An Offenhauser Jewel in South Pasadena, $4.2M

Bob Ray Offenhauser built this gem of a home for his family in 1978 and currently owned by his son, the 3-bed, 3-bath gem has just come on the market for the first time since its construction. Offenhauser was fortunate in his site. It sits within the former gardens of Villa Arno, the grand, landmarked 1916 estate designed by Reginald Johnson in the Renaissance Revival style, which was subdivided in the 1970s. The villa, once owned by designer Richard Tyler, sold for just under $10 million earlier this year.

The property features a house with interconnected courtyards and pavilions, set within a mature formal landscape, that was conceived by Offenhauser with his wife and frequent collaborator Katherine Offenhauser (they were both USC Architecture grads) as a family home and design laboratory. Also, worth celebrating—it’s rare that a well-preserved dwelling, so close to the architects’ original concept– comes on the market.

Bob Ray Offenhauser began practicing architecture in the 1950s; a decade later his work began appearing in Architectural Digest, elegantly modern but nonetheless historicist dwellings for wealthy clients, and his firm would appear on the AD100 list for years. In the public realm, Offenhauser’s most enduring legacy is his collaboration with the Chinese architects of the Huntington Library’s 15-acre Liu Fang Yuan Garden, considered the finest classical garden outside of China. 

Few architects were better at integrating formal interiors with the outdoors—although South Pasadena’s Mediterranean climate was certainly a collaborator—and all of his projects have an inherent sense of drama and scale that anticipates Post-Modernism. The Offenhausers were well-travelled. The tinted stucco exterior and scale of their home recalls the single-story farms of Puglia or the Balearic Islands; the tall, compressed and skylit spaces look back at the etchings of Piranesi, and the grand living room to 17th century Venice– perhaps a nod to his contemporary, Tony Duquette, in that mirrored oculus.

This past week, the New York Times offered a fascinating look at the Offenhauser home and the architect’s career. Visit the listing for additional images and details. The Offenhauser’s intimate family residence offers an opportunity to own a superb example of Los Angeles architecture from the 1970s, one melding the theatrical essence of Hollywood Regency and the Modernist design undercurrents of the decade, represented by Eric Lavey at Eric Lavey + Partners.

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