The recent indoor-outdoor living trend would have been no news to mid-century Modernist architect John Lautner. Sixty years ago he was designing homes that took advantage of their setting and led their owners to interact seamlessly with the natural world.
Lautner practiced primarily in southern California in the mid-twentieth century. His architecture is best known through his striking residences, like the Garcia house, whose dramatic curving roof and wall of glass windows perches on V-shaped supports in the hills above Los Angeles.
Marmol Radziner – Garcia House – Architecture
The architect, a former apprentice to Frank Lloyd Wright, adhered to Wright’s philosophy of ‘organic architecture,’ which promotes harmony between humans and the natural world.
The Lautner-Garcia house is unusual because even in modern architecture you don’t have homes where you have to go outside to get to the other part of the house, as you do here, says LA architect Ron Radziner, whose firm Marmol Radziner was charged with renovating the property.
Marmol Radziner – Garcia House – Architecture
Thanks to its in and out design, the house has a strong connection to the landscape, as its inhabitants go outside onto patios and down staircases that lead through terraced gardens. “When you descend the small staircase at the end of the living area, you find yourself on a hillside winding down to the pool,” Radziner explains. “We tried to keep the native plants that already existed on that area, adding others, as well as some Mediterranean plants. Additionally, as you are taking this path, at one point you are under the house itself, and in this zone, it’s a shade garden, with shade tolerant shrubs and native ferns.
Marmol Radziner – Garcia House – Architecture
The original house as designed for Russell Garcia and his wife Gina was split into two halves—one half for entertaining, the other a private space with a study where Garcia, a musician, could work without being disturbed when his wife was entertaining friends. The curving central staircase serves as a main link between the public and private wings of the home.
Marmol Radziner – Garcia House – Architecture
“Lautner was one of the most adventurous, futurist architects practicing, and this is an iconic home in LA. We were excited by the opportunity to bring it back to more of its original design,” Radziner says.
“Our original brief was about the bedroom side of the home, the side no one sees very much. The owners wanted a bedroom suite, library, and powder room.” Over the years, a succession of owners made changes, and the whole transparency of the original central section had been filled in.
“We wanted to get that center space open again, and the owners were open to that.” They restored that transparency by removing interior walls and adding glazing.
After the primary renovation, Marmol Radziner returned in 2012 to add the elliptical pool, part of Lautner’s original design, but never built; and in 2018 to remodel the 9×9 kitchen area, using dark gray painted custom cabinetry in a simple Sixties style, and squared off minimalist Dacor appliances.