Living in a Lautner Home

by SweisKloss
June 24, 2021

One of our earlier blogs, when we started writing these three years ago, was about the Sheats-Goldstein Residence designed by one of our favorite architects John Lautner. The blog goes into how early on in her career and prior to SweisKloss, Abeer toured the Sheats-Goldstein Residence and found it to be a defining moment, realizing how special and extraordinary architecture can be. With this week’s blog, we find ourselves coming full circle as we write about another Lautner home, the Tyler House.

The architectural mastery of these beautiful homes hearkens to something deep and meaningful within people, some profoundly affected by being in these environments. One such person was one of the owners of the Tyler House (built for Theodore and Helen Tyler in 1950). For the last 30 years artist Peter Tangen lived in this Lautner-designed home. He, along with architect Tracy Stone and contractor Sid Loving, painstakingly restored the home to its original beauty. And now, the home will change hands as it was just sold.

So, when we discovered an essay written by Peter Tangen, we were moved by his eloquent words. We not only wanted but felt compelled to share an excerpt from “Sitting in Awe”:

Suddenly, and almost accidentally, I found myself living in this inspiring space. That was almost thirty years ago.

I was professionally creative, and my eyes were always wandering appreciatively on the world around me. Now, I found myself sitting in awe of the simple grace of this home.

The more time I spent quietly contemplating the space, the more I came to understand it. Every architectural decision revealed itself as the obvious best choice. My early questions of “why did he do that” turned into “of course he did that” as I grew to be in sync with the experience offered by this simple and modest home.

I remember many nights looking at the now mostly hidden city lights feeling lucky to be there, the house felt to me like an embrace.

Now, some thirty years later, the trees have matured in this little canyon and the home feels more intimate, more private. It’s truly a redwood and glass treehouse and with the windows and skylight open the canyon breezes flow through…

…Our goal was to realize John Lautner’s original vision for the house while embracing his belief that architecture should evolve with technology and the financial ability of the owners. Taking inspiration from his other works, especially the Sheats–Goldstein residence…

The Tyler House by John Lautner is about to turn seventy years old…

…I believe it is ready for the many generations of people who will live in and experience the home in its next 70 years.

To read the full essay, go to https://www.tyler.house/essay. It is well worth taking the time to do so. We leave you with one last thought: This is why architects and designers do what we do.

All photos sourced from Dwell by photographer Cameron Carothers. Click on images to make them larger.