John Lautner, Architect
The Mauer House , 1947
Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 481
Mt. Washington
Perched into the hillside above Los Angeles, the Mauer House is one of John Lautner’s earliest explorations of space as architecture’s primary force.
Conceived less as a conventional home and more as a “warehouse of space,” the design prioritizes volume, openness, light, and structure over traditional domestic form.
Today, the house sits in a state of visible neglect. Years of deferred maintenance have obscured, but not erased, Lautner’s original intent. Beneath the layers, the spatial clarity remains.
There is something uniquely powerful about encountering architecture in this condition. Stripped of polish and perfection, the core ideas become legible again. Structure, proportion, and light reassert themselves as the primary language.
With early efforts now underway to restore the home, the Mauer House stands at a critical moment, caught between deterioration and renewal.
It raises an important question for our time: how do we steward architecture that was never meant to be ordinary?
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Special thanks to Sian Winship, John Berley, Lilian Pfaff and the SAH/SCC for arranging this wonderful tour and talk at the property last Saturday, and to the Mauer family for allowing access.
@sianwinship @lilianpfaff @sahscc
Thanks to architect Frank Escher, of The Lautner Foundation, grandson David Mauer, and his father Dr. Mauer, for such an interesting and informative discussion.
@egarchla @lautnerfoundation @dmauer1
Good luck to David and his girlfriend Elizabeth, who are undertaking a monumental restoration and rehabilitation of this special property.
@dmauer1 @elizbethgodley
#johnlautner #lautner #mauerhouse #mountwashington #losangelesarchitecture midcenturymodern midcenturyhome modernistarchitecture architecture mcm
