Divine Case Study House By Craig Ellwood, $3.M

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Need the perfect Holiday gift for your favorite architecture collector? This c.1952 Case Study House by Craig Ellwood in Bel Air worth considering. Of the three Case Study Houses Ellwood built in the early ‘50s, this is the only one that survives intact, having had only one very devoted owner for the past five decades, and a survivor of an earlier, more idealistic period in our architectural history.

The Case Study Houses were a project of John Entenza, editor and publisher of Arts + Architecture Magazine, arguably the most important journal of art, architecture and design in the post-WWII years. Entenza and the magazine commissioned a number of houses– all of which were supposed to address the (then) housing crisis in new, affordable materials– from young architects who would go on to define California Modernism. Ellwood didn’t exactly address the issue of affordability here, especially in the custom fabricated steel and glass. But it was a start, and hugely influential, even if only aspirational. Below, the beautifully composed carport and entry with outdoor spaces enclosed in translucent glass.

Craig Ellwod was an engineer by training, and his love of industrial materials and construction techniques would carry through his entire career, deployed with skill and elegance; at this point in his career, he was deeply indebted to the pioneering work in steel of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. But on his own, Ellwood was a master at the interplay of strong horizontals in a simple palette of materials.

MSet on a flat pad in Bel Air with astonishing views, this extraordinary 2-bed, 2-bath Modernist pavilion is offered at $2,995,000 by Aaron Kirman, Dalton Gomez and Weston Littlefield, all with Aaron Kirman Group at Compass. Additional details and images at the listing.

Photo Credit: Matthew Momberger/MBRGR for Aaron Kirman Group