An Ellwood box in the hills
Craig Ellwood, the self-taught designer whose three Case Study Houses made his name, built this house in 1956 for the illustrator Charles Kuderna. It is the pure version of his idea: a black steel frame, walls of glass, white panels where the plan wants privacy, and the whole composition set above the hillside so that it appears to float. A yellow door and a yellow spiral stair, with a splash of red at the entry, are the only color the frame allows itself.
The main house holds two bedrooms and two baths on hand-poured terrazzo, with walnut-clad walls and the original brick and steel fireplace, restored, at the center of a living room whose floor-to-ceiling glass slides open to a central courtyard. Over the two-car carport, up that yellow stair, is a one-bedroom guest house with its own bath and kitchenette.
Restored from the archive
The house sold in 2018 and was then taken back to Ellwood's intent by Philippe Naouri of Maison d'Artiste, working from the archives of Jim Tyler, the architect who ran Ellwood's design staff for twelve years as vice president of Craig Ellwood and Associates. Overhangs and sun screens that had been put up against the sun came off, the original full-height glass stayed, new terrazzo went down, and the kitchen and baths were rebuilt to a design drawn from those archives.
Outside, an elevated lap pool runs the architecture into the landscape, and the sale includes the adjacent parcel at 3076 North Beckman Road, which carries plans for a second residence of roughly 2,300 square feet. Together the two gated lots come to about 0.65 acres, with the city, the canyon and the Hollywood Hills in the glass.
