The famous Stahl House in Los Angeles, an icon of Mid-Century Modern architecture, has come to market for the first time, asking $25 million.
The glass-and-steel home in the Hollywood Hills is built at the juncture of mountain, ocean and city views. One glass-encased arm of the L-shaped home reaches for the edge of the cliff, fully open to the views around it given its lack of interior walls.
The second arm, also fully glass, cradles the pool deck at the center of the structure and is designed to align with Sunset Boulevard just below it. The home is topped by a beamed steel roof that hangs over the glass edges, creating shaded bands around the footprint of the home.
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“The house is perched above the Sunset Strip,” said listing agent William Baker of the Agency Beverly Hills. “It’s ideally placed; not too high up and not too low down.”
Buck and Carlotta Stahl purchased the mountain lot for $13,500 in 1954 with a dream of building a cliffside home, but the first few architects to whom they explained their vision, didn’t believe it could be done, according to the Stahls’ children, Bruce Stahl and Shari Stahl Gronwald—who are selling the home.
“This was a lot that was considered unbuildable,” said Baker, who specializes in architectural homes. “It was a miracle that it was able to be built.”
The third architect they spoke to was Pierre Koenig, who took up the challenge. Koenig asked if they would participate in the Case Study Program, which encouraged architects to build homes from everyday materials that could be mass produced in an effort to promote affordability. They agreed and the 2,200-square-foot Stahl House, built in 1959, is known as Case Study House No. 22.
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The idea for the glass walls came from Buck Stahl. When he saw the lot, he envisioned being able to see the mountains to the east and the ocean to the west from the same spot—just by swiveling his head, according to a book published by Bruce and Shari Stahl about the home in 2021.
That dream came true in the glass rectangle that holds the common spaces, with the kitchen divided from the cliff-edge living room only by a floor-to-ceiling fireplace. The second arm holds two bedrooms—the primary suite, and the children’s bedroom, which Bruce and Shari shared when the family moved in.
The children’s room was built with an accordion divider and bunk beds on either side so they could have some privacy and invite friends over, according to the Stahls, who are now grandparents.
In the mornings, the first thing the children would do was put life jackets over their pajamas and cross the concrete bridge over the pool to get to the kitchen, then they’d spend the rest of the day in the pool if they could, they recalled in their book. When they were old enough to swim, their father taught them to jump off the roof into the pool.
“We’re on our fourth generation of roof jumpers,” Bruce Stahl said on the “Design by the Book” podcast.
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For the last two decades, the Stahls have opened the home to tours, which has helped cover maintenance costs.. But it’s always at its core been a family house, Baker said, and the Stahls have hosted a parade of family gatherings, birthday and graduation parties, Fourth of July barbecues and many others.
Now, it’s someone else’s turn to enjoy the pool, the views and the legacy of Case Study House No. 22—and to safeguard its future.
“After 65 years, our family has made the heartfelt and very difficult decision to place the Stahl House on the market,” Bruce and Shari Stahl wrote in a letter to the public. “It is profoundly important to us that the new owner honor the legacy of our parents, Buck and Carlotta, respect Pierre Koenig’s vision, and be committed to protecting the house today and far into the future.”