century modern has
11:34gone through ebbs and flows of popularity and then 1989 i believe there was a great exhibit
11:40footprints for modern living it seemed like mid-century modern was on the rise again after
11:45that mocha exhibit and then the house became busy with feature films and music videos one of the
11:50movies was galaxy quest that movie was probably one of my mom's favorite because of the little alien
11:56people and then we had why do fools fall in love with halle berry we had wilson phillips up here
12:01that
12:02did a music video i absolutely love that and i tell people that if you want to really see the
12:06house and
12:07kind of get a feel for it watch that it's just been going since then kind of started
12:10opening revenue stream for my parents which was good they gave all of this into the house right
12:15all of this hard work the house was finally giving back to them after all these years
12:20i think it just surpassed what my parents thought it would be
12:24mom jumped at every opportunity to show someone the house she loved it anybody that was willing to
12:31walk up the hill or have the courage to knock on the door she would invite in and show around
12:36and she was so darn charming she was the light in the room she just loved people what we're doing
12:43today is carrying on her vision of letting as many people see it as possible this was mark's idea
12:49because well the only way to really see the house was either be friend of the family or be part
12:53of a
12:54film crew so he decided to open it up for tours and he was doing the tours for a while
12:59when it first
13:00started but then they started getting more popular so we had to bring in tour guides i love all the
13:04tour guides they're great it's not a normal tour where there's velvet ropes and pathways you have
13:09to stay on we want you to come in we want you to take a piece of it with you
13:13they like to say that
13:14it's the best tour they've ever been on because i felt like i was just here visiting family that's the
13:20feeling we want them to leave with a lot of people make the mistake of calling in the museum i
13:24go no
13:24it's not a museum no it's a lived-in family home my mom decorated this one bathroom and the back
13:32wall
13:33had like green shag carpeting on it with these embroidered little pictures that she did it's
13:38conversational piece the tv console used to sit right where this nelson bench is and it was one of
13:46those old style black and whites we used as kids used to watch tv sitting on the ground parents were
13:50in
13:51the bed leaning against the back wall most memorable time was i was sitting here watching
13:55neil armstrong take his first steps on the moon the wall was just a dry wall but dad found these
14:01pieces of bevel glass but it wasn't enough to cover the whole wall he took what he had spaced it
14:06out
14:07and then put wood in between them and he used to always say well this way i don't even have
14:10to face
14:11my view i can still see my view this is all storage all of our storage is overhead and then
14:16the
14:17wall doesn't go all the way up to the ceiling there's glass there in this way you get light
14:21spilling from one room to another you can see the roof line and the storage all the way through to
14:26the next room there was two main concessions the original design had a butterfly roof inverted type
14:32roof he wanted the living room to simulate a bird taking flight you know when they first take off and
14:39then the wing that we're sitting in right now is the bedroom wing it was supposed to curve with the
14:43road
14:44actually the room we're in right now was supposed to be the carport they also gave up a waterfall
14:48feature that my dad wanted like koenig said he goes i got a client with champagne taste but he's got
14:54a
14:54beer budget this is our primary bathroom dad wanting to achieve a view from every room you can see that
15:05he
15:05has most sinks have a mirror right above it he'd rather look at the view yeah the one area that
15:11gets a
15:11lot of people is this toilet area they think it's a shower yeah they think it's a shower but really
15:16can you imagine i mean you're looking through this glass for everything my dad used to make a lot of
15:20things but my mom really loved her jewelry so what he did is he built her jewelry shelves with velvet
15:26on
15:26it so she could lay her jewelry down on these nice little shelves this is all his work four years
15:32ago
15:32five years ago we restored this to as close to original as possible i think the contractor actually
15:38walked off the job because there was no more money so my dad had to finish the bathroom the cabinet
15:42trees and stuff like that and then even during that time when the contractor was still on my dad would
15:48take on some of the projects he was doing that to save money you know sweeping floors hauling stuff
15:53away yeah it's another one of those stars in the line of successions of why the house is here
15:58like i said they were you know cash poor house rich
16:06we've grown up with this city we've watched it from here we used to stand closer to the edge though
16:13yeah we did i think this house has rubbed off on me more than i thought i understand my dad
16:20a lot more
16:20now than i used to even though he's gone we're closer to him there's a peace that overcomes me when
16:25i
16:25come in here i can feel my parents here it was an entertaining house the focal point for a lot
16:31of
16:32family get-togethers lots of love yeah we were fortunate very fortunate to have that we had very
16:38caring parents they had no idea what they're building they were just building their dream house but
16:42they built something that people have viewed worldwide and it's just a testament to their will
16:48to get it built raised three kids here and had a great childhood it was fantastic they have this
16:53perseverance to not give up if one way closes and it doesn't look passable go around it just keep
17:01working for your dream that's what my parents did and they never regretted it for a moment
17:07everybody dreams they made their dream a reality
17:16my knees don't bend like they used to neither does yours
17:24it's called it's called a controlled crash is what it's called we're not as young as we used to be
Comments