Pierre Koenig's Brentwood home is for sale for the first time

Koenig House No. 2 isn’t the most famous house designed by Pierre Koenig (that would be the oft-photographed Stahl House), but it was the illustrious modernist architect’s home for nearly 20 years.

Located in Brentwood, the sleek, steel-framed home was the second one that Koenig completed for himself and his family. He built it in 1985 and lived there until his death in 2004, according to listing agent Matthew Altman.

The Los Angeles Conservancy has called it, “a wonderful example of the architect's ideas put into stunning practice.” Koenig worked with steel and glass for most of his career, designing simple, inexpensive, industrial-inspired prototypes that could be easily be mass produced, “like sausages or cars in a factory,” he said in a 1992 interview about Case Study houses.

His Brentwood home was erected in just one day, according to the conservancy. It sits on a narrow lot measuring just 40 feet wide but holds three bedrooms and 2.5 baths.

The highlight is a three-story atrium—the home’s “central core”—which was designed with light and acoustics in mind, according to historical records provided Altman. The upper windows were positioned to flood the space with light in the morning but block it in the afternoon. The height of the windows was “calculated to reduce reverberation,” while insulation and aluminum in the ceiling help absorb sound, as the Koenigs were “avid lovers of music.”

The first floor is devoted to all of the common living areas: a living room, parlor, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, and library, which housed the family’s music collection. A central steel bridge leads to the two sides of the upper floor, where the bedrooms are located.

Altman says the architect’s stepchildren, Barry and Thomas Kaufman, spent the past 2.5 years restoring the residence, “exactly and painstakingly ... in a tribute to Pierre’s original vision.”

On Monday, it hit the market for the first time, with an asking price of $3.795 million.

• 12221 Dorothy Street [The Altman Brothers]