Stahl House

The Stahl House, perched on a steep lot in the Hollywood Hills above Los Angeles, was designed by the architect Pierre Koenig and completed in 1960 as Case Study House Number 22, one of a series of experimental modern houses commissioned by Arts and Architecture magazine to demonstrate affordable, mass-producible modern residential design using industrial materials. Koenig's steel-framed, glass-walled design cantilevers a corner of the house out over the hillside, opening a wraparound view across the Los Angeles basin, and the house became internationally famous largely through a 1960 photograph by Julius Shulman showing two women seated in the glowing glass box suspended above the city lights at night. That photograph is widely regarded as one of the most reproduced images in the history of architectural photography, and it did much to define the popular image of mid-century Los Angeles modernism. The Stahl family retained ownership of the house for decades after its completion and continued to allow public and film access to the site.