08/19/2025
It’s 8/18 which means Happy 818 Day y’all! Our beloved SFV tends to get a bad rap. Too hot. Too far. Too windy. Yeah maybe those point are true but in the hearts of true 818ers the valley always has been and always will be cool.
Quick story. Richard Neutra, one of the most prominent and revered modernist architects of the 20th century who arguably changed LA’s housing landscape with his forward thinking designs, built what many considered to be his masterpiece right here in Northridge. In the 1930’s famed Hollywood director Josef Von Sternberg commissioned Neutra to build him a miniature mansion on a beautiful 13 acre plot of land. The address was 10000 Tampa Ave.
Having studied under the masters Frank Lloyd Wright and Rudolf Schindler, Neutra developed a distinct style that focused on simplicity, minimalism, functionality, and flexibility of the living space. Much of the current sensibility of post-Pinterest homebuyers can directly be traced back to Neutra’s vision.
The Von Sternberg house was completed in 1935. A relatively smaller home it featured an aluminum exterior, curved interior and exterior walls (a la Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall), lots thick glass windows, oversized garage bays, open living space for flexible furniture layouts, and an actual moat surrounding the structure. In 1943 famed writer Ayn Rand (The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged) purchased the house from Von Sternberg and lived there until 1951. She wrote Atlas Shrugged in that very house, which itself is a huge 818 bragging point. Unfortunately in 1971 the property was sold to developers and demolished for a housing project 😥
It is now the site of Buckingham Estates in Northridge, along Tampa Avenue just south of Devonshire and across the street from Nobel Middle School.
#818
