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Case Study House #8 - The Eames House and Studio and Grounds

Architect
Charles and Ray Eames
Year
1949
City
Los Angeles, CA
Collection
the case study program
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Case Study House #8, better known as the Eames House, sits on a wooded bluff at 203 Chautauqua Boulevard on land once part of Will Rogers' estate. Charles and Ray Eames built it in 1949 as their own home and studio after John Entenza, editor of Arts & Architecture magazine, commissioned it for his experimental Case Study House program challenging architects to design modest, progressive homes for postwar Southern California. The couple moved in on Christmas Eve 1949 and never left — Charles worked there until his death in 1978, Ray until hers in 1988.

the building

A bluff once Will Rogers' land. The house rises on a wooded hillside site that Arts & Architecture editor John Entenza bought in the early 1940s — five acres carved from what had been part of Will Rogers' large estate. Entenza then sold off a portion of the land, keeping enough for the Case Study House experiment he was running through his magazine.

A home that never turned over. Charles and Ray moved in on Christmas Eve 1949 and stayed for the rest of their lives, using the adjoining studio as their working office. After Charles died in 1978 and Ray in 1988, the property passed to Charles's daughter Lucia Eames, who founded the nonprofit Eames Foundation in 2004 to run it as a house museum.

the architect

Charles and Ray Eames were a husband-and-wife design team who ran the Eames Office; this house and studio was where they lived and worked for the rest of their lives, from 1949 until Charles's death in 1978 and Ray's in 1988.

significance

The Eames House holds the strongest heritage tier available — Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #381, National Register of Historic Places listing, and National Historic Landmark status granted in 2006. Since 2004 it has been maintained as a house museum by the Eames Foundation, drawing nearly 20,000 visitors a year.

nearby

All 315 buildings in Los Angeles