Sunlit mid-century living room with exposed dark beams, grand piano, built-in bookshelves, and floor-to-ceiling glass opening to a lush garden.

A PALMER & KRISEL MODERN · 1958

Great architecture is not just seen. It is lived.

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LIVING-CONDITIONED HOMES

Exterior view of the residence, post-and-beam structure with butterfly roofline against a soft sky.

The glass-wall living room, floor-to-ceiling sliders dissolving the boundary between inside and garden.

In the late 1950s, architects Dan Palmer and William Krisel set out to bring modernism out of the museum and into daily life. They called the result Living-Conditioned Homes — houses meant not to be admired from a distance, but inhabited. Walls of glass dissolve the line between inside and out; butterfly ceilings lift toward the light; rooms open to the garden. Built in 1958, this residence is one of them — warm, livable, quietly dramatic, and unmistakably Californian.

PALMER & KRISEL

Archival-feeling portrait placeholder — a quiet study in tone and texture.

The home was designed by Dan Palmer and William Krisel — two architects who set out to do what the profession mostly ignored: make great modern design affordable to ordinary families. While others chased prestige through one-off custom houses, Krisel did the opposite, drawing tens of thousands of modern homes across California and becoming one of the very few architects to truly bring Modernism to the masses.

Born in Shanghai and raised in Los Angeles, Krisel studied architecture at USC — an education interrupted by the war, when he served as a Chinese interpreter. He was also a trained landscape architect, which is why these houses sit so easily in their gardens. With Palmer, he is best known for the Palm Springs tracts that came to define mid-century modern as we know it. This home shares that lineage: the same vocabulary of glass, beam, and light, set down in the San Fernando Valley.

The tract was advertised in the 1950s as 'keyed to good living' — a phrase Krisel himself dryly called 'advertising puffery.' Nearly seventy years later, it turns out to have been true.

THE ARCHITECTURE

The butterfly roofline and clerestory windows pulling daylight deep into the ceiling plane.

Exposed post-and-beam construction, Douglas fir spanning the full depth of the house.

Floor-to-ceiling glass wall dissolving the boundary between living room and garden.

Mid-Century Modern was never a style applied to these homes — it was a way of living built into them. The butterfly roofline isn't decoration; it lifts the ceiling toward the sky and lets clerestory windows pull daylight deep inside. Post-and-beam construction means the walls don't hold the house up, so they're free to dissolve into glass. Inside and outside stop being separate ideas.

Across the Living-Conditioned tract, Palmer & Krisel worked from five core plans, varying orientation, setback, and finish so the neighborhood feels harmonious but never repeated. This is one of the originals — built in 1958, thoughtfully renovated in 2022 so the architecture stays true while the comfort is fully current. Few homes of this pedigree come to market, and fewer still arrive this carefully kept.

INSIDE

The living room with glass walls and exposed wood beams overhead, afternoon light filling the space.

The dining area, open and generous, framed by post-and-beam construction.

The kitchen flowing uninterrupted into the dining space, clean lines and warm materials.

The primary bedroom, quiet and light-filled, with views to the garden.

Expansive glass opens the living areas to garden and sky. Wood beams cross overhead; sunlight and shade trade places through the afternoon. Kitchen and dining flow without interruption — open, generous, made for gathering. Roughly 1,890 square feet, renovated in 2022 with the character left intact.

INDOOR / OUTDOOR

The glass-walled atrium dissolving the boundary between interior and garden.

The private heated pool, surrounded by mature plantings.

The garden in late afternoon light, made for long California evenings.

A glass-walled atrium blurs the boundary entirely; beyond it, a private heated pool, mature plantings, and a garden made for long California evenings — all on an expansive lot of more than a quarter acre.

THE STUDIO

The home's quiet surprise sits where an unfinished garage used to be: a studio carved out with wood beams, a skylight, and a kind of stillness that's hard to find. Sound-treated and light-filled, it's a room built for focused creative work — a recording space, a writer's retreat, an editing suite, a place to make things. With an AC unit and a built-in recording booth, this space is ideal for musicians, filmmakers, podcasters, writers, editors, and content creators. Very few homes offer it.

The built-in recording booth, sound-treated and ready.

A quiet workspace corner in the studio, light falling across the desk.

ORIGINAL CHARACTER, CURRENT COMFORT

Fully renovated in 2022 and meticulously kept since — a new premium cool roof, electrical panel, and pool systems mean the bones are original but the comfort is new. Approved plans and permits for an ~800 sq. ft. ADU leave room to grow: a guest house, a second studio, or income.

A home for people who understand that great architecture isn't just seen. It's lived.

Or call 424-249-9557 directly to arrange a private showing.