With all due respect to all the diehard fans of Glendale out there, the Los Angeles satellite city is not exactly known for its cutting-edge architecture. However, this quiet little Southland community does indeed harbor quite a few architectural gems, including a striking, little-known pavilion designed by New York-based architect Stan Allen that has come available for the very first time at a wee touch under $1.7 million.
Known as LB House, after its original (and current) owner Linda Burnham, an abstract painter and a Distinguished Professor of Painting at Otis College of Art and Design in Pasadena, the home’s boxy and dynamically angled façade monochromatically co-mingles an exciting mix of foggy gray stucco, fiberglass and corrugated aluminum. Completed in 2000, tucked away among towering eucalyptus on a petite parcel of barely more than one-tenth of an acre, and sited along an assuming mixed-use street next to a Russian Adventist church, the captivating home holds two bedrooms and two bathrooms in just under 2,000 square feet.
A working architect, theorist and academic, Allen boasts an impressive résumé. A graduate of Brown University with a bachelor of arts degree, Allen got a second bachelor’s degree, this one in architecture from New York City’s Cooper Union, before he graduated from Princeton in 1988 with a master’s of architecture degree. He would later become the dean of the Princeton University’s prestigious School of Architecture.
Broadly experienced in designing gardens, workspaces and art galleries, the LB House was actually Allen’s first commission for a private residence. However, when Burnham and Allen first met in 1996, she would tell him that his gallery spaces in New York are what drew her to commission him. Listings held by Tracy Do and Ronda Doyal of Compass describe the airy and playful home as an exploration of the East Coast architect’s definition of “the SoCal dream” that was perfectly tailored to the artsy lifestyle of Burnham and her late husband Robert Overby. Modest in scale, the home boasts some serious “wow” factor, and features a flowing open floor plan perfect for entertaining and showcasing artwork.