Inside LA’s Most Iconic Modernist Home, Case Study House #22

The story of an awe-inspiring building and the family that grew up there

Inside LA’s Most Iconic Modernist Home, Case Study House #22

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Color photograph of modernist Case Study House showing the outdoor pool and large roof overhand as well as the glass living room. Below is a view of Los Angeles.

Case Study House #22, Los Angeles, 1960, Pierre Koenig, architect, photo by Julius Shulman. Julius Shulman Photography Archive, Getty Research Institute, 2004.R.10

By James Cuno

Nov 24, 2021 39:00 min

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“Buck wanted to stand in every room from his house, turn his head, and see every view. Even the bathroom. And so that was kind of what inspired the design of the house.”

Among the most famous photographs of modern architecture is Julius Shulman’s picture of Case Study House #22, also known as the Stahl House after the family that commissioned it. Two girls in white dresses sit inside a glass cube that seems to float atop a cliff over the illuminated grid of Los Angeles at night. Built by a family with a “beer budget and champagne tastes,” the two-bedroom home designed by architect Pierre Koenig changed residential design in LA. While Shulman’s image and others of the building have appeared in countless publications, advertisements, films, and TV shows, the story of how the house came to be and what it was like to live there is less well known.

In this episode, Bruce Stahl and Shari Stahl Gronwald and writer Kim Cross discuss the story of how Case Study House #22 came to be and share personal stories about what it was like to grow up and live in the home, from roller skating across the concrete floors to diving off the roof into the pool. Stahl, Gronwald, and Cross are coauthors of the recent book The Stahl House: Case Study House #22; The Making of a Modernist Icon.

Book cover featuring black and white photograph of the Stahl house's cantilevered glass living room with the lights of the city below
Outside view of corner of glass-walled home, showing two seated women. City lights stretch out in the background.

Case Study House #22, Los Angeles, 1960, Pierre Koenig, architect, photo by Julius Shulman. Gelatin silver print. Julius Shulman Photography Archive, Getty Research Institute, 2004.R.10

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