“Ellwood put glass where everyone else put wall, and then let the city finish the house.”
- Sam O'Connor
2977
Passmore Dr
Los Angeles
Bedrooms
3
Bathrooms
3
Total Area
1,688 Sq. FT
Lot Size
12,747 Sq. FT
Price
$4,995,000
A Glass House and the Air Around It
Craig Ellwood built his reputation on subtraction, in steel and glass, across a run of Los Angeles houses that taught the rest of the country what California modernism looked like. The Kuderna House is his and James Tyler’s, finished in 1956, and it sits in a gated enclave in the Hollywood Hills doing the trick those houses do best: from the right angle it reads as though it is hovering just off the slope rather than sitting on it. Walls of glass take the city, the surrounding hills, and a decent share of the landmarks you would name if asked. The restoration was done by someone who understood what they had, which is a lower bar to describe than it is to clear, and the proof is in what did not happen to the place. The house still looks like a 1956 drawing rather than a 2026 interpretation of one.
Representation by Elizabeth Donovan, Coldwell Banker Realty
Inside
The material list is short enough to recite. Where there is glass there is a great deal of it, and where there is wall it is warm walnut rather than drywall pretending to be nothing, so the palette comes down to two things and whatever the windows are holding. The floors are hand-poured terrazzo, chosen in 1956 for the reason it still works now, which is that it does not date and does not wear out. The restoration is the part that could have gone badly and did not. Nobody opened up a plan that was already open, nobody warmed the terrazzo into something more forgiving, and nobody bolted on the square footage a buyer at this number usually expects (the separate guest house, with its own bath and kitchenette, absorbs the overflow instead). What is left is a house with almost nothing in it to argue with.
Outside
A lap pool runs alongside the house, long and narrow in the way that reads as a line drawn rather than a pool dropped in, and it does the job Ellwood wanted the landscape to do, which is carry the architecture past the walls. The lot is 0.65 acres behind the gates of a private enclave, with parking for four, which in these hills counts as a real luxury rather than a listed amenity. The view runs across the basin and into the hills on both sides, and because the glass is where the view is, the outdoors is functionally part of every room. Then there is the second piece of this offering, the one that is easy to skim past. The adjacent parcel at 3076 N. Beckman Road comes with the sale, land with no house on it, and the entire value of it is that it stays that way.
The O' Factor
Everyone selling a glass house sells the glass. What actually decides whether a glass house is still livable in fifty years is not the steel or the terrazzo, it is whatever ends up on the other side of the windows, and that is the one variable no architect ever controlled. It is why so many significant midcentury houses in these hills now look directly into somebody’s spec build, and why their owners keep the blinds down on the good side. The adjacent parcel is the real asset in this offering, because it does the thing no restoration can do, which is keep the view a view. Ellwood and Tyler drew the house. The empty lot protects the drawing. This one is for the person who understands that owning an important house means owning the conditions it depends on, and who would rather hold a hillside than fill it.
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The Homes we Represent,
Represent Us.
Every home has a soul. Every human has a place they were meant to be. Our instinct is knowing when the two finally meet. We honor architecture, preserve great design and celebrate the match. Welcome to O’Connor Estates. We’ve been waiting for you.
Proof is in the Properties
SOLD
$10,557,516
1100
Rivas Canyon Rd
Pacific Palisades
Sold for $1,657 a square foot.
SOLD
$10,019,375
644
644 Amalfi Dr
Pacific Palisades
Sold for $1,880 a square foot.
SOLD
$8,250,000
11945
Lockridge Rd
Studio City
Closed in under two weeks at $250,000 over asking, after multiple offers.
SOLD
$7,775,000
12221
Benmore Ter
Los Angeles
Sold for $1,514 per square foot.
SOLD
$5,300,000
2525
Outpost Dr
Los Angeles
Closed off-market for $250,000 over asking.
SOLD
$5,140,000
708
N Kenter Ave
Los Angeles
Sold for $1,619 per square foot.
