Frank Gehry :: The Benson House. Before Bilbao, Disney Concert Hall and the iconic global works that would define his career, Frank Gehry quietly rewrote the rules of domestic architecture on a hillside in the Calabasas Highlands. Completed in 1981, The Benson House belongs to Gehry's pivotal early Los Angeles period, when residential work carried the same experimental force his museums would later claim. Created for law professor Robert "Bob" Benson, who told Gehry, "Whatever you want to do, we will go for," the home became one of Gehry's favorite projects and most personal residential works.Set into a slope, the architecture separates from the hillside to create a moat-like negative space, allowing two distinct vertical volumes to emerge. A vertebrae-like wooden walkway connects the bedroom wing with the living and gathering spaces, creating a daily experience of movement, sequence and spatial discovery. Gehry described the composition as "almost touching," like two stones in a Japanese sculpture. Clad in humble asphalt shingles and grounded by concrete floors, exposed rafters and raw material contrasts, the home reflects Gehry's early language of recontextualized vernacular, California modernism and architecture as sculpture. The residence offers two bedrooms, three bathrooms, a loft workspace and panoramic San Fernando Valley views. Located within the Las Virgenes Unified School District (public school system). Sited on four contiguous lots, each with its own APN, The Benson House is Calabasas Historical Landmark No. 2 and an important early Gehry residence archived at the Getty Research Institute. Early Gehry homes rarely come to market, making this a singular opportunity to own a formative work by one of the most influential architects of our time.
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