Craig Elwood's Brentwood Gem is For Sale

Curated Mid-Century Modern Home Listings

Craig Ellwood’s Bryon Lamar Johnson House is for sale for a whopping $6,295,000. Located at 1515 North Tigertail Road in the Brentwood, the home was designed by Ellwood and completed in 1953, the same year as Case Study House #16 (Saltzman House). It sits at the top of Crestwood Hills on a downward sloping lot.

Craig Ellwood was born Jon Nelson Burke in Clarendon, Texas. His family moved West, ultimately settling in Los Angeles. After serving in the U.S. Army Air Corps, Ellwood made his way back to L.A. where he worked in construction and general contracting. Along with his brother Cleve and two friends, Ellwood formed his first company. They named the enterprise ‘Craig Ellwood’, inspired in part by the group’s favorite liquor store, Lords and Elwood. The moniker was impactful enough that Jon Burke would go on to legally take the name for himself in 1951.

While working with his brother, Ellwood gained invaluable experience on new home builds across the Los Angeles area, becoming especially skilled as a construction cost estimator. This intimate familiarity with building materials would benefit him greatly in the next phase of his career. For over five years, Ellwood also studied structural engineering through UCLA extension night school. Although not technically an architect, Ellwood started to receive his first commissions to design private residences based on his reputation in the industry. In 1951, his new company, Craig Ellwood Design, was formed.

Just one year in and still green in his career in custom home design, Ellwood became the latest recruit of the Case Study Program. Case Study House No. 16 followed shortly after. It was the first of three houses Ellwood created for the Arts & Architecture magazine program. Today, house #16 is the only of the three still intact.

Craig Ellwood (April 22, 1922 - May 30, 1992) was an influential Los Angeles-based modernist architect whose career spanned the early 1950s through the mid-1970s.

The Johnson House is the third in a series of steel hillside houses designed by Ellwood. The structure uses a modular frame of steel columns and wooden beams. This engineering allows the house to project out from the slope. The design creates a floating effect. From the street, only the carport is visible. The rest of the house is located on a lower level reachable by stairs.

The interior of the main residence includes three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms. The living area features full height glass walls and sliding doors. The primary elevation faces south and includes an open balcony deck supported by 21 steel columns. The house has a flat roof clad in gravel. Inside, there are vertical redwood walls and exposed wood beam ceilings.

The property has undergone a restoration that updated the home for modern use. These updates include terrazzo floors, whole house automation, solar panels, and Tesla Powerwalls. The kitchen is equipped with Gaggenau, Wolf, and Sub-Zero appliances. A new one bedroom guest house or ADU was added to the property. It features a kitchen and a steam shower and opens directly to a swimming pool.

The house is a Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument. This status makes the property eligible for the Mills Act. The Mills Act can provide property tax savings for owners who preserve historic buildings. The Johnson House was once referred to as the Beauty of the House of Steel by the LA Examiner. It remains an example of the Case Study era principles Ellwood helped popularize.

View the live listing here: 1515 N Tigertail Rd, Los Angeles, CA 90049

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