Frank Gehry, Schnabel House, Los Angeles, USA, 1989

Date:March 19, 2014

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Frank Gehry, Schnabel House, Los Angeles, USA, 1989 (View from google)

This iconic architectural home was built in 1989 on a commission from Rockwell Schnabel, former ambassador to Finland and the European Union, and his wife Marna Schnabel, who has an architecture degree and worked briefly with Gehry, is one of Gehry’s last single family residences. Schnabel House is a “village” of sculptural forms encompassing spaces that are multi-dimensional and complex, representing a maturation of Gehry’s architectural vocabulary at the time. The home presents a synthesis of craft, material, textures and ideas in an extraordinary environment. Light and form are in constant flux as the day and seasons change.

This house involves four structures constituted of stucco, wood, glass, lead and copper. There is a main building with a living room, library, family room, kitchen, dining room, study, sauna, plant room, a master bedroom and two other bedrooms. Connected to the main house by a breezeway there’s another building with a garage, a gym, a guesthouse and an office with a dome inspired by the Griffith Observatory. The house has seven air conditioning systems and a large setback.

In 2010 this house has been meticulously restored and renovated by Jon Platt and his mission was to equip it with features expected of a high-tech residence in a way that pleased Gehry.