Tour an Iconic Midcentury-Modern L.A. Home That’s Surrounded By Nature and Filled With Light
Before Joachim Rønning’s film Kon-Tiki was nominated for a Golden Globe and Academy Award, before he directed the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean, even before he married the activist Amanda Hearst, the Norwegian-born director had set his sights on a very different career path. “I was in my late teens when I first came across John Lautner’s work in a coffee table book and it completely fascinated me,” Rønning says. “In fact I was so taken by his designs that before I was bitten by the movie bug, I was thinking of becoming an architect.” It would take a few more decades before Rønning and his wife would come across Lautner’s work again, but this time, it would be to buy a home the influential architect had designed.
In 1961, John Lautner designed the West Hollywood home for interior designer and concert pianist Marco Wolff. For Lautner, who had apprenticed under Frank Lloyd Wright in the 1930s, the home was an opportunity to flex his creative muscles. What began as an arduous, almost vertical plot of land, resulted in perhaps the acme of midcentury-modern residential architecture on the West Coast. With this home, Lautner leaned into the primal state of nature, demanding that his audience turn their preconceived notion of domesticity on its head. It was a bold statement of how humans once lived—among the trees, the rocks, perched atop a hill—and the architect stamped his thumbprint on it.
The four-story home is nestled within a 9,785-square-foot plot in a leafy enclave of West Hollywood. To approach it from the street is not unlike approaching the face of a rock—it’s an encounter with something that has been there before you, and it will be there after you’re long gone. Lautner had a philosophy in the construction of a home, which he termed grammar, that contributed to the whole idea of what the space was going to be. And once the architect formed this philosophy, he was relentless in its execution. “For me, as a filmmaker, I take so much inspiration from someone like Lautner,” Rønning says. “Because when I look at this house, even in the smallest of details I can see there were no compromises. He really fought for his vision.”
After moving into the home, Wolff added a guest house (also designed by Lautner) a decade later, before eventually selling the abode. What followed was a series of owners who added little in the way of elegance. That is until Rønning and Hearst Rønning purchased the property, when the stylish duo tapped architect and interior designer Clive Wilkinson to help bring their new home back to its former glory. “It’s the design of the home that’s the real star,” says Hearst Rønning, who is the cofounder of the sustainable fashion retailer Maison-De-Mode and the cofounder of Well/Beings, a non-profit dedicated to animal welfare and conservation. “So our goal was to complement Lautner’s midcentury architecture with furniture and art from the same epoch.” That meant adorning the walls with works by Robert Motherwell and Josef Albers, as well as adding congruent furniture in the form of a Harvey Probber–designed coffee table and Jorge Zalszupin–designed armchairs.
For Hearst Rønning, the great-granddaughter of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, moving into the 3,410-square-foot home (measurements including the guest house) marked an exciting new chapter in her life. “I grew up in New York apartments my whole life, so this was a big change for me,” she says and then laughs. Yet, for Rønning, the new home was a reminder of his roots. “Coming from Scandinavia, it’s as if I’ve had midcentury aesthetics in my blood since childhood. It was omnipresent. Not necessarily the expensive Eameses or Breuers, but nevertheless I unconsciously gained so much inspiration from that era in architecture and design.”
Rønning wasn’t the only one infatuated with the design of that era. “From the beginning, I had no desire to leave any form of signature or imprint on this house,” Wilkinson says. After receiving the proper permits from the city’s historical commission, the South African–born talent was keen on leaving the bones of the home intact. “I saw it as my job to clarify Lautner’s original design. I had no ego about it because it wasn’t about me, it was about taking a phenomenal piece of work and bringing it back to what it should be.” But that also involved bringing in L.A.–based contractor MODAA Construction to shape a few additions without disrupting the architectural integrity of the home. An extra bedroom was created (by way of an old utility room), as well as a small wine cellar and home gym.
However, out of an abundance of respect for the original design, Rønning and Hearst Rønning would not go any further in their additions. “Every day we wake up in the house, and it inspires us in a way we can’t put our finger on,” Rønning says. “It’s in the little things: How light hits the wall at certain hours, or the way we see an angle [of the wall] for the first time. It’s not unlike staring at a Rothko, for example—you’re simply absorbed by the power. It just shows the genius of Lautner.”
Photo: Sam Frost1/13The exterior of the home seen from street level shows the cantilevered roofs, and it also exemplifies Lautner’s vision to design the very anthesis of a boxed home.
2/13The exterior of the house features trees and tall stone walls that provide ample privacy for the homeowners. “Just like in the 1960s, our home is in a busy neighborhood, enveloped within an even busier city,” Hearst Rønning says. “But you wouldn’t know it walking through the home. It’s like we’re the only people on the block, and I think that just shows the power of ingenious architecture.”
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3/13The entryway to the home features a geometric skylight that provides even more sunlight to the space. Lautner’s vision was a serene existence in a natural space. To enter the home is to exit the noise and distraction of the surrounding city. All that Lautner would allow to penetrate the space was air, light, and vegetation. It’s an environment where, at times, it’s difficult to know where nature ends and the home begins.
4/13The cozy living room features a sectional from M2L, Harvey Probber–designed coffee table from 1stDibs, and Jorge Zalszupin–designed armchair from Espasso. “Lautner is brilliant because he had these simple, very powerful moments in architecture that keep the viewer engaged,” Wilkinson says. “His designs are the opposite of a one-liner, they are a story that evolves with time. And it’s because of the connection with humanity, with the natural world, that his designs will always be part of the conversation.”
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5/13The living room fireplace is complemented by an area rug from Cappelen Dimyr and a Poul Jensen–designed chair.
6/13The living room terrace looks southeast, with Los Angeles sprawling the distance. The tables and chairs are vintage Walter Lamb–designed pieces, and the bench cushions are from Roman Upholstery in L.A.
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Photo: Sam Frost7/13The Rønnings brought in their own Steinway & Sons piano in honor of Marco Wolff, the home’s original owner (and a concert pianist). Above the piano is a vintage chandelier from 1stDibs.
8/13The Rønnings playfully refer to the three eucalyptus trees Lautner planted within and around the home as their “tree babies.” Of course, since the trees are now over six decades old, the trees have grown in height and width. As a result, Rønning’s team had to enlarge the openings for the trees to have more room.
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Photo: Sam Frost9/13The kitchen includes an open floor plan within the 2,286-square-foot main house.
10/13The dining room includes a custom built table by Denis Milovanov, Gubi chairs from Design Public Group, and a cushioned bench with fabric from Knoll.
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11/13The primary bedroom includes a bed frame from Semigood Design, Hästens mattress, and bedside table from CB2. The wood-slatted wall on the far side of the room was the entry to the home’s original safe. The homeowners decided to turn that space into an additional closet, while keeping the sense of privacy of what’s behind it intact.
12/13Like the main home, the 1,124-square-foot guest house (which was designed by John Lautner and added to the house in 1971) is surrounded by verdant landscaping.
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Photo: Sam Frost13/13When renovating the swimming pool, the homeowners and architect meticulously researched its original design. The result is a mosaic-tiled swimming pool that feels congruent with the rest of the home. The lip at the far end of the pool was a design solution that Lautner implemented in 1961 so that the cantilevered pool wouldn’t run over the property line.
