The Schindler Scale

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The Architecture

Volume and Void

It is a common misconception that Los Angeles modernism is solely about glass boxes floating on hillsides. While R.M. Schindler certainly utilized glass, his late-career “Space Architecture”—of which the Lechner House is a crowning achievement—was far more elemental. Completed in 1949 for Richard Lechner, this residence was inspired not by the machine age, but by the grounded, protective nature of Native American cave dwellings.

Schindler, an Austrian emigré who cut his teeth under Frank Lloyd Wright (and famously managed the construction of the Hollyhock House), often worked on a modest scale. The Lechner House is an anomaly: at over 4,000 square feet, it is one of his largest single-family commissions. The plan is a dramatic V-shape, or boomerang, designed to hug the contours of its hillside plot in Studio City.

The house employs the “Schindler Frame,” the architect’s signature structural system that allowed for continuity between the floor, walls, and ceiling. But the real story here is the light. Schindler manipulated the clerestory windows and jagged rooflines to pull sunlight deep into the interiors, ensuring that even the most “cave-like” recesses feel connected to the swaying eucalyptus and canyon scrub outside.

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The Restoration

A Decade of excavation

By the early 2000s, the Lechner House had suffered the indignity common to so many mid-century masterpieces: bad renovations. Drywall covered the original plywood; the flow was stifled. Enter Pamela Shamshiri, principal of the celebrated Studio Shamshiri. She lived in the house and spent nearly a decade peeling back the layers of paint and plaster to “liberate the Schindler within.”

This wasn’t a flip; it was an archaeological dig. Shamshiri restored the original plywood paneling and the striking stainless steel fireplace—a jagged, angular anchor in the living room that feels almost futuristic. The current owners took the baton for the final lap, engaging the architectural firm Escher GuneWardena (known for their work on the Eames House) for a complete exterior restoration, while the landscape architecture firm Terremoto revitalized the grounds. The result is a property that retains its patina but functions with the seamless ease of a contemporary home.

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The Market Context

Schindler’s 2025 Renaissance

The appetite for pedigree in Los Angeles remains voracious. 2025 has seen a flurry of activity for “brand name” modernism. While the iconic Stahl House (by Pierre Koenig) made headlines with a dizzying $25 million ask, the market for Schindler is more nuanced.

Just recently, Schindler’s Druckman Residence in the Hollywood Hills—a 1941 commission—listed and sold in the $2.75 million range. While that property is a gem, it lacks the sheer scale and restorative provenance of Lechner. At $6.5 million, 11600 Amanda Drive is positioned at the top of the Schindler market, reflecting not just the square footage, but the premium buyers are willing to pay for a “turn-key” monument where the heavy lifting of preservation has already been done by the city’s best creative minds.

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Living Details

Elemental Luxury

The experience of the house is one of compression and release. You enter through a relatively modest facade, only to have the space explode outward toward the canyon views. The “cave” metaphor holds up: the house feels anchored to the earth, providing a sense of psychological safety that the more fragile “glass box” style often lacks.

The material palette is strictly honest: Douglas fir, plywood, glass, and concrete. The flow between the indoors and the restored swimming pool is effortless, a hallmark of the California dream that Schindler helped invent. It is a house that demands to be lived in, not just looked at—a space for dinner parties that spill onto the terrace, rather than stiff architectural tours.

Listed by Stefani Schmacker of Sotheby’s International Realty & George Penner of Compass
Photography by Sterling Reed