The Kappe House by Ray Kappe is for sale in Los Angeles

Kappe House, Ray Kappe, Pacific Palisades, LA

(Image credit: Cameron Carothers)

Nearly two decades ago, Wallpaper* correspondent Paul McCann and photographer Laura Wilson took a tour of the Kappe House in Pacific Palisades, along with another of the architect’s projects, the 1972 home and office of psychotherapist Dr Esther Benton in Brentwood.

The Kappe House from the street, with Ray Kappe's Jaguar Mk2 still in the car port

Kappe, who died in 2019 at the age of 92, co-founded the Southern California Institute of Architecture (better known as SCI-Arc) with the architect Thom Mayne of Morphosis.

A pioneering architectural educator as well as a practising architect, many of his houses have featured in films and TV shows over the decades, helping shape the public perception of Californian modernism (the Benton house featured in Californication, One Hour Photo, Cruel Intentions, among others).

The entrance steps lead up to the glass-walled studio

Kappe’s wife, Shelly, died in early 2025 at the age of 1996. A prominent architectural historian and academic, Shelly Kappe used her role as a writer and curator to showcase some of the key players in modern LA’s architectural history.

The glass-walled studio on the ground floor

Of all the architect's projects – including the Triesch Residence near Berlin – Kappe's own residence is perhaps his most famous. Designated a Cultural Historical Monument all the way back in 1996, the LA Times once called it ‘The Greatest house in Southern California’, and it's easy to see why the architectural legacy of this particular project has been so enduring.

Another view of Kappe's office and studio — The glass-walled studio on the ground floor

The ground floor office and studio — The glass-walled studio on the ground floor

Set on a sloping site in Rustic Canyon, the Kappe House is arranged over no less than seven levels and covers some 4,157 square feet. Kappe’s spatial genius is in evidence from the get go, with steps leading up from the road, threading past mature trees to the front door, set beneath a cantilevered canopy – which doubles up as a balcony for the floor above.

The main living space in the heart of the house

Formed from vertical concrete supports criss-crossed with vast redwood beams, the house is a true interlocking puzzle. The entrance level houses Kappe's glass-walled office, reached by a bridge above the carport.

From here, stairs lead up another level to the centrepiece, a double-height living room flanked by a raised den on one side and the kitchen on the other, each overlooking the sunken living space in the middle, furnished with distinctive blue seating in the house’s heyday.

Looking across the living space to the kitchen

A multiplicity of views up, down and across are available from this one space, with low level voids, vast frameless glazed and high-level clerestory windows maximising the interplay between the beams and the walls.

Rich detailing abounds, from the built-in kitchen with its timber worktops, exposed concrete walls and terracotta flooring, and the primary bedroom, with its sunken fireplace, desk and recliner, flanked by views out to the canyon vegetation beyond. Natural planting is offset by rock gardens, as well as a lap pool with spa, sauna and cabana.

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Exterior views of the Kappe House — (Image credit: Matt Baird)

The Kappe House has a lap pool and multiple exterior terraces and walkways

The house has five bathrooms and another four bedrooms, with walkways that take a vertiginous path across the sloping site as well as huge windows that are filled with a view of abundant greenery.

The main suite occupies the house’s northeast wing, with a further collection of three bedrooms in the more private south-east wing. Throughout the house, much of the furniture is built-in, custom-designed by Kappe himself.

The office and fireplace nook in the primary bedroom

As luck would have it, the realtor in charge of the sale, luxury estate and architecture specialist Ian L.Brooks, had the pleasure of assisting the late, great Julius Shulman when he shot several homes for Wallpaper* back at the turn of the century. Now Brooks has come full circle, offering this spectacular home to the market for the first time since it was built.

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Julius Shulman's images of the Kappe House, taken shortly after completion in the late 1960s

Priced at $11.5m, Brooks tells us that ‘we went into multiple offers within three days of being on market... [The house] a work that is disciplined and deliberate, yet seemingly free and effortless, where traditional spatial boundaries are erased,’ he enthuses, ‘it’s been described as a work of art that is both essay and poem.’

Details of the studio in the Kappe House

For once, the realtor hyperbole is justified, and Brooks’ contention that the Kappe House delivers a ‘continuous symphony of direct and indirect dappled light that animates the house from sunrise to sunset’ is no exaggeration. The Kappe House awaits its new custodian.

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Bedrooms and bathrooms in the Kappe House

The Kappe House is being sold by Ian L.Brooks, Berkshire Hathaway Santa Monica, IanBrooksEstatesGroup.com, @Sir.IanLBrooks, DesignerEstates.com

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Jonathan Bell has written for Wallpaper* magazine since 1999, covering everything from architecture and transport design to books, tech and graphic design. He is now the magazine’s Transport and Technology Editor. Jonathan has written and edited 15 books, including Concept Car Design, 21st Century House, and The New Modern House. He is also the host of Wallpaper’s first podcast.