John Edward Lautner was an influential American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 whose work in Southern California

Southern California

Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

 combined progressive engineering with humane design and dramatic space-age flair.

Biography

Lautner was born in Marquette, Michigan

Marquette, Michigan

Marquette is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Marquette County. The population was 21,355 at the 2010 census, making it the most populated city of the Upper Peninsula. Marquette is a major port on Lake Superior, primarily for shipping iron ore and is the home of Northern...

 in 1911 and was of mixed Austrian and Irish descent. His father, John Edward Lautner, who migrated from Germany ca. 1870, was self-educated, but gained a place at the University of Michigan

University of Michigan

The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

 as an adult and then studied philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 in Göttingen

Göttingen

Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...

, Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

, Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

 and Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. In 1901 he was appointed as head of French and German at the recently founded Marquette Northern State Normal School (now Northern Michigan University

Northern Michigan University

Northern Michigan University is a four-year college public university established in 1899 located in Marquette, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. With a population of nearly 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students, Northern Michigan University is the Upper Peninsula's largest...

), where he later became a teacher. His mother, Vida Cathleen Gallagher, was an interior designer and an accomplished painter.

The Lautners were keenly interested in art and architecture and in May 1918 their Marquette home "Keepsake", designed by Joy Wheeler Dow, was featured in the magazine The American Architect. A crucial early influence in Lautner's life was the construction of the family's idlyllic summer cabin, "Midgaard", sited on a rock shelf on a remote headland on the shore on Lake Superior

Lake Superior

Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally-demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the...

. The Lautners designed and built the cabin themselves and his mother designed and painted all the interior details, based on her study of Norse houses

Norse art

Norse art is a blanket term for the artistic styles in Scandinavia during the Germanic Iron Age, the Viking Age , and sometimes even used when describing objects from the Nordic Bronze Age...

.

In 1929 Lautner enrolled in the Liberal Arts program at his father's college — now renamed Northern State Teachers College — where he studied philosophy, ethics, physics, literature, drafting, art and architectural history, read the work of Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment....

 and Henri Bergson

Henri Bergson

Henri-Louis Bergson was a major French philosopher, influential especially in the first half of the 20th century. Bergson convinced many thinkers that immediate experience and intuition are more significant than rationalism and science for understanding reality.He was awarded the 1927 Nobel Prize...

, played woodwinds and piano, and developed an interest in jazz. He furthered his studies in Boston, Massachusetts and New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. In 1933 Lautner graduated with a degree in Liberal Arts.

In April 1933, after reading the autobiography of Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...

, Vida Lautner approached the architect, who had recently launched his apprenticeship program at Taliesin

Taliesin (studio)

Taliesin , near Spring Green, Wisconsin, was the summer home of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright began the building in 1911 after leaving his first wife, Catherine Tobin, and his Oak Park, Illinois, home and studio in 1909. The impetus behind Wright's departure was his affair with...

. Lautner was quickly admitted to the Fellowship, but he had recently become engaged to a neighbor, Mary Faustina ("MaryBud") Roberts and could not afford the fees, so Vida approached MaryBud's mother, who agreed to pay for the couple to join the program. He soon realized that he had little interest in formal drafting and avoided the Taliesin drafting room, preferring daily duties of "carpenter, plumber, farmer, cook and dishwasher, that is an apprentice, which I still believe is the real way to learn". From 1933 to 1939 he worked and studied under Wright at the studios in Wisconsin and Arizona, alongside other renowned artists and architects like E. Fay Jones and Santiago Martinez Delgado

Santiago Martínez Delgado

Santiago Martínez Delgado was a Colombian painter, sculptor, art historian and writer. He established a reputation as a prominent muralist during the 1940s and is also known for his watercolors, oil paintings, illustrations and woodcarvings....

.

Lautner progressed rapidly under Wright's mentorship. By 1934 — the year he and MaryBud married — he was preparing design details for a Wright house in Los Angeles for Alice Millard, working on the Playhouse and Studios at Taliesin, and he had the first of many articles (under the masthead "At Taliesin") published in the Wisconsin State Journal and Capital Times. The following year he was assigned to what became a two-year project supervising a Wright-designed house in Marquette for MaryBud's mother. In 1937 he agreed to oversee the construction of the Johnson residence "Wingspread

Wingspread

Wingspread, also known as the Herbert F. Johnson House, is a house designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright for Herbert Fisk Johnson, Jr. and built in 1938-1939 in the village of Wind Point near Racine, Wisconsin. Its construction was overseen by a young John Lautner...

" (his personal favorite among the Wright projects he worked on) near Racine, Wisconsin

Racine, Wisconsin

Racine is a city in and the county seat of Racine County, Wisconsin, United States. According to 2008 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the city had a population of 82,196...

 and traveled with Wright to supervise photography of the Malcolm Willey House

Malcolm Willey house

The Malcolm Willey House is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. It was designed by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and built in 1934. Wright named the house "Gardenwall".Malcolm Willey was an administrator at the University of Minnesota...

 in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...

, which became a key source for his own small houses. He was also deeply involved in the construction of the Drafting Room at Taliesin West

Taliesin West

Taliesin West was architect Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home and school in the desert from 1937 until his death in 1959 at the age of 91. Today it is the main campus of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture and houses the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.Open to the public for tours, Taliesin...

 — which influenced the design of his Mauer House (1946) — collated photographs of Wright's work for a 1938 special issue of Architectural Forum

Architectural Forum

Architectural Forum was an American magazine that covered the home-building industry and architecture. Started in 1892, it absorbed the magazine Architect's world in October 1938, and ceased publication in 1974.-Other titles:...

and later briefly returned to Taliesin to help assemble models and materials for a 1940 Museum of Modern Art

Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...

 exhibition.

Lautner left the Fellowship in early 1938 (primarily because MaryBud was pregnant) to establish his own architecture practice in Los Angeles, but he told his mentor that, while seeking an independent career, he remained "ready to do anything you or your Fellowship need". They worked together on around eleven Los Angeles projects over the next five years and their association continued sporadically. The Lautners arrived in Los Angeles in March 1938 and their first child Karol was born in May. Lautner's first independent project was a low-cost $2500 one-bedroom frame house for the Springer family, built with his contractor friend Paul Speer, but this was to be the only product of their brief collaboration. In September 1938 Wright contacted him and this led to Lautner's supervision of a series of Los Angeles domestic projects, the Sturges, Green, Lowe, Bell and Mauer houses.

His first significant solo project was his own Los Angeles home, the Lautner House (1939), which helped to establish his name — it was the subject of Lautner's first article on his own work, published in the June–July edition of California Arts & Architcture, and it was featured in Home Beautiful where it was lauded by Henry-Russell Hitchcock

Henry-Russell Hitchcock

Henry-Russell Hitchcock was the leading American architectural historian of his generation. A long-time professor at Smith College and New York University, he is best known for writings that helped to define Modern architecture.-Biography:...

 as "the best house in the United States by an architect under thirty". During this period Lautner worked with Wright on the designs of the Sturges House in Brentwood Heights, California and on the unbuilt Jester House. Lautner supervised the building of the Sturges House for Wright, but during construction he ran into serious design, cost and construction problems which climaxed with the threat of legal action by the owners, forcing Wright to bring in students from Taliesin to complete repairs.

In the meantime, the Bell and Green projects had both stalled due to rising costs. The Greens canceled, but Wright gave the Bell commission to Lautner. He was also engaged to supervise the Mauer house when the Mauers dismissed Wright for failing to deliver the working drawings in time. Although the Mauer House was not finished for another five years, the Bell House was quickly completed and it consolidated the earlier success of the Lautner House, earning him wide praise and recognition — the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

 solicited plans and drawings for use as a teaching tool, and it was featured in numerous publications over the next few years including the Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

, a three-page spread in the June 1942 issue of Arts and Architecture, the May 1944 issue House and Garden

House & Garden (magazine)

House & Garden was an American shelter magazine published by Condé Nast Publications that focused on interior design, entertaining, and gardening....

(which declared it "the model house for California living"), a California Designs feature centering on the Bell and Mauer houses, Architectural Forum

Architectural Forum

Architectural Forum was an American magazine that covered the home-building industry and architecture. Started in 1892, it absorbed the magazine Architect's world in October 1938, and ceased publication in 1974.-Other titles:...

, and The Californian

The Californian

The Californian can refer to:*The Californian , Monterey newspaper moved to San Francisco*The Californian , San Francisco Bay Area-based literary newspaper...

.

During 1941 Lautner was again brought in to oversee two more Wright projects that had run into trouble: the redesign of the Ennis House

Ennis House

The Ennis House is a residential dwelling in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA, south of Griffith Park. The home was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Charles and Mabel Ennis in 1923, and built in 1924....

 and an ill-fated project for a lavish Malibu residence ("Eaglefeather") for filmmaker Arch Oboler

Arch Oboler

Arch Oboler was an American actor, playwright, screenwriter, novelist, producer, and director who was active in radio, films, theater, and television. He generated much attention with his radio scripts, particularly the horror series Lights Out, and his work in radio remains the outstanding period...

. This was beset by many problems (including the tragic drowning of Oboler's son in a water-filled excavation) and was never completed, although a Lautner-designed retreat for Oboler's wife was eventually built.

During 1942 he designed a caretaker's cottage for the Astor Farm (since demolished) and in 1943 he joined the Structon Company, where he worked on wartime military construction and engineering projects in California, giving him valuable exposure to current developments in construction technology. This also marked the end of his professional association with Frank Lloyd Wright.

In 1944 Lautner pursued joint ventures with architects Samuel Reisbord and Whitney R. Smith before becoming a design associate in the practice of Douglas Honnold. He collaborated with Honnold on several projects including Coffee Dan's restaurants on Vine St., Hollywood, and on Broadway downtown Los Angeles, and a remodel of the Beverly Hills Athletic Club (since demolished) as well as two solo projects, the Mauer House and the Eisele Guest House. Another significant landmark this year was the article "Three Western Homes" in the March edition of House & Garden, which included floor plans of the Bell Residence and four (uncredited) photos of the house by Julius Shulman

Julius Shulman

Julius Shulman was an American architectural photographer best known for his photograph "Case Study House #22, Los Angeles, 1960. Pierre Koenig, Architect." The house is also known as The Stahl House. Shulman's photography spread California Mid-century modern around the world...

. These photos marked the start of a lifelong association between architect and photographer; over the next fifty years Shulman logged some 75 assignments on various Lautner projects (for Lautner and other clients) and his photos of Lautner's architecture have appeared in at least 275 articles.

Lautner left the Honnold practice in 1947, primarily because he had begun a relationship with Honnold's wife Elizabeth Gilman (although the two men reportedly remained friends). He separated from MaryBud (they divorced later that year) and moved into the Honnold residence at 1818 El Cerrito Place, where he established his own design office. He embarked on a string of significant design projects including the Carling Residence, the Desert Hot Springs Motel, the Gantvoort Residence and Henry's Restaurant in Glendale. Lautner soon established a high media profile and throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s his work featured regularly in both popular and professional publications, including Architectural Record, Arts & Architecture, House & Garden, Ladies' Home Journal and the Los Angeles Times.

Lautner and Gilman married in 1948 and MaryBud returned to Marquette with their four children, daughters Karol Lautner (b. 1938), Mary Beecher Lautner (b. California, 1944), Judith Munroe Lautner (b. California, 1946) and son Michael John Lautner (b. Astor Farm, Indio, California, 1942). Lautner's output that year included the Tower Motors Lincoln-Mercury Showroom in Glendale and the Sheats "L'Horizon" Apartments, but most of the other designs dating from that year were domestic commissions that were never built.

There were more important commissions in 1949–1950 including the Dahlstrom Residence, Googie's Coffee House and the UPA Studios in Burbank. During 1950 he was part of a group exhibition of sixteen California architects at Scripps College in Claremont, California, and in 1951 his work was included in Harris and Bonenberg's influential guidebook A Guide to Contemporary Architecture in Southern California (Watling, 1951). Lautner obtained his architectural license in 1952 and in February House and Home published the genre-defining Douglas Haskell article "Googie Architecture", which included two Shulman photographs of the Los Angeles restaurant accompanied by an article on the Foster and Carling houses and L'Horizon apartments.

From the late 1940s until his death, Lautner worked primarily on designing domestic residences. His early work was on a relatively modest scale but in later years, as his reputation grew and his client base became more affluent, his design projects became increasingly grand, culminating in the palatial 25000 sq ft (2,322.6 m²) Arango residence in Acapulco, Mexico. This project, along with his appointment as Olympic Architect for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, were among the highlights of his later career.

After many years of chronic illness Elizabeth Lautner died in 1978; in 1982 Lautner married her caretaker, Francesca. Lautner's last years were also marred by declining health and loss of mobility. In the last few years of his life he was unable to work, and his practice survived thanks to the unflagging support of his client James Goldstein

James Goldstein

James F. Goldstein, is a multi-millionaire "NBA superfan" who attends over one hundred NBA games each season , including approximately 95 percent of home games for the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers....

 and Lautner's partner and protégée

Mentorship

Mentorship refers to a personal developmental relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps a less experienced or less knowledgeable person....

Helena Arahuete. On Lautner's death in 1994, Arahuete took over the practice, which continues in business to the present today.

In recent years Lautner's work has undergone a significant critical reappraisal with the 1999 publication of Alan Hess and Alan Weintraub's "The Architecture of John Lautner" (Rizzoli), and a 2008 exhibit at the Hammer Museum

Hammer Museum

The Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Culture Center, or the Hammer Museum as it is more commonly known, is an art museum in the Westwood district of Los Angeles, California...

 curated by architect Frank Escher and architectural historian Nicholas Olsberg. In 2009 Lautner was the subject of a documentary feature film direct by Murray Grigor, Infinite Space: The Architecture of John Lautner.

Architecture and influence

John Lautner designed over 200 architectural projects during his career, but many designs for larger buildings were never realised. In the architectural press his extant body of work has been dominated by his domestic commissions; although he designed numerous commercial buildings including Googie's, Coffee Dan's and Henry's restaurants, the Beachwood Market, Desert Hot Springs Motel, and the Lincoln Mercury Showroom in Glendale, sadly, several of these buildings have since been demolished. With a handful of exceptions (e.g. the Arango Residence in Acapulco, the Turner House in Aspen, Colorado, the Harpel House #2 in Anchorage, Alaska, the Ernest Lautner house in Pensacola, Florida) nearly all of Lautner's extant buildings are in California, mostly in and around Los Angeles.

His distinctive application of the principles of Organic Architecture

Organic architecture

Organic architecture is a philosophy of architecture which promotes harmony between human habitation and the natural world through design approaches so sympathetic and well integrated with its site that buildings, furnishings, and surroundings become part of a unified, interrelated...

 was, of course, profoundly influenced by his apprenticeship under Frank Lloyd Wright. Speaking of his time at Taliesin, he recalled:
Throughout his life Lautner was a passionate admirer of his mentor (to whom he typically referred as "Mr. Wright") and he remained a dedicated practitioner of Organic Architecture. His oral history interviews reveal that he had little regard for the International Style

International style (architecture)

The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...

 and its leading architects:
Nevertheless, even during the time he worked under Wright, Lautner sought to established his own individual and distinctive style:
Although his earlier works not surprisingly displayed some of the influence of his mentor, Lautner gradually developed his own style and consciously avoided anything that could be classified as "Wright-influenced". An exception among his later commissions to this was the Wolff House in West Hollywood (1963) which was often cited by his critics as a "Wrightian" building, much to his chagrin, but as he explained in 1986:
Lautner's approach to architecture embodied many of Wright's philosophies and preoccupations, above all, the notion of a building as a "total concept". Like Wright, his work also shows a strong preoccupation with essential geometric forms — the circle and the triangle are dominant motifs in both his overall designs and his detailing — and his houses are similarly rooted in the idea of integrating the house into its location and creating an organic flow between indoor and outdoor spaces, although Lautner's work arguably took the latter concept to even greater heights.

Another point of similarity is that, like Wright, many of Lautner's houses were sited in elevated locations or "difficult" sites — hillsides or seashores — and were expressly designed to take full advantage of the vistas these sites offered; he also followed Wright's dictum of building on a slope rather than on the very top of a hill.

Lautner's work is especially significant for its radical expansion of both the technical and spatial vocabulary of domestic architecture. He achieved this through his use of the latest building technologies and materials, e.g., his pioneering use of glue-laminated plywood beams, steel beams and sheeting, and especially his ongoing exploration of the architectural possibilities of reinforced

Reinforced concrete

Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...

 and prestressed concrete

Prestressed concrete

Prestressed concrete is a method for overcoming concrete's natural weakness in tension. It can be used to produce beams, floors or bridges with a longer span than is practical with ordinary reinforced concrete...

 — and through his use of non-linear, open-plan and multi-level layouts, shaped and folded concrete forms, skylights and light-wells and panoramic expanses of plate glass. Another key characteristic of Lautner's architecture is his heterogeneous approach, not only in his overall concepts — each Lautner building is a unique design solution — but also in his use of materials, as Jean-Louis Cohen notes in his essay "John Lautner's Luxuriant Tectonics":
It is ironic that, although famous Lautner works like the Carling and Harpel houses, the Chemosphere and the Sheats Goldstein Residence

Sheats Goldstein Residence

Sheats Goldstein Residence, is a house designed and built between 1961 and 1963 by American architect John Lautner in Beverly Crest, Los Angeles, California, just a short distance from the Beverly Hills border. The building was conceived from the inside out and built into the sandstone ledge of...

 have become inextricably linked with Los Angeles in the public imagination, Lautner repeatedly expressed his dislike of California. In his oral history interviews he was highly critical of the standard of architecture in Los Angeles, and idealised the rural Michigan environment of his youth, as he recalled in 1986:

Major works

Foster Carling Residence
One of Lautner's most significant early works, this house embodies many of his central design concerns and includes key features that he would continue to explore and develop throughout his career. It was also important as the project that united him with builder John de la Vaux. Fortuitously, the pair met through their wives, who knew each other socially — at the time, Lautner was having trouble finding contractors to work on his houses, and de la Vaux, a boat builder, was keen to move into housing construction. At his wife's suggestion de la Vaux approached Lautner and offered to build the Carling House, and they sealed the deal with a handshake. As de La Vaux recounted in the 2009 Lautner documentary, the project was briefly halted by a rare snowstorm that dumped more than six inches of snow on the Hollywood area. Lautner's design incorporates many innovative features: He used external steel cantilever beams to support the roof of the hexagonal main living area, creating a completely open space, free of any internal columns. This design, and the house's hillside situation, combine to afford 360-degree views across Los Angeles. Another striking feature is the movable wall-seat — one entire wall section of the living area, with a built-in couch, is hinged on one side and supported by a caster on the other, allowing the entire structure to swing out, opening the room out to the adjoining terrace. This is an idea he revisited with the Turner Residence in Aspen. There is also a swimming pool that partly intrudes into the living area under a sheet of plate glass, a feature that he revisited to even greater effect in the Elrod House. The Carling House has become one Lautner's most celebrated designs and marked the beginning of his fruitful collaboration with de la Vaux, which lasted through seven major projects, including the famous "Chemosphere".

Googie
Although best known for his residential commissions, Lautner was also an important contributor to the commercial genre known as Googie architecture

Googie architecture

Googie architecture is a form of modern architecture, a subdivision of futurist architecture influenced by car culture and the Space and Atomic Ages....

. Alan Hess

Alan Hess

Alan Hess is an American architect, author, lecturer and advocate for twentieth century architectural preservation."Alan Hess [is] a prominent California architecture critic who has written extensively on roadside strips," writes the New York Times...

, author of Googie Redux: Ultramodern Roadside Architecture records Lautner's contributions to a new car-oriented architecture developing in Southern California by architects such as Lloyd Wright and Wayne McAllister from the 1920s on; Lautner's Coffee Dans, Henry's, and Googies defined an architectural approach to scale, signage, and commercial interior spaces. The term "Googie architecture" was coined in 1952 by noted "House and Home" editor Douglas Haskell

Douglas Haskell

Douglas Putnam Haskell was an American writer, architecture critic and magazine editor. Today he is widely known for his 1952 coinage of the term Googie architecture in a 1952 article in House and Home magazine....

 after he spotted the Lautner-designed Googie's Coffee Shop while driving through Hollywood with renowned architectural photographer Julius Shulman

Julius Shulman

Julius Shulman was an American architectural photographer best known for his photograph "Case Study House #22, Los Angeles, 1960. Pierre Koenig, Architect." The house is also known as The Stahl House. Shulman's photography spread California Mid-century modern around the world...

. Haskell used the term in a February 1952 House and Home magazine article on the new design style and it stuck, although it soon came to be used as a derogatory term in "serious" architectural circles.

Lautner first defined an architectural solution to the scale, function, and public space of car-oriented suburban architecture in his remodel of Henry's in Glendale in 1947. Googie's Coffee Shop, designed in 1949, stood at the corner of Sunset Strip and Crescent Heights, next to the famous Schwab's Pharmacy; regrettably it was demolished in 1989. It was distinctive for its expansive glass walls, arresting angular form, prominent roofline, and exuberant signage oriented to car traffic: an advertisement for itself. Another key Lautner work in the Googie genre was Henry's Restaurant (1957) in Pomona

Pomona, California

-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Pomona had a population of 149,058, a slight decline from the 2000 census population. The population density was 6,491.2 people per square mile...

; its vaulted roof, resembling an inverted boat hull, arched over the interior booths and the large exposed beams (made from glue-laminated timber) carried through to the exterior, where they supported a slatted awning that shaded the drive-in area. Other architects spread the Modern aesthetic of the coffee shop/drive-in in such as Tiny Naylor's (Lautner employer Douglas Honnold), Ship's (Martin Stern, Jr.), and Norm's and Clock's (Armet and Davis.)

Googie became part of the American postwar Zeitgeist

Zeitgeist

Zeitgeist is "the spirit of the times" or "the spirit of the age."Zeitgeist is the general cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual or political climate within a nation or even specific groups, along with the general ambiance, morals, sociocultural direction, and mood associated with an era.The...

, but was ridiculed by the established architectural community of the 1950s as superficial and vulgar. "Googie was used as a synonym for undisciplined design and sloppy workmanship," reported historian Esther McCody. Not until Robert Venturi

Robert Venturi

Robert Charles Venturi, Jr. is an American architect, founding principal of the firm Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, and one of the major figures in the architecture of the twentieth century...

's 1972 book "Learning from Las Vegas" did the architectural mainstream even come close to validating Lautner's logic. The style was denigrated by East Coast critics and Lautner's reputation suffered; as a result he became wary of talking to the press and it is notable that his 1986 UCLA oral history interviews include no references at all to these early projects.

Harpel Residence
This elegant hillside house was designed and sited to take advantage of the panoramic views of Los Angeles. Unfortunately, it was extensively altered by later owners, including an unsympathetic second-story addition and the planting of a large hedge beside the pool, which completely obscured the views it was meant to frame, but it has recently been faithfully restored by the present owner, Marc Haddawy, at a cost of over US$500,000 http://www.latimes.com/features/la-hm.0410.harpel-pg,0,1724580.photogallery.

The Chemosphere

Lautner's reputation was considerably restored by his groundbreaking design for the Leonard J. Malin Residence, also known as the "Chemosphere

Chemosphere

The Chemosphere, designed by American architect John Lautner in 1960, is an innovative Modernist octagon house in Los Angeles, California.-Design:...

" (1960), which has become one of his best-known and most influential creations. Located at 776 Torreyson Drive, West Hollywood, the house was designed for young aerospace engineer Leonard Malin in 1960 and built by John de la Vaux. The steep hillside site had been given to Malin by his father-in-law, but was considered impossible to build on until Lautner devised his design:
Lautner ingeniously solved the problem of the 45-degree slope by siting the entire house off the ground atop a 50-foot (15 m) concrete pillar that rests on a massive concrete pad 20 feet (6.1 m) in diameter and 3 feet (0.91 m) thick, buried into the rocky hillside. Halfway up the pillar, eight angled steel "spokes" — bolted onto bosses formed onto the surface of the column — splay out and up, supporting and stabilizing the outer rim of the house, and the center of the pillar also houses the utility cables and pipes. Lautner provided access from the driveway up the steep hillside by installing a funicular

Funicular

A funicular, also known as an inclined plane or cliff railway, is a cable railway in which a cable attached to a pair of tram-like vehicles on rails moves them up and down a steep slope; the ascending and descending vehicles counterbalance each other.-Operation:The basic principle of funicular...

, which terminates at a short sloping gangway that leads up to the entrance. The house is octagonal in plan and lozenge-shape in section, and is often described as a "flying saucer". Since there are effectively no solid external walls — the entire outer "face" of the house is eight large picture windows — the Chemosphere enjoys a panoramic view over Hollywood. The massive, radiating glued laminated timber

Glued laminated timber

Glued laminated timber, also called Glulam, is a type of structural timber product composed of several layers of dimensioned timber bonded together with durable, moisture-resistant adhesives. This material is called 'laminating stock' or lamstock for short.By laminating several smaller pieces of...

 roof bearers and crossbeams, which echo the keel and ribs of a ship hull, were built by de la Vaux using the same type of mortise joints he had used in his boat building.

Construction of the highly unusual project saw the initial $30,000 budget blow out to over $100,000, but fortunately Malin and Lautner were able to cover the shortfall by obtaining corporate sponsorship, including funding from the Southern California Gas Company and support from the Chemseal Corporation of America, who provided sealants, plastics and other materials, in return for use of the house for promotions and the right to name the house the "Chemosphere" for advertising purposes. After passing through a succession of owners, the building was rented out and occasionally used as a party venue and by the 1990s the interior was considerably degraded. Fortunately, German publisher Benedikt Taschen

Benedikt Taschen

Benedikt Taschen, 1961, Cologne, Germany, is a German publisher. His professional life started at age 18 in a store in Cologne, Germany, named TASCHEN COMICS. In 1984, he bought 40,000 remainder copies of a Magritte monograph published in English with money borrowed from his family. The books sold...

 purchased the house in 2000 and restored it in collaboration with architects Frank Escher and Ravi Gunewardena, earning them an award from the Los Angeles Conservancy

Los Angeles Conservancy

The Los Angeles Conservancy is an historic preservation organization in Los Angeles, California. It works to document, rescue and revitalize historic buildings, places and neighborhoods in the city. The Conservancy is the largest membership based historic preservation organization in the country...

. The Chemosphere is a now a Los Angeles landmark

Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument

Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments are sites in Los Angeles, California, which have been designated by the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission as worthy of preservation based on architectural, historic and cultural criteria.-History:...

 and in 2008 a panel of experts commissioned by the Los Angeles Times rated the Chemosphere as one of the "Top 10 houses of all time in L.A.". It is one of the most unusual and distinctive houses in the Los Angeles area and its unique design has led to it being featured or referenced in many media productions.

Reiner Residence ("Silvertop")
As his career developed Lautner increasingly explored the use of concrete and he designed a number of homes for his more affluent clients that featured major structural elements fabricated from reinforced concrete. the Reiner-Burchill Residence, "Silvertop" (1956), was his first major exploration of the sculptural possibilities of monolithic concrete, features a large arching concrete roof over the main house and an eye-catching curved concrete driveway that sweeps up and around the steep block. The project had a long and difficult gestation — while it was still being built, original owner Kenneth Reiner (with whom Lautner collaborated closely) was bankrupted by the fraudulent dealings of his business partners and he was forced to sell the house. Lautner also faced opposition from the Los Angeles building certification authorities, who were dismayed by the radical design of the post-stressed concrete ramp, which cantilivers out from the base of the house without any columns supporting it from beneath, and is only four inches thick. Not surprisingly, the Los Angeles building inspector demanded a static load test to prove that it could take the weight of a car — a standoff that mirrored Lautner and Wright's earlier contretemps with skeptical building authorities who demanded load tests on Wright's famous "lotus pad" columns for the Johnson Wax Building. In the event, Lautner's load calculations proved flawless and in fact the instruments recorded more deflection in the concrete from the change in temperature when the sun went down than they did from the weight of the sandbags loaded onto the ramp to test it.

Elrod Residence
Arguably the most widely seen of Lautner's works, the Elrod House (1968) became famous through its use as a location in the Bond film Diamonds Are Forever

Diamonds Are Forever (film)

Diamonds Are Forever is the seventh spy film in the Eon Productions James Bond series, and the sixth and final Eon Productions film to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film is based on Ian Fleming's 1956 novel of the same name, and is the second of four James Bond films...

. Sited on a commanding hillside location in the desert outside Palm Springs, California

Palm Springs, California

Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...

, its best-known feature is the large circular "sunburst" concrete canopy which appears to float above the main living area; this area also incorporates a large natural rock outcrop at the edge of the room, creating the impression that the fabric of the building is fused with the rock. The canopy is fitted with curved glass-and-aluminium sliding doors that allow the space to be completely opened around half its circumference, opening out to a semi-circular swimming pool and a broad terrace. The prime hilltop site offers sweeping views of the surrounding desert.

Desert Hot Springs Motel (now known as Hotel Lautner)
Originally designed in 1947 as a planned community of over 100 buildings, storefronts and pools on 600 acres at Desert Hot Springs in the Coachella Valley

Coachella Valley

Coachella Valley is a large valley landform in Southern California. The valley extends for approximately 45 miles in Riverside County southeast from the San Bernardino Mountains to the saltwater Salton Sea, the largest lake in California...

, near Palm Springs

Palm Springs

Palm Springs is a desert city in CaliforniaPalm Springs may also refer to:* Palm Springs, Florida* Palm Springs, Hong Kong, a residential development in Yuen Long, Hong Kong* Coachella Valley, also known as the Palm Springs area...

, California. Lautner's client was the famous movie director Lucien Hubbard

Lucien Hubbard

Lucien Hubbard was a film producer and screenwriter. He is best known for producing Wings, for which he received the first Academy Award for Best Picture. Lucien produced and or wrote ninety-two films over the course of his career...

, the winner of the very first "Best Picture" Oscar for the silent movie "Wings

Wings (film)

Wings is a silent film about World War I fighter pilots, produced by Lucien Hubbard, directed by William A. Wellman and released by Paramount Pictures. Wings was the first film, and the only silent film, to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Wings stars Clara Bow, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, and...

". After building the first four-unit prototype and pool the project came to a halt and it was subsequently used for Hubbard's stars and starlets as a getaway from Los Angeles; it gradually fell into disuse and sat vacant for almost 20 yrs. After Hubbard's death in 1972 the 600 acres were subdivided and sold off; the pool property burnt down and was bought by the neighboring golf course to be rebuilt in a different design as their club house. The prototype units were purchased by a buyer from San Diego but they sat empty for another nine years until an interior designer renovated them and put in kitchens and baths, although at some point the kitchens and baths were destroyed and removed. This owner kept the property for almost twenty years until the year 2000, renting out the rooms as apartments. It was then sold to Steve Lowe, who briefly ran it as the Lautner Motel. After Lowe died in 2005 the property went through the courts as was finally put back on the market in late 2006, when designers Ryan Trowbridge and Tracy Beckmann purchased it in 2007 for less than $400,000. The couple spent the the next three-and-a-half years renovating and restoring the property. Their efforts won the approval of the Lautner Foundation, who sanctioned its renaming as the Hotel Lautner, in honor of its designer. The hotel re-opened for business in September 2011.

Hope Residence
The 17500 sq ft (1,625.8 m²). Bob and Dolores Hope Residence (1973), situated close to the Elrod Residence in Palm Springs, features a massive undulating triangular roof, pierced by a large circular central light shaft. The original house was destroyed by fire during construction. Bob and Dolores Hope interfered extensively in the second design, with the result that Lautner eventually distanced himself from the project. Although not well-known and rarely available for public viewing (it is located within a gated community) it is one of the largest and most visually striking of Lautner's domestic designs.

Arango Residence ("Marbrisa")
Arguably the pinnacle of Lautner's career, the vast (25,000 sq.ft) "Marbrisa" in Acapulco was built for Mexican supermarket magnate Jeronimo Arango in 1973 and was jointly designed by Lautner and Helena Arahuete during her first year with the firm. Perched on a hilltop site, with uninterrupted views across the whole of Acapulco Bay, the main living quarters are surmounted by a large open terrace with spectacular views of the beach and bay, encircled by a "sky moat" which snakes around its edge; the terrace is itself topped by a huge, sweeping semi-circular angled awning made of cast, reinforced concrete.

Lost works

Several significant Lautner building have been destroyed or irrevocably altered since their construction, the latest as recently as 2010:

• Googie's Coffee Shop was demolished in 1989 and replaced by a mini-mall
• all the Coffee Dan's and Henry's restaurants have been demolished; the last Henry's branch was demolished in the 1980s
• the Bick Residence in Brentwood was demolished in 1990
• the Concannon Residence in Beverly Hills passed through several hands before being purchased by James Goldstein (owner of the neighbouring Sheats-Goldstein Residence), who demolished it in 2002 to build an office, nightclub, tennis court, sundeck, plexiglass-bottom infinity pool, and more, that were part of Lautner designed, but never built structures. This construction broke ground in early 2006 and continues as of late 2011.
• the Nouard Gootgeld Residence, 1167 Summit Drive, Beverly Hills (1952) was jointly built by Lautner and Gootgeld. The property was purchased by Priscilla Presley
  Priscilla Presley
  Priscilla Presley is an American actress and businesswoman. She is the ex-wife of singer Elvis Presley, and the mother of singer-songwriter Lisa Marie Presley....
  
   in 1974, stripped down to its structural beams and converted into a large Italianate villa
• the David Shusett House in Beverly Hills was extensively altered in later years, although it retained its basic structure. Present (2011) owners Enrique and Katalin Mannheim purchased it in 1987 and in 2010 they applied to have the house demolished to make way for new residence. Sadly, despite appeals from the Lautner Foundation, who tried to arrange for its purchase or relocation, negotiations with the Mannheim family failed and the house was destroyed in September 2010.

Cultural impact and legacy

Several of Lautner's houses are now designated as Los Angeles Cultural-Historical Monuments. His dramatic and photogenic spaces have been frequently used as film, TV and photography locations, and they have also influenced film production and set design:

• the Elrod Residence was the location for the sequence in the 1971 James Bond
  James Bond (film series)
  The James Bond film series is a British series of motion pictures based on the fictional character of MI6 agent James Bond , who originally appeared in a series of books by Ian Fleming. Earlier films were based on Fleming's novels and short stories, followed later by films with original storylines...
  
   film Diamonds Are Forever
  Diamonds Are Forever (film)
  Diamonds Are Forever is the seventh spy film in the Eon Productions James Bond series, and the sixth and final Eon Productions film to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film is based on Ian Fleming's 1956 novel of the same name, and is the second of four James Bond films...
  
  in which Bond battles female assassins "Bambi" and "Thumper";

• the Chemosphere has been used several times as a film or TV location, including The Outer Limits
  The Outer Limits (1963 TV series)
  The Outer Limits is an American television series that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1965. The series is similar in style to the earlier The Twilight Zone, but with a greater emphasis on science fiction, rather than fantasy stories...
  
  (1964) and Brian De Palma's Body Double
  Body Double
  Body Double is a 1984 American thriller film directed by Brian De Palma starring Craig Wasson, Melanie Griffith, and Gregg Henry. The film is an homage to Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, Rear Window, and Dial M for Murder. The original musical score was composed by Pino Donaggio...
  
  (1984). The design is also directly referenced in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
  Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
  Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a 2004 open world action video game developed by British games developer Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the third 3D game in the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise, the fifth original console release and eighth game overall...
  
  and the film Charlie's Angels
  Charlie's Angels
  Charlie's Angels is a television series about three women who work for a private investigation agency, and is one of the first shows to showcase women in roles traditionally reserved for men...
  
  and it was parodied (as Troy McClure's house) in an episode of The Simpsons
  The Simpsons
  The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
  
  . It also has influenced the design of the space-age stilt houses in the animated sitcom The Jetsons
  The Jetsons
  The Jetsons is a animated American sitcom that was produced by Hanna-Barbera, originally airing in prime-time from 1962–1963 and again from 1985–1987...
  
  , which premiered two years after the house was built, and it closely resembles the design of the "Jupiter II" spacecraft in the sci-fi series Lost In Space
  Lost in Space
  Lost in Space is a science fiction TV series created and produced by Irwin Allen, filmed by 20th Century Fox Television, and broadcast on CBS. The show ran for three seasons, with 83 episodes airing between September 15, 1965, and March 6, 1968...
  
  . An exact copy of the Chemosphere interior is used as the set for Current TV
  Current TV
  Current TV, or Current, is a media company led by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and businessman Joel Hyatt. Comcast owns a ten percent stake of Current's parent company, Current Media LLC....
  
  ;

• the Sheats Goldstein Residence
  Sheats Goldstein Residence
  Sheats Goldstein Residence, is a house designed and built between 1961 and 1963 by American architect John Lautner in Beverly Crest, Los Angeles, California, just a short distance from the Beverly Hills border. The building was conceived from the inside out and built into the sandstone ledge of...
  
   in Beverly Hills has featured in The Big Lebowski
  The Big Lebowski
  The Big Lebowski is a 1998 comedy film written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Jeff Bridges stars as Jeff Lebowski, an unemployed Los Angeles slacker and avid bowler, who is referred to as "The Dude". After a case of mistaken identity, The Dude is introduced to a millionaire also named...
  
  , Bandits
  Bandits
  Bandits is a 2001 American crime-comedy drama film directed by Barry Levinson. It stars Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, and Cate Blanchett. Filming began in October 2000 and ended in February 2001. It helped Thornton earn a National Board of Review Best Actor Award for 2001...
  
  and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
  Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
  Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle is a 2003 American action comedy film. It is the sequel to 2000's Charlie's Angels. It opened in the United States on June 27, 2003, and was number one at the box office for that weekend and made a worldwide total of $259.2 million.The cast again includes Cameron...
  
  and is a sought-after location for fashion photo shoots;

• the Garcia House ("Rainbow") in West Hollywood featured in Lethal Weapon 2
  Lethal Weapon 2
  Lethal Weapon 2 is a 1989 action comedy film directed by Richard Donner, and starring Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Patsy Kensit, Joe Pesci, Derrick O'Connor and Joss Ackland...
  
  ;

• the "car cafe" set created for the Quentin Tarantino
  Quentin Tarantino
  Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
  
   film Pulp Fiction
  Pulp Fiction (film)
  Pulp Fiction is a 1994 American crime film directed by Quentin Tarantino, who co-wrote its screenplay with Roger Avary. The film is known for its rich, eclectic dialogue, ironic mix of humor and violence, nonlinear storyline, and host of cinematic allusions and pop culture references...
  
  was explicitly modelled on well-known examples of the Googie style, including Lautner's Googie diner
  Diner
  A diner, also spelled dinor in western Pennsylvania is a prefabricated restaurant building characteristic of North America, especially in the Midwest, in New York City, in Pennsylvania and in New Jersey, and in other areas of the Northeastern United States, although examples can be found throughout...
  
   (which was boarded up but still standing when the film as made) and Henry's Restaurant in Glendale.;

• for the Iron Man
  Iron Man
  Iron Man is a fictional character, a superhero in the . The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby, first appearing in Tales of Suspense #39 .A billionaire playboy, industrialist and ingenious engineer,...
  
  films, production designer Michael Riva and concept artist Phil Saunders based the design of Tony Stark's mansion on Lautner's architecture. The exteriors of the building (a series of computer-generated images which were digitally composited into location photos of Point Dume
  Point Dume
  Point Dume is a promontory on the coast of Malibu, California that juts out into the Pacific Ocean.Point Dume, a long bluff, forms the northern end of the Santa Monica Bay, and Point Dume Headlands Park affords a vista of the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Santa Catalina Island...
  
   State Preserve in Malibu) are strongly reminiscent of Silvertop and Marbrisa, fancifully blending many of Lautner's "signature" elements including the dramatic cliff-side location, large expanses of glass, classic "California split-level" layout and sinuous, organic lines.

Lautner also designed a home on Malibu's Carbon Beach, at one time owned by David Arquette

David Arquette

David Arquette is an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, fashion designer, and occasional professional wrestler. A member of the Arquette acting family, he first became known during the mid 1990s after starring in several Hollywood films, such as the Scream series, Wild Bill and...

 and Courteney Cox

Courteney Cox

Courteney Bass Cox is an American actress, she is best known for her roles as Monica Geller on the NBC sitcom Friends, Gale Weathers in the horror series Scream and as Jules Cobb in the ABC sitcom Cougar Town, for which she earned her first Golden Globe nomination....

, which sold for US$33.5 million.

One of the few Lautner buildings regularly open to the general public is the Desert Hot Springs Motel, which was restored in 2001. The Bob Hope residence was made available for limited museum-sponsored public visits during 2008-2009.

In 2008 Lautner's life and work was the subject of a major retrospective exhibition at the Hammer Museum

Hammer Museum

The Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Culture Center, or the Hammer Museum as it is more commonly known, is an art museum in the Westwood district of Los Angeles, California...

 in Los Angeles. Reviewing the exhibition, author and critic Hunter Drohojowska-Philp lauded Lautner's work:
In 1990 "the Spirit in Architecture" by director Bette Jane Cohen was produced by Aluminum Films. It featured interviews with Lautner filmed for the production.

In 2009 the Googie Company released the documentary feature film Infinite Space: The Architecture of John Lautner, directed by Murray Grigor. It features extensive contemporary and archival images of many of Lautner's key buildings (most of which are not open to the public), excerpts from Lautner's 1986 oral history recordings, interviews with Lautner's family, colleagues and clients, Lautner archivist Frank Escher and longtime Lautner fan Frank Gehry

Frank Gehry

Frank Owen Gehry, is a Canadian American Pritzker Prize-winning architect based in Los Angeles, California.His buildings, including his private residence, have become tourist attractions...

, as well as a moving on-site reunion of the three surviving principals who built the Chemosphere — Lautner's assistant Guy Zebert, original owner Leonard Malin, and builder John de la Vaux (who was 95 years old at the time of filming).

Lautner's legacy is now curated and perpetuated by the non-profit John Lautner Foundation. In 2007 the Foundation donated its archive of drawings, models, photographs, and other materials that belonged to John Lautner to the Getty Research Institute

Getty Research Institute

The Getty Research Institute , located at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, is "dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts". A program of the J...

 Special Collections.

Honors

• Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, 1970
• Architectural Record Award for Excellence, 1971
• Distinguished Alumni Award, Northern Michigan University, 1975
• Architectural Record Award for Excellence, 1977
• Cody Award, 1980
• Los Angeles chapter, American Institute of Architects, Man of the Year, 1980
• Olympic Architect, 1984

Major completed projects by design date

1939

• John Lautner Residence, 2007 Micheltorena Street, Los Angeles, California
  Los Angeles, California
  Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
  
  

1940

• Norman Springer Cottage, Echo Park, Los Angeles, California
• Bell Residence, 7714 Woodrow Wilson Drive, West Hollywood

1945

• Darrow Office Building, Beverly Hills, California — with Douglas Honnold (interior later altered)
• Edgar and Allison Mauer House, 932 Rome Drive, Los Angeles, California (Los Angeles Cultural Monument No. 481)
• Hancock Residence, Silver Lake, California — with Douglas Honnold

1946

• Coffee Dan's (Wilshire, Vine St, Broadway and Hollywood) — with Douglas Honnold (all later demolished)
• Arthur Eisele Guest House, Los Angeles, California

1947

• Foster Carling House, 7144 Hockey Trail, Los Angeles, California
• Desert Hot Springs Motel, Hotel Lautner, Desert Hot Springs, California
  Desert Hot Springs, California
  Desert Hot Springs, also known as DHS, is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. The city is located within the Coachella Valley geographic region, sometimes referred to as the Desert Empire. The population was 25,938 at the 2010 census, up from 16,582 at the 2000 United States...
  
  , 33°56.31′N 116°28.83′W
• Henry's Restaurant, Glendale, California
  Glendale, California
  Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...
  
   (demolished 1980)
• Florence Polin House, 3542 Multiview Drive, Hollywood, California
• Jacobsen Residence, 3544 Multiview Drive, Hollywood, California
• W. F. and Dorothy Gantvoort House, 3778 Hampstead Road, La Canada Flintridge, California
• Tower Motors Lincoln Mercury Showroom (later demolished)

1948

• Sheats Apartments ("L'Horizon"), Westwood, California (Los Angeles Cultural Monument No. 367)
• Valley Escrow Offices, Sherman Oaks, California (demolished)

1949

• UPA Studios
  United Productions of America
  United Productions of America, better known as UPA, was an American animation studio of the 1940s through present day, beginning with industrial films and World War II training films. In the late 1940s, UPA produced theatrical shorts for Columbia Pictures, most notably the Mr. Magoo series. In...
  
  , Burbank, California
  Burbank, California
  Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....
  
  
• Grant Dahlstrom House, 780 Laguna Road, Pasadena, California
• Schaffer Residence, 527 Whiting Woods Road, Glendale, California
• Googie's Coffee House, cnr Sunset and

1950

• Leo M. and Lena Harvey Residence, aka the Harvey Aluminum House, 2180 West Live Oak Drive, Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California. Purchased in 1998 by actress Kelly Lynch
  Kelly Lynch
  Kelly Lynch is an American actress. Once a model for the Elite modeling agency, Lynch appeared in the film Drugstore Cowboy which starred Matt Dillon, and the film Road House which starred Patrick Swayze....
  
   and her partner Mitch Glazer, by which time the house was considerably degraded and was being sold as a "tear-down". Lynch and Glazer have undertaken a faithful restoration of the house in collaboration with Helena Arahuete.
• Louise Foster House, Sherman Oaks, California
• Shusett House
  Shusett House
  Shusett House in Beverly Hills, California, is a relatively early work of American architect John Lautner . In 2010, the house is threatened with demolition by its owner....
  
  , Beverly Hills, California
  Beverly Hills, California
  Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
  
   (extensively altered; demolished 2010)
• Lawrence E. Deutsch Residence, Los Angeles, California

1951

• George and Grace F. Alexander House, 5281 East El Roble Street, Long Beach, California

• Baxter-Hodiak Residence (remodel), 8650 Pine Tree Place, Los Angeles, California
• Bick Residence, Brentwood, California (demolished 1990)

1952

• Nouard Gootgeld Residence, 1167 Summit Drive, Beverly Hills (altered beyond recognition, 1980s)
• Howe Residence, Los Angeles, California
• Fern Carr Residence remodel, Los Angeles, California (later extensively altered)
• Harry A. Williams Residence, 3329 Ledgewood Drive, Los Angeles, California

1953

• Ted Bergren Residence, 7316 Caverna Drive, Los Angeles, California (burned down in late 1950s, rebuilt by Lautner with addition)
• Henry's Restaurant, Pasadena, California (demolished 1979)

• Tyler Residence, 3612 Woodhill Canyon Road, Studio City, California
• Howe Residence, Los Angeles, California

1954

• Beachwood Market, Los Angeles (remodel)
• Coneco Corporation House, Sherman Oaks, California
• Fischer House, Los Angeles, California

1955

• Baldwin House
  Baldwin House
  The Baldwin House, also known as the Loammi Baldwin Mansion, is a fine Colonial American mansion located at 2 Alfred Street in Woburn, Massachusetts. On October 7, 1971, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places....
  
  , Los Angeles, California

1956

• Reiner-Burchill Residence, aka "Silvertop", 2138 Micheltorena Street, Los Angeles, California
• Speer Contractors Office Building, Los Angeles
• Kaynar Factory, Pico Rivera, California
  Pico Rivera, California
  Pico Rivera is a city located in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city is situated approximately 11 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles, on the eastern edge of the Los Angeles basin, and on the southern edge of the area known as the San Gabriel Valley...
  
  
• Willis Harpel Residence 1, 7764 West Torreyson Drive, Los Angeles, California (extensively altered by later owners, restored 2006)
• Stanley Johnson Residence, Laguna Beach, California

1957

• Paul Zahn Residence, 2880 Hollyridge Drive, Los Angeles, California
• Henry's Restaurant, Pomona, California
  Pomona, California
  -2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Pomona had a population of 149,058, a slight decline from the 2000 census population. The population density was 6,491.2 people per square mile...
  
   (demolished 1987)
• Carl and Agnes Pearlman Cabin, 52820 Middle Ridge Drive, Idyllwild, California
• Ernest S. and Mildred Lautner House (aka the Round House), 539 El Cerrito Place, Pensacola, Florida
  Pensacola, Florida
  Pensacola is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle and the county seat of Escambia County, Florida, United States of America. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 56,255 and as of 2009, the estimated population was 53,752...
  
  

1958

• George Hatherall House, 10160 Maude Avenue, Shadow Hills, California (extensively remodeled)
• Russ Garcia House "Rainbow", 7436 Mulholland Drive
  Mulholland Drive
  Mulholland Drive is a street and road in the eastern Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California. It is named after Los Angeles pioneer civil engineer William Mulholland...
  
  , West Hollywood, California
• Iwerks House, Sherman Oaks, California (later remodeled by Tracy Stone)
• Leonard J. Malin Residence, aka "Chemosphere"
  Chemosphere
  The Chemosphere, designed by American architect John Lautner in 1960, is an innovative Modernist octagon house in Los Angeles, California.-Design:...
  
  , 776 Torreyson Drive, West Hollywood, California (LA Historic-Cultural Monument No. 785)

1960

• Concannon Residence, Angelo View Drive, Beverly Hills, California (demolished 2002)
• Midtown School, Los Angeles (Los Angeles His­to­ric Cul­tu­ral Mo­nu­ment 553)

1961

• Ann and Peter Tolstoy House, Hillside Road, Rancho Cucamonga, California
• Marco Wolff Residence, 8530 Hedges Place, West Hollywood, California

1962

• Paul and Helen Sheats House
  Sheats Goldstein Residence
  Sheats Goldstein Residence, is a house designed and built between 1961 and 1963 by American architect John Lautner in Beverly Crest, Los Angeles, California, just a short distance from the Beverly Hills border. The building was conceived from the inside out and built into the sandstone ledge of...
  
  , aka Sheats Goldstein Residence, 10104 Angelo View Drive, Beverly Hills, California (remodeled and extended 1989-)

1965

• Wayne Zimmerman Residence, Studio City, California

1966

• Willis Harpel House #2, Stanford Drive, Anchorage, Alaska
  Anchorage, Alaska
  Anchorage is a unified home rule municipality in the southcentral part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the northernmost major city in the United States...
  
  
• Marina View Heights Headquarters Building, San Juan Capistrano, California
  San Juan Capistrano, California
  San Juan Capistrano is a city in southern Orange County, California, located approximately southeast of Downtown Santa Ana. The current OMB metropolitan designation for San Juan Capistrano and the Orange County Area is “Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, CA.” The population was 34,593 at the 2010 census,...
  
  

1968

• Dan Stevens Residence, 23524 Malibu Colony Road, Malibu, California
• Arthur Elrod House, 2175 Southridge Drive, Palm Springs, California
  Palm Springs, California
  Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...
  
  
• Marco Wolff Mountain Cabin (remodel), aka "Windsong", 48700 Twin Pines Road, Banning, California
  Banning, California
  -2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Banning had a population of 29,603. The population density was 1,281.6 people per square mile . The racial makeup of Banning was 19,164 White, 2,165 African American, 641 Native American, 1,549 Asian, 39 Pacific Islander, 4,604 from other...
  
  

1969

• Douglas and Octavia Walstrom House, 10500 Selkirk Lane, Los Angeles, California

1970

• Garwood Residence, Malibu, California

1971

• Gary and Elizabeth Familian House, 1011 Cove Way, Beverly Hills, California

1972

• Stephen (Steve) R. and Audrey Bosustow Cabin, Lake Almanor, Chester, California

1973

• Bob and Dolores Hope Residence, Southridge Drive, Palm Springs, California
  Palm Springs, California
  Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...
  
  
• Johanna and William Jordan House, 1617 Emerald Bay, Laguna Beach, California
  Laguna Beach, California
  Laguna Beach is a seaside resort city and artist community located in southern Orange County, California, United States, approximately southwest of the county seat of Santa Ana...
  
  

• Jeronimo Arango House, aka Marbrisa, Acapulco, Mexico 16°49.36′N 99°51.41′W

1975

• Beyer Residence, Malibu, California

1978

• Robert and Marjorie Rawlins Residence, 804 South Bayfront, Newport Beach, California

1979

• AbilityFirst, formally known as Crippled Children's Society on Rancho de Valle Rehabilitation Center grounds, 6530 Winnetka Avenue, Woodland Hills, California
• Joann and Gilbert (Gil) Segel Residence, 22426 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, California

1981

• Schwimmer House, Beverly Hills

1982

• Allan Turner and Jude Risk-Turner Residence, 51 Heather Lane, Aspen, Colorado
  Aspen, Colorado
  The City of Aspen is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the city population was 5,804 in 2005...
  
  
• Alden Schwimmer Residence, 1435 Bella Drive, Beverly Hills, California

1983

• Krause House, 24444 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, California
• Shirlin and Stanley Beyer Residence, 6515 Point Lechuza, Malibu, California (commissioned 1975)

1990

• Levy Residence (aka "the Concrete Castle", "the Pacific Coast house", "the Concrete Contemporary"), 32402 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, California

1992

• Shearing House, 15 Green Turtle Road, Coronado Cays, Coronado, California

External links

• Official John Lautner website
• Responsibility, Infinity, Nature — transcript of 1986 oral history interview with Lautner by Marlene L. Laskey for the UCLA Oral History Program
• John Lautner, Architect by Betsy Speicher
• Pacific Coast Architecture Database — John Lautner
• Googie Architecture Online
• The John Lautner resources page — site currently inactive (May 2010)
• ADAO — International Web Portal of Organic Architecture
• Triangle Modernist Houses: John Lautner — extensive photo archive with interior and exterior shots of many of Lautner's domestic commissions, including rare photos of the Bop Hope residence in Palm Springs
• "John Lautner's Dazzlers Designed for Daily Living" — Wall Street Journal article by David Littlejohn
• "John Lautner's Harpel house, restored in fine style" — Los Angeles Times photogallery showcasing recent restoration of Lautner's Harpel House