Residential
A 1955 John Lautner Home in Silver Lake Lists at $2.1M With Its Original Kitchen, Floors and Fixtures Intact
By Real Estate Wire Staff, . Real Estate Wire.
A single-family home designed by architect John Lautner in 1955 has listed in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, asking $2,099,999, according to Realtor.com News. The property, formally known as the Rosemary and Joseph Baldwin Residence, has had one owner since it was built and has seen almost no alterations in the seven decades since.
What the property is
The Baldwin Residence sits on a 7,491-square-foot hillside lot and spans 1,679 square feet across three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Lautner balanced the structure on posts anchored by shear walls, producing what reads as a floating volume, reinforced by floor-to-ceiling glass and a wraparound deck. Redwood-plank siding, skylights, an inverted-pyramid ceiling in the living room and triangular clerestory windows are among the original design features still in place.
Louis Magnano of Modern California House, who holds the listing, told Realtor.com News that the home is "completely original, minus a tree that was growing through the teak deck in the backyard and that needed to be removed." The original kitchen, lighting fixtures, mahogany paneling, terrazzo and parquet flooring, fireplace, windows and bedroom built-ins are all intact. "It's about as original as you can get in 2026," Magnano said.
Why this listing is unusual
Lautner trained as a Taliesin Fellow under Frank Lloyd Wright during the 1930s before settling in Los Angeles in 1939. The Baldwin Residence predates the projects that made him widely known, including the Chemosphere (1960), the Sheats-Goldstein Residence (1961 to 1963) and the Elrod Residence (1968). The listing describes the Baldwin home as marking "a pivotal moment in that career: its siting, spatial progression, and detail recall Wright, even as they reveal Lautner's own emerging voice."
Lautner's own residence, known as Silvertop, is on the same street.
Magnano noted that Lautner homes have been trading more frequently in recent years, but the supply remains thin. "There's so few and far between," he said, "maybe it's just a special time in the marketplace."
The condition here is the real differentiator. Magnano was direct about what typically happens to architecturally significant homes: "They get traded (and) things are done to them when they shouldn't be. This house doesn't have that."
What the next owner is taking on
The sellers are not looking for a buyer who will leave the home as-is indefinitely. Magnano said the next owner "will need to restore and bring it up to today's standards but while maintaining the original quality of the home. The sellers want to see it restored."
At $2,099,999, the buyer is acquiring both a historically significant structure and a restoration project. The ideal buyer, Magnano said, is "somebody who understands the significance of these historical properties, who wants to restore them and honor them and keep them in the original glory that they all are."
Silver Lake adds to the appeal. Magnano described the neighborhood as home to a rich tradition of modernist architecture, citing Richard Neutra and Rudolph Schindler alongside Lautner, and noted ongoing development activity including a city-led restoration project at the Silver Lake Reservoir. The home also offers views of the Hollywood Hills and San Gabriel Mountains.
The listing was commissioned in 1955 by commercial artist James Baldwin and his wife Rosemary, who were introduced to Lautner through Rosemary's sister. Whether the asking price holds will depend on how many buyers are willing to pay for stewardship rather than a turnkey renovation.
Source: https://www.realtor.com/news/unique-homes/john-lautner-baldwin-residence-silver-lake-for-sale/
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