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American architect John Lautner designed over 200 architecture projects during his career, which began in the 1930s with an apprenticeship with Frank Lloyd Wright. He then started his own firm in Los Angeles in 1938.
Most of John Lautner's work was realised in California, including the development of his famous Googie-style coffee shops in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Garcia House, and perhaps, his most famous home, the Sheats-Goldstein Residence in the hills of Los Angeles. It is also in LA that local firm Conner + Perry Architects was recently tasked to restore and remodel one of the late architect’s masterpieces from the early 1980s, ‘Lautner's Castle’.
Step inside Lautner’s Castle with us
Positioned along the topography of a steep hillside, the home features an array of cylindrical stone turrets along the south face. These are both structural and architectural, illustrating Lautner's philosophy, which emphasises natural materials, blending stone, steel, glass, and wood, and a harmonious relationship with the landscape.
With extensive experience working on Lautner properties, including the Sheats-Goldstein residence, Conner + Perry Architects started on the Lautner's Castle restoration project in 2019. Principals Kristopher Conner and James Perry were entrusted to make modern enhancements that would not disturb the original modernist architecture, while also meeting the needs of a 21st-century family lifestyle.
The home unfolds with a wide curving hallway and a ribbed wooden ceiling that spans the entire upper floor. Just outside the front-facing windows, copper elements on top of the beams replaced the white painted metal that will age more congruently with the house.
In the living area, a dramatic linear LED wood structure of single-ply wood-veneer fins hangs from the ceiling over the dining table, theatrically illuminating the exposed timber ceilings. ‘I conceived of it as a dragon for Lautner's Castle,’ says Conner. ‘The house has a nautical feel. The roof structure, to me, feels like the hull of a ship turned upside down. We actually replaced the entire roof, so when we ripped it off, you could really see the details. This thing was built like a ship with these diagonal boards, creating a unitised structure.’
The team also brought in chrome eyeball lights to enhance a sense of direction in the entryway. These cast a light on the Douglas fir wood panels, which were completely stripped and refinished in the majority of the house.
In the living room, a custom cream sofa designed by the architects morphs from a daybed to a formal sitting area. Its supports were made with glulam Douglas fir (same as the house beams), and the integrated table at its heart is fabricated from solid slabs, taking inspiration from the house, its materials and geometries.
One of the most fascinating architectural features is that each of the cylindrical stone columns hosts a programmatic element. One in the living room contains a functioning wet bar, while the kitchen one is a built-in pantry. These pillars also help frame the city and canyon views that unfold beyond the exterior balcony that runs the length of the property; and you might just spot a herd of deer sauntering around the hillside.
‘What’s interesting about this house,’ says Conner, ‘is that in most of Lautner's houses, where there's a view, the architecture really opens up to the view in a very dramatic way. But here, I think there is much more of an interior focus on the house. The skyline views get framed in these spaces between the stone [cylinders]. The drama is the two terraced balconies. He takes those lessons from Frank Lloyd Wright about compression and expansion, and increasing the drama.’
Expansive windows offer natural light and frame the lush green surroundings. The skilful use of warm woods and stone flooring continues to the exterior (where it was refurbished), further blurring the lines between indoors and outdoors, in the spirit of Lautner’s philosophy and approach.
The kitchen was actually renovated by Conner and Perry’s previous mentor, and a Lautner associate, Duncan Nicholson, around 2013, so this area stayed pretty much true to the original, including the island constructed out of a stone slab with an edged treatment.
There was no hood for the [stove] range, but the architectural duo added discreet slots in the ceiling and a commercial vent fan on the roof. ‘This is telling of our approach to the restoration of the house; everything was, where possible, just a minimal intervention, trying to preserve the architecture as much as [we could],’ says Conner.
On the first-floor interior, among a host of interventions by Conner and Perry, the library transitions into a media room (featuring a hidden state-of-the-art A/V system, a projection screen and integrated audio), a custom-built-in sofa, and shelving that supports the room's functionality. The chevron wood flooring was replaced ‘like for like’ according to Conner.
In the primary suite, the original sunken tatami mats were replaced with a custom platform bed with integrated nightstands, and wall sconces that blend into the vertical-grain wall panelling with Lutron lighting. In addition, an original small office off the hallway was converted into a second walk-in closet featuring a rotating clothes rack.
The bathtub in the primary bathroom with its canyon view was completely revamped, replacing an old fibreglass jacuzzi with a new custom Corian soaking tub, a hardwood tub deck and hardware from Vola, along with a privacy shade.
A water closet, adjacent to the already showstopping stone-cylinder primary shower with its dramatic circular skylight that frames the clouds, was refurbished and a new skylight was added. At the vanity corner, a custom-carved double-bowled vessel sink was installed after it was carved out of a boulder by Stoneland, USA, in the valley. Its rare size meant it took a year to procure.
Throughout the home, the original bathroom tiles were maintained, including in the powder rooms, where skylights were added. Here, lighted fixtures were updated to modern LEDs that are colour-adapting, so you can simulate different types of daylight. A dedicated make-up station was added to the primary bathroom area.
A restored spiral staircase is covered in an updated version of the original Italian red wool carpet and leads down a lower level where three more bedrooms and a bonus guest-game room are. The original second-level bedrooms were lacking in light, so Conner and Perry transformed the old guest bedroom by placing larger windows in the corner looking out onto the surrounding garden and incorporating intricate millwork, such as the built-in headboard with drawers, floating shelves, and a wardrobe.
‘We expanded this window all the way down to the floor, so you could see so much lush greenery, and then the views,’ says Conner. Outside this guest room is a hybrid piece of furniture serving as both a deck and a bench. ‘It's really just about creating that intimate relationship with the garden here.’
A jack-and-jill set of two bedrooms and a bathroom is now joined by the game-guest room. Frosted glass doors bring in more natural light. The original concrete floors were redone with concrete micro-topping product in keeping with the Lautner philosophy of trying to blur inside and outside in a cohesive manner.
On the exterior, Conner and Perry extended the architecture into the landscape, providing little pockets or vignettes to spend more quality time outside, including a dining table and concrete bench, an outdoor kitchen with a barbecue grill. An old storage closet was converted into a cabana bathroom with a nearby outdoor shower.
Working with the pool’s original structural engineering, the noted Lautner collaborator Andrew Nasser, Conner and Perry carved out an expansive deck beneath the pool – an area that was previously inaccessible. This becomes a third level for the home, cantilevering out of the hillside. Here, you will find a wooden infinity deck featuring a stone fire pit, a long built-in concrete bench, and custom lounge chairs by Conner + Perry Architects. ‘All of this used to be a barren dirt hillside,’ adds Conner.
Providing both shelter and dramatic canyon views, the space offers a unique perspective of the underside of Lautner's bold cantilevering structure. ‘We were very careful not to have a guard rail. We added these planters and this little hiking trail that loops back around the property.’
The exterior landscaping outside was previously sparse. It is now lush with a cactus garden at the front and a hillside at the rear. The latter splits off into walkways flanked by a mix of native plants and a pop of Bougainvillaea for colour. ‘We've spent years developing this. Now, there are almost these little microclimates and a fern grove where it's shady,’ says Conner.
In the end, one of the biggest challenges for the architects was navigating the generous landscape element in this project without detracting from the original architecture. As in all of Lautner’s most significant works, a key concern was the relationships between human being and space, space and nature, and that enduring ethos has been well preserved at Lautner's Castle.