Malin Residence (Chemosphere)

The Malin Residence rises above the slope of Briar Summit in the Hollywood Hills on a 29-foot-high, 5-foot-wide concrete column, providing a panoramic view of the San Fernando Valley. Built in 1960, the house was designed by architect John Lautner for Leonard Malin, a young aerospace engineer who had been given the steeply sloping lot by his father-in-law. The cost to build the house was subsidized partly by barter with two sponsoring companies, the Southern California Gas Company and the Chem Seal Corporation, the latter giving the house its nickname “Chemosphere.” The house is reached from the carport under the house by a funicular and a concrete patio that connects one side of the house to the hillside. Called “the most modern home built in the world” at one time, Chemosphere is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.

Los Angeles, Los Angeles County
Photographer: John Bare