A Sherman Oaks home designed in 1958 for trailblazing “Steamboat Willie” animator Ub Iwerks by architects John Lautner and James Charlton is on the market.
The asking price is $2.279 million.
Dubbed the Ubbe (Ub) E. and Mildred Iwerks House, the modernist creation sits tucked between gardens and trees with 3,132 square feet of living space. There are four bedrooms, an open floor plan and a downstairs office added, the listing said, in 1999 during a remodel of the property at 4024 Murietta Ave. by architect Tracy Stone.
She also added the master suite.
Bamboo flooring and wood-paneled walls are set aglow by filtered light as it pours in through glass walls and clerestory windows.
Decorative touches from the era remain, including hardware, lighting and built-in cabinetry.
Keith J. Fisher of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California is the listing agent.
According to the Walt Disney Family Museum Blog at (waltdisney.org/blog), Roy O. Disney once described Iwerks as “Walt’s Swiss Army knife,”
Iwerks animated the early Mickey Mouse shorts, most famously “Steamboat Willie,” the first fully synchronized sound cartoon released in 1928. The prolific artist, who was also known for his special effects innovations, had previously worked with Disney on the “Oswald the Lucky Rabbit” cartoon series.
Lautner, the maverick modernist whose designs have appeared on film, did the initial drawings. He then turned the project over to Charlton to finish.
Like Lautner, Charlton apprenticed Frank Lloyd Wright before he arrived in Los Angeles.
He worked with Southern California modernists Whitney Smith, Archibald Quincy Jones, Wayne Williams and Edgardo Contini – as well as Lautner – before launching his own firm. In the early ’60s, the architect took his practice to Hawaii.
