The Stahl House: A Midcentury Marvel

The Stahl House is one of the most famous and beautiful mid-century homes in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California.  It was built in 1960 by Buck and Carlotta Stahl and the same year it was featured in Arts & Architecture magazine with the iconic black and white photograph taken by Julius Shulman.

In 2024, I had the opportunity to tour the iconic home, which is still owned by the Stahl family.  The building of this home was truly an inspirational story powered by love and perseverance.   When Buck and Carlotta Stahl purchased the empty lot in 1954, most of the surrounding area was still undeveloped.  Their lot was also very sloped, which meant building challenges, but they knew this spot, on the edge of a high mountain, was special and they had a vision.  

The first challenge was grading the slope to strengthen the foundation and prepare it for construction of their home.  Buck Stahl spent a few years building a retaining wall and filling in the slope with rocks and boulders. 

The second challenge was finding an architect to build the home.  The Stahl's wanted a home with large windows to capture the views of the city from every room. But the first two architects they spoke with said a house could not be built on the lot.  But the third architect, Pierre Koenig, accepted the challenge and began designing the house in 1957. 

The third challenge was for Pierre Koenig to get approval to build the house. Despite the tremendous work to reinforce the foundation and grade the slope, it was difficult to get a conventional home loan to build  a very unconventional home on a slope.  He also faced challenges with meeting building codes and spent a considerable amount of time working with engineers and planners to get approval. 

Construction of the home finally began in April of 1959 and was completed a year later in April of 1960. The result was a unique and modern 2,200 square foot L-shaped home constructed of steel and floor-to-ceiling glass walls, with open living spaces and panoramic views of Los Angeles. And a pool and jacuzzi too!

It's truly a mid-century modern marvel!  

The famous photograph by Julius Shulman that immortalized the Stahl House.