The “Lost” Lautner Of Echo Park Is On The Market For $2.4M

by Philip Ferrato

Much coveted by the serious architecture collectors of Los Angeles, the Mid-century homes of architect John Lautner [1911-1994] are both bold and experimental. Even his most modest projects possess a restless, sweeping energy much like the work of his mentor—Frank Lloyd Wright. Lautner spent much of the 1930s at Taliesin as an apprentice to Wright before moving to Los Angeles—working on many of the great architect’s projects while establishing his own practice—but unlike other Wright disciples, Lautner did not directly mimic the master’s style but developed his own uniquely Modernist design language.

It was 1948, and in the building boom of post WWII Los Angeles, Lautner was commissioned by the prosperous polymath musician/attorney Jules Salkin to design this small but exquisite spec house, intended as a prototype for a more extensive housing development (Salkin would later co-develop the utopian Crestwood Hills tract). At the Salkin House, Lautner deployed a series of inverted trusses to support a v-shaped roof, sheltering a parking area at the street front and a compact, open plan dwelling wrapped in horizontal redwood walls. On a surprisingly large lot in Echo Park, it has views to Downtown LA. Salkin went on to sell the house, and it would remain in the same family for sixty-five years, lived in, rented out, remodeled and altered almost beyond recognition. Previously undocumented, it had been forgotten as ‘a Lautner’ until its 2015 sale (in a bidding war) to an architecturally-minded couple who commissioned architect Barbara Bestor to bring it into the 21st Century, intending to use it as a guest house and office. The video tells the story best.

Horizontal redwood continues from exterior to interior, blurring the line between indoor and out, and the inverted truss supports remain visible.

Visit the listing for additional images and details. An extraordinary opportunity to own an important early work of postwar Los Angeles Modernism, expertly brought back to life and ready for its next seventy-five years. Represented by the specialist broker Brian Linder, AIA and Mark H. Mendez at The Value of Architecture at Compass. The Salkin House and its resurrection were the subject of an extensive New York Times article that’s worth a read.