Renowned architect John Lautner’s stunning stone and glass, waterfall-style Wolff Residence in Hollywood Hills is on the market.
Designated a Historical Cultural Monument by the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission and also listed as a California State Monument, the home is eligible for Mills Act tax benefits.
Lautner was a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, and his way of approaching design was so successful his homes are as sought after today as when they were originally built. He had a way of reading his client’s wishes, while at the same time taking his designs over the top, making a name for himself.
In 1961, overlooking the Sunset Strip in Hollywood Hills, he designed the Wolff Residence, a house dramatically built in waterfall steps clinging to the mountainside on less than a quarter acre. Named after its owner, concert pianist, Marc Wolff Jr., it became one of Lautner’s most acclaimed homes.
A stone, glass and copper structure of many terraced levels and a cantilevered swimming pool, it works its way up the mountainside, in and around old eucalyptus trees and outcroppings of lush tropical foliage. The original house of 1,664 square feet was built as a stack of rectangles in various positions, with the bachelor status of its owner in mind.
The master bedroom suite is on the middle floor, the dramatic living areas are on the top floor, and the pool, with its black bottom and copper-wrapped benches are on the lower level, two stories above the street.
In 1970, Wolff decided he needed space for visitors, and he rehired Lautner to design a 1,170-square-foot guest house on the west side of the building with three bedrooms and two additional baths, giving the house a total of 2,834 square feet, four bedrooms, and three and a half baths. Earthy and intimate, and exuding high drama, the Wolff Residence encompassed all of the inspiration needed for its creative owner and those who came after. It is now on the market, priced at $6.5 million.
More of Lautner’s celebrated designs included the Bob Hope spaceship house in Palm Springs, the Elrod Residence, also in Palm Springs, where the James Bond film, “Diamonds are Forever” was filmed, his Chemosphere house in Los Angeles, which the “Encyclopaedia Britannica” once called “the most modern home built in the world,” and was also used as a frequent film backdrop. At the pinnacle of his career, he designed the Arango Residence in Acapulco.
Photos by Darwin Nercesian
The listing agents are George Salazar and Tilsia Acosta of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties.
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