Stahl House - Case Study House #22
- Architect
- Pierre Koenig
- Year
- 1959
- Style
- International Style
- City
- Los Angeles, CA
- Collection
- the case study program
The Stahl House, also known as Case Study House #22, is a glass-walled residence in the Hollywood Hills designed by architect Pierre Koenig for client C.H. 'Buck' Stahl, a Hughes Aircraft purchasing agent. Stahl bought the hillside lot for $13,500 in 1954 on a site other architects had called unbuildable, then spent two years hand-building retaining walls from reclaimed concrete rubble before Koenig took on the design in November 1957. Completed in 1959, it is individually listed as Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #670 and on the National Register of Historic Places.
the building
Stahl's own model. Before Koenig was hired, Buck Stahl set out his own ideas for the house in a model by mid-1956, complete with a curved rear wall and butterfly roof. Koenig's built design departed from that model, but photographic and anecdotal evidence shows Stahl provided the inspiration for the overall structure.
Building the unbuildable site. Stahl and his wife Carlotta spent two years building retaining walls out of reclaimed concrete rubble on a hillside parcel that other architects had deemed unbuildable, clearing the way for Koenig to design the house that sits on it today.
the style
The Stahl House is considered a canonical example of the International Style set into a Los Angeles hillside: a steel frame and glass walls engineered to cantilever over the slope Stahl had spent years reinforcing by hand.
More on International Stylesignificance
The Stahl House is individually listed as Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #670, designated November 9, 1999, and separately listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It remains a frequently used film location and one of the most reproduced images in modern architecture.
nearby
- Storer House
- Colonial House
- The Andalusia
- Hacienda Arms Apartments
- Schindler House
- El Greco Apartments