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Bailey House - Case Study House #21

Architect
Pierre Koenig
Year
1959
Style
Mid-Century Modern
City
Los Angeles, CA
Collection
the case study program
Bailey House - Case Study House #21
Photo: Ilpo's Sojourn, CC BY 2.0
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The Bailey House, Case Study House #21, is a steel-framed modernist house Pierre Koenig built in the Hollywood Hills in 1959 as part of Arts & Architecture magazine's Case Study House Program. Editor John Entenza had launched the program in 1945 to develop low-cost, replicable modern housing prototypes using donated industrial materials, running it through 1964 across 36 designs. The house was registered as Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #669 in 1999 with the backing of then-owner Michael LaFetra, the Los Angeles Conservancy, and Pierre and Gloria Koenig themselves.

the building

Steel-framed prototype. Koenig built the house with a steel frame, in keeping with the Case Study program's goal of proving that industrial materials could produce affordable, duplicable housing rather than one-off architectural showpieces.

The Case Study House Program. Launched in January 1945 by Arts & Architecture editor John Entenza, the program ran until 1964 and produced 36 designs meant to answer the postwar housing shortage with low-cost modern prototypes; many were never built.

the style

Case Study House #21 is a work of modern architecture, built to the program's founding rule that each house 'must be capable of duplication and in no sense be an individual performance' — a stripped-down, replicable approach rather than a personal architectural statement.

More on Mid-Century Modern

the architect

Pierre Koenig was among the architects who designed houses for the Case Study House Program; he later endorsed the house's 1999 landmark designation alongside his wife, Gloria Koenig.

significance

The Bailey House was designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #669 in 1999, with the Los Angeles Conservancy and architect Pierre and Gloria Koenig supporting the nomination alongside then-owner Michael LaFetra. It is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

nearby

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