Chance to buy a Midcentury dream

The Stahl House, a 1960s L.A. landmark, hits market for the first time ever.

- BY CHRISTOPHER REYNOLDS

THIS 1960 image of the home was called "perhaps the most famous picture ever taken of Los Angeles."

(JULIUS SHULMAN J. Paul Getty Trust)

For decades, the Stahl House in the Hollywood Hills has been a rarity a globally known icon of Midcentury Modernism and Los Angeles glamour, still in the hands of the family who commissioned it in 1959. But now it's for sale.

The asking price is $25 million, which might seem a startling figure for a two-bedroom, 2,300-square-foot home on a snug lot. But that figure might not surprise lovers of modernist architecture who know it as Case Study House #22.

It was designed for the Stahl family by architect Pierre Koenig, captured on black-and-white film by photographer Julius Shulman and has been admired worldwide ever since.

The Architect's Newspaper called it "one of the world's most famous buildings." Los Angeles magazine called Shulman's image "perhaps the most famous picture ever taken of Los Angeles."

"There are no comps for the Stahl House. It's incomparable," said William Baker, architecture director for the real estate firm the Agency Beverly Hills. The home was included in the company's fall catalog Nov. 12.

By Friday afternoon, Baker said, he had received hundreds of inquiring calls. In considering offers, Baker said, the family is open to individuals or institutions "someone who's going to understand it, honor the house and the story about it."