Architect Pierre Koenig designed some of L.A.'s most iconic homes, among them two of the Case Study Houses (Nos. 21 and 22), which helped spread midcentury modernism far and wide through the photographs of Julius Shulman. In 1963, three years after the completion of the Stahl House—the second of Koenig's additions to the program, and probably the best-known postwar dwelling in L.A.—his Iwata House was built in Monterey Park. The 5,000-square-foot home is essentially a larger-scale application of many of the same methods he used in his Case Study entries: building around a prefabricated steel frame ("It's like a giant erector set," Koenig once said), floor-to-ceiling glass walls for the panoramic city views and indoor-outdoor openness so indicative of modernism as it took shape in Southern California. Listed in late July and featured yesterday on Curbed LA, the home was just taken off the market, meaning that it's probably too late to nab this particular gem. The asking price was $1,888,000.
Built for a Dr. Richard Iwata and his wife, the home has stayed in their hands ever since, and it has been altered a good deal. The listing states that the place has been "remodeled throughout," which included the conversion of some of the home's original six bedrooms into "4 larger rooms." (These spaces, the listing assures, "can be put back easily.") This revamped kitchen now sports dual islands and the perfunctory Wolff and Sub Zero appliances. There's also a barbecue-ready outdoor kitchen connected to a carport out front, next to a saltwater pool.
One Curbed LA commenter is willing to bet that "it was much warmer before the engineered wood and severe dark wood cabinet/industrial kitchen makeover." For now, it looks as if an interested party was able to see past all that.
· Pierre Koenig's 1963 Iwata House For Sale For First Time Ever [Curbed LA]
· 912 Summit Place [Zillow]
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