With its octagonal design that’s part Jetsons, part Bond, John Lautner’s Chemosphere House is considered a masterpiece of California Modernism. Perched on concrete poles, the home is reached via an inclined cable railway. Wiki link.
Lautner ingeniously solved the problem of the 45-degree slope by siting the entire house off the ground atop a 50-foot (15 m) concrete pillar that rests on a massive concrete pad 20 feet (6.1 m) in diameter and 3 feet (0.91 m) thick, buried into the rocky hillside. Halfway up the pillar, eight angled steel “spokes” — bolted onto bosses formed onto the surface of the column — splay out and up, supporting and stabilizing the outer rim of the house, and the center of the pillar also houses the utility cables and pipes.
Lautner provided access from the driveway up the steep hillside by installing a funicular, which terminates at a short sloping gangway that leads up to the entrance. The house is octagonal in plan and lozenge-shape in section, and is often described as a “flying saucer”.
I owned a house across the street from this house on Torryson Dr. in Hollywood. I sold it to Sharon Stone.
Be careful where you put the grand piano! 🙂
Awesome. We could prefab these. Pour the foundation, and set the saucer on.
I saw this on TV…Anna, the Queen, was planning to have 59 of these all around the world, but the Fifth Column is attempting to thwart her plans.
@jeeman, Thanks for reminding me of another show that I’ll never know how it ends. Along with THE EV?NT and FlashForward.
John Lautner is great. No faux Spanish, no stucco, no fake arches or cheesey italian craps like those you see at all over OC.
It could be a fun house, but how liveable is it? I read somewhere that taxes eventually forced the original owner to sell. It might be expenseive to maintain. Still, it is a cool house.
Looks like a nicer version of the Futuro Homes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futuro
There used to be one in Hillcrest… not sure what happened to it.
I am wondering why nobody left a comment that this was the house in the movie BODY DOUBLE where Craig Wasson saw the woman strip.
Ack! It’s got a great view but that house (interior and exterior) gives me the creeps. Exterior looks like a hamburger and the interior looks like a penthouse magazine set, circa 1971.
Good post though :).