John Lautner’s Silvertop Residence, also known at the Reiner-Burchill Residence, has just been listed for sale. Asking price: 7.5 Million.

I visited this legendary residence during the 2008 Mak Center Tour organized in conjunction with The Hammer Museum‘s exhibit Between Earth and Heaven: The Architecture of John Lautner.  This home was next on my list for the  blog,  so I was thrilled when I discovered via  Curbed LA that the home was now up for sale. I wondered how much had changed since I’d toured the home. Namely, were those cork ceilings still there? Interestingly enough,  the images on their web site,  aren’t much different than the ones I took 6 years earlier. Obviously they’re better quality images  than mine, with proper lighting etc. (I’m sure the hired photographer wasn’t madly jumping off a tour bus first, and climbing back on last, frantically snapping away while moving through the space ahead of the others). However, judging from what I see on their website, not much has changed, in fact, even the chairs and sofa in front of the fireplace  are the same. The cactus framing the window appears to have been replaced with a smaller one,  so as to not obstruct the magnificent view, and the gardens have been cleaned up, but for all practical purposes the home looks pretty much spot on as it did during the home tour.

Silvertop took seven years to construct, and was completed in 1963 for Kenneth Reiner (ladies hair clip baron) at a cost of  nearly $1 million, a tad over the $75,000 estimated cost.  Sadly, Reiner ran into financials problems and was forced to sell the home.  In 1974  the current owners bought the home and hired Lautner to finish the job. I’m not clear by the timeline I’ve found online if there was another owner from ’63 – ’74, or if the home sat vacant for those years.

The home’s construction was groundbreaking for many reasons: It’s concrete dome, which was a first for Lautner, the cantilevered driveway that has no support columns,  faucet-less sinks that automatically fill with water, controls for lights and appliances that were set into walls and door jambs, and lights that pivot into the ceiling.

One observation that I’ll point out, is the cylindrical use of beams in the guest house. It reminds me of Lautner’s 1950 Harvey Residence , which I’ve written about in a previous post. I’m guessing he found this system successful, which is why he used it again in this residence.  Additionally, the guest home is surrounded by that circular cantilevered driveway, thus the circular room construction makes perfect sense.  So. Those cork ceilings… they’re still there.  If Lautner were alive today, I have to wonder if he’d opt to have them removed. They do look cleaner than when I toured the home… maybe they’ve been carefully replaced. I know, I know, it’s best not to mess with such an iconic Los Angeles Jewel such as Silvertop.