Sublime Schindler in Studio City asking $4.8M

The landmark was admirably restored and polished by its current owner, designer Pamela Shamshiri

By Pauline O'Connor Jul 12, 2019, 1:35pm PDT

Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 1024, the Lechner House was designed for a doctor and his wife by R.M. Schindler in 1947.

It’s shaping up to be a real banner week for fans of California modernist architecture. Now causing a stir in Studio City is the Lechner House, designed by the brilliant Rudolph Schindler in 1947.

Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument No. 1024, the four-bedroom residence—one of the architect’s largest single-family projects—was built for Dr. Richard Lechner and his wife. After the Lechners divorced in the 1950s, the home went through a series of owners, getting progressively drained of its Schindlerian spirit, as photos from its last appearance on the market illustrate.

In 2008, the Lechner House landed in the hands of its ninth owner, designer Pamela Shamshiri. Using a trove of architectural plans, notes, and vintage photographs found in UC Santa Barbara’s Schindler archives, Shamshiri, whose portfolio includes the Ace hotels in Palm Springs, Downtown LA, and New Orleans, conducted a meticulous restoration and revamp of the property that took the better part of a decade.

Walls of glass, clerestory windows, and Douglas fir ceilings create a feeling of being in a treehouse. To the left is the built-in dining table and chairs Shamshiri reproduced using Schindler’s design specs.

According to a 2016 T magazine feature on the house, the overhaul entailed sandblasting untold layers of white paint from the home’s Douglas fir ceilings and other surfaces, replacing aluminum windows and canned lighting, and reproducing Schindler’s built-in furniture using the architect’s drawings and photographs.

The expanded galley kitchen has 40 feet of counter space and pull-out pantry walls concealed behind smooth-surfaced cabinet doors.

A wall between the kitchen and den was removed to create a more open flow.

Shamshiri also made a few tweaks to the 3,539-square-foot home’s interior layout, most notably extending the kitchen, converting a closet into a powder room, and turning a lower level storage room into a spa-like bathroom, complete with Japanese soaking tub and custom plywood cabinetry.

(Curiously, however, the property’s extensive renovation did not extend all the way to its swimming pool and spa, described in the T story as “awaiting repairs.” As it was then, the pool is filled with graffiti rather than water.)

Located on a .37-acre lot at 11600 Amanda Drive, the V-shaped house is hidden behind a tall, thick surrounding wall on its street-facing side, but open on its innermost side, which is lined with walls of glass that serve up pastoral views of Laurel Canyon. Asking price for the modernist landmark, listed with Tori Horowitz of Compass, is $4.8 million.

Sublime Schindler in Studio City asking $4.8M

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