THE VALUE OF ARCHITECTURE

06/20/2026

David Stringer, AIA | Oak Knoll House, 1963

832 Canon Drive
Pasadena, California

Some homes reveal themselves all at once. Others make you work for it.

Designed by David Stringer, AIA and built by E.C. Moller Construction in 1963, the Oak Knoll Residence unfolds through a carefully choreographed sequence of spaces. A meandering approach through the landscape gives way to a strong central axis that extends from the entry, through the house, and toward the pool beyond.

The architecture feels both familiar and elusive. Part Craig Ellwood, part East Coast Modernism, with hints of Japanese influence woven into the experience of arrival. The result is a home that feels remarkably thoughtful more than sixty years after it was built.

On the market for the first time in more than 30 years.

4 Bed | 5 Bath
3,492 SF
22,446 Lot SF

Listed at $3,790,000

Listed by
Lexi Newman 
Syd Shook

Considering this property? Brian and I would be happy to help represent you in the purchase.




THE VALUE OF ARCHITECTURE

Properties With Design Integrity.

06/15/2026

The Robinson Residence | Thomas Downes

What makes a home historically significant?
Sometimes it is not only the architecture, but the lives that moved through it.

Set within the Jefferson Park Historic Preservation Overlay Zone, this postwar modern residence brings together design, material, and cultural history in a rare way.

Originally commissioned by Dr. John Robinson, the first Black physician to work at LA County General Hospital and his wife Doris Robinson, a prominent radio and television presenter, the home carries a legacy that extends well beyond its walls.

The architecture features classic post-and-beam construction, walnut-paneled walls, original beechwood built-ins, and expansive glass doors that open directly to the pool and outdoor entertaining areas.

With design contributions associated with Thomas Downs and Lester Bankhead, the residence stands as both an architectural and cultural document of Los Angeles.

Extensively renovated in 2017 and further restored in 2021, the home has been updated for contemporary living while preserving the character that makes it meaningful.

2813 5th Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90018

4 Bed | 4 Bath
2,526 SF
7,508 SF Lot
Offered at $1,799,000

Listed by Beyond Shelter

If you’re considering this property, Brian Linder and Mark H. Mendez would be happy to help represent you in the purchase.




Follow for more architect-designed homes across Los Angeles.

06/08/2026

A new live-work campus rises at the edge of Culver City.

Habitat brings together housing, creative office, retail, landscape, transit, and public life on a 3.5-acre site directly adjacent to the La Cienega/Jefferson Metro E Line station.

Designed by SHoP Architects, with Steinberg Hart as architect of record and RELM shaping the landscape, the campus is organized as a layered urban environment rather than a single object.

A 12-story residential building, a 6-story creative office building, ground-floor retail, terraces, planted open space, and direct transit access come together around a more contemporary question:
Can density feel generous?

The project is also all-electric, designed for net-zero carbon in construction and operations, with LEED Platinum targeted for the commercial component and LEED Gold for the residences.

For Los Angeles, Habitat points toward a more integrated model of development one where housing, work, mobility, landscape, and design are understood as part of the same conversation.

Tour Habitat
3401 S. La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles, CA

Developed by with Aware Super
Project:
Design Architect:
Architect of Record / Executive Architect:

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Properties With Design Integrity.

06/07/2026

06/06/2026

Egon F. J. Winkens, Architect
Gaspard House, 1966

Perched above Moon Canyon in Mt. Washington, the Gaspard House is one of Los Angeles’ hidden architectural treasures.

Designed by architect Egon F. J. Winkens after his time working under Richard Neutra, the residence emerged from an unusually thoughtful process. Before construction began, Winkens and homeowner Dr. Don Gaspard spent months studying the vacant hillside, observing the movement of the sun and considering how architecture might respond to the landscape rather than dominate it.

The result is a house that reveals itself slowly.

From the street, its presence is restrained. A dramatic cantilevered trellis projects outward, hinting at something beyond. Upon entering, a sequence of spaces leads through the “Dragon’s Tooth,” a gallery-like corridor paved in vibrant green terrazzo, before opening into one of Southern California’s great living rooms.

There, a double-height volume framed by exposed structure and walls of glass captures sweeping views toward the Pacific Ocean. Sunlight filters through angled rafters, casting shifting shadows across wood surfaces throughout the day. At the center sits a sunken conversation pit wrapped in lime-green s**g carpet and anchored by a monumental Hawaiian lava rock fireplace.

Though Winkens worked in Neutra’s office, the house often feels closer in spirit to the experimental work of Rudolph Schindler. Folded planes, irregular geometries, expressive structure, and unexpected spatial sequences create an architecture that rewards exploration rather than immediate understanding.

Photographed by Julius Shulman shortly after its completion, the Gaspard House remains a remarkable example of California Modernism, where architecture, landscape, and daily life exist in continuous dialogue.

Special thanks to Dr. Don Gaspard for graciously opening his home and sharing the story behind this remarkable piece of Los Angeles architectural history.

Full-length video on YouTube:



A Luis Flores film with help from .boone

05/18/2026

Neutra’s Jardinette Apartments | A Rare Look Inside a Living Landmark

LA Forum Tour
Saturday, May 30
12–2 PM

BUY TICKETS: www.laforum.org/events

Richard Neutra, Architect
Jardinette Apartments, 1928

National Register of Historic Places
California Register of Historical Resources
Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument

The LA Forum is offering rare access to this landmark at a singular moment: an extensive renovation is underway, and the building will be seen while work is still in progress.

Hidden in plain sight near Melrose & Western, this 43-unit apartment building is Neutra’s first US project, widely considered one of the first Modernist buildings in America and an early example of the International Style in this country.

Designed under the Architectural Group of Industry and Commerce—Neutra’s sometime partnership with Rudolph Schindler—the building introduced European Modernist principles to Los Angeles while earning international recognition. It impressed Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius during his 1928 visit to LA and was later selected for MoMA’s seminal 1932 exhibition, Modern Architecture.

Here, Neutra began developing ideas that would shape much of his later work: clean lines, flat roofs, minimal ornament, industrial materials, ribbon windows, and a strong relationship to landscape. Organized around a verdant courtyard, the apartments open to cantilevered balconies, blurring the boundary between indoors and out.

After decades of benign neglect, the property has been acquired by local steward Cameron Hassid of Apollo Capital, who has led an extensive renovation with the city’s Office of Historic Resources, architectural historian Barbara Lamprecht, and June Street Architects.

Because work is still underway, the tour offers something unusual: the building mid-transformation, its structure exposed, its history legible in ways a finished restoration can sometimes obscure. A rare opportunity to see not just what Neutra built, but how it was built.

Presented by

TICKETS: www.laforum.org/events

Photos:
Julius Shulman Archive, Getty Research Institute
The Neema Group, Marcus & Millichap
Mott Studios, California State Library

05/17/2026

Lehrer Architects
Michael Lehrer, FAIA, Architect
Sunnyside Apartments

A new building by Holos Communities

Thank you , , and for a thoughtful tour of Sunnyside Apartments today.

What does it mean to design a home for someone who has not had one recently?

This 27-unit supportive housing project by Lehrer Architects offers one answer: that dignified, community-centered design is not an amenity. It is foundational.
Conceived as a fully affordable multi-family residence for chronically homeless individuals, Sunnyside makes a quiet but powerful case for architecture as a framework for stability, health, and belonging. The unit mix — 23 units for low-income residents, three for moderate-income households, and one manager’s unit — reflects a deliberate commitment to integration within a single building.

As a publicly funded project, every design decision carries a heightened level of responsibility. Here, that accountability appears to have produced not compromise, but clarity: a building that is navigable, welcoming, and deeply attentive to the daily lives of its residents.

The ground-floor gathering room anchors the social life of the building. It recognizes something too often overlooked in supportive housing: people need somewhere to be together, not just somewhere to sleep.

And in a city where access to green space remains unevenly distributed, placing a garden at the top of a supportive housing building becomes more than a design move. It is a statement that wellness, beauty, and community belong here too.

Grateful to , , Michael Lehrer, and for opening up the conversation around how housing can do more than provide shelter — it can help rebuild a sense of home.

What can architecture do when housing is understood not only as shelter, but as a foundation for stability, health, and belonging?

SupportiveHousing AffordableHousing LosAngelesArchitecture ArchitectureForHousing HousingDesign DesignForDignity CommunityCenteredDesign UrbanDesign SocialHousing ArchitectureMatters

05/08/2026

A special thank you to the MAK Center for making this home available to experience in person during their 2024 tour. For everyone else, this is your last chance to sign up for their next tour, tomorrow, 5/9/2026. Visit makcenter.org and their Instagram

R.M. Schindler, Presburger House, 1945

Set within the quiet fabric of Los Angeles, the Presburger House reflects Schindler’s fully realized philosophy of space as the primary architectural medium. Here, walls do not define rooms so much as suggest them, allowing space to unfold through shifts in light, proportion, and movement.

Rather than relying on spectacle, Schindler creates an experience that is intimate and deeply human. Compression gives way to release, interior dissolves into exterior, and the home reveals itself gradually as one moves through it.

This is not architecture as object, but as atmosphere, a quiet yet profound reminder that the true power of design lies not in what is built, but in how it is experienced.

Video collaboration with�Brian Linder, AIA�Mark H. Mendez�Architecture Brokers�THE VALUE OF ARCHITECTURE

05/06/2026

John Lautner | Mauer House, 1947

Mount Washington
Los Angeles, California

Perched into the hillside above Los Angeles, the Mauer House is one of John Lautner’s earliest explorations of space as architecture’s primary force.

Conceived less as a conventional home and more as a “warehouse of space,” the design prioritizes volume, openness, light, and structure over traditional domestic form.

Today, the house sits in a state of visible neglect. Years of deferred maintenance have obscured, but not erased, Lautner’s original intent. Beneath the layers, the spatial clarity remains.

There is something uniquely powerful about encountering architecture in this condition. Stripped of polish and perfection, the core ideas become legible again. Structure, proportion, and light reassert themselves as the primary language.

With early efforts now underway to restore the home, the Mauer House stands at a critical moment, caught between deterioration and renewal.

It raises an important question for our time: how do we steward architecture that was never meant to be ordinary?

Video Collaboration
Brian Linder, AIA
Mark H. Mendez

Architecture Brokers
THE VALUE OF ARCHITECTURE


COMPASS

midcenturymodern midcenturyhome modernistarchitecture architecture mcm

04/28/2026

FREE ARCHITECTURE TOURS THIS WEEK!

• OPEN TUESDAY (Today) 11 AM – 2 PM

• OPEN SUNDAY 2 – 5 PM


Set within Crestwood Hills, the Gelb House reads as a disciplined response to postwar housing—architecture reduced to its necessary elements and tuned for daily life.

Completed in 1950, the composition is exacting. A post-and-beam framework establishes order and legibility, allowing light, structure, and material to operate without distraction. Proportion governs everything.

The sequence is carefully controlled—an understated entry gives way to an open living volume, where interior space extends outward and remains in constant dialogue with the site. Ridge skylights introduce an even, calibrated light, setting a steady rhythm across the day.

What distinguishes the house is not just its clarity, but its continuity. Held by a single family for decades, the original intent remains intact. The recent work by Bruce Norelius Studio is measured and precise—an act of stewardship rather than revision.

In a landscape where mid-century is often reduced to image, the Gelb House holds to first principles—clear, restrained, and exact.

A. Quincy Jones & Whitney R. Smith, Architects
The Morris & Lydia Gelb House, 1950
Rehabilitation by Bruce Norelius, 2014
LA Historic-Cultural Monument No. 1332

12450 Rochedale Lane
Los Angeles
3 BD | 2 BA
1,197 SF | 14,068 SF Lot
$1,995,000

Represented by
Brian Linder, AIA
THE VALUE OF ARCHITECTURE

Photography: ©Tim Street-Porter

Restoration: