The home of one of Los Angeles’ legendary golden age architects came up for sale this month with an asking price of $1.59 million. The house was designed by John Lautner, and was his primary residence. It hasn’t been offered for sale for forty years.

The influence of Lautner’s mentor, Frank Lloyd Wright, is everywhere in the early modern. The heavy use of redwood makes ready use of native materials, and adds naturalistic warmth; the plentiful glass brings the home’s setting inside, and part of the context of the living style. And, similar to Wright, the home’s layout and lines evoke both cerebral severity and comfort, momentum and stillness, exhilarating stimulation and soothing familiarity. Use of color is more brazen than Wrights, though, and the cool and warm pastel spectrum is, apparently, by and large original.

The design is circumspect and inventive; the home’s natural ventilation arises from a ceiling design that channels thermodynamic airflow up and out through the kitchen.

At just under 1,250 square feet, the house is modestly sized; it is also positioned in a spot which was, in its day, quite bucolic. City views are just distant enough to suggest privacy and solitude as well as communal connection.

There are three bedrooms and two baths in the house.