Rent Rodney Walker’s Case Study House For $20K

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High on a bluff in Pacific Palisades is a narrow, hedged lane off of Chautauqua Boulevard that contains some of the most radical and important 20th Century residential  architecture in the country– a cluster of Case Study House projects, instigated in the late 40’s by Art + Architecture Magazine’s John Entenza and designed by Richard Neutra, Eero Saarinen (with Charles Eames) and Rodney Walker, culminating in Ray and Charles Eames’ own residence in a grove of eucalyptus.

The 3-bed, 2.5-bath Rodney Walker Case Study House #18– Also known as the West House after the original owners and with spectacular views of Santa Monica and the Pacific Ocean– is for rent for $20,000 a month.

To quote Arts + Architecture Magazine’s contemporaneous article about the house: “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.” All of the houses would be eventually immortalized in Julius Shulman’s photography, widely published, and stamping California living with what is now an iconic indoor/outdoor aesthetic.

The irony, of course, is while Entenza’s original concept was that the Case Study Houses would be prototypes for inexpensive housing for veterans returning from WWII, seventy years +/- years later, they’ve become incredibly expensive collector’s items.

To give the master bedroom a view of the ocean, Walker gave it a glass interior wall; narrow blinds were originally deployed for privacy when needed. The room also opens to the lawn with a sliding wall of glass– a perfect manifestation of indoor/outdoor living and radical for the time– but a feature not affordable for the average veteran.

More: Go to the listing for additional details and images of this historic home. Represented by architecture specialist Frank Langen, a founding partner at Deasy Penner Podley. Plus, check out Curbed LA’s definitive map of the Case Study Houses by Adrian Glick Cudler.

Photo Credit: Ambient Light Studios