Lechner House
![September 25, 2016](https://studioshamshiri.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/COSTIFAS_LECHNER_LIVING-RM-scaled.jpg)
The 1948 Lechner House is one of the last masterpieces of architect Rudolph Schindler, a mandarin of California modernism and a hugely influential force in 20th-century design. Nestled into the rock and hugging the contours of its canyon setting, the structure epitomizes Schindler’s late-career “space architecture.” The state in which we found the house was, in a word, bleak, so our mission was clear: save it, restore it, and give it a new life for a new century.
![September 25, 2016](https://studioshamshiri.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/COSTIFAS_LECHNER_LIVING-RM-TABLE-scaled.jpg)
Many of Schindler’s signature details—including humble plywood walls and a bold, angular stainless-steel fireplace—had been entombed in Sheetrock and other materials incongruous with the architect’s vocabulary. We had to liberate the Schindler within.
![COSTIFAS_LECHNER_DINING](https://studioshamshiri.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/COSTIFAS_LECHNER_DINING-scaled.jpg)
![COSTIFAS_LECHNER_DECK](https://studioshamshiri.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/COSTIFAS_LECHNER_DECK-scaled.jpg)
The key to turning the historic house into a contemporary home was to avoid slavish devotion to Schindler’s original design while maintaining the spirit of his work and reconstructing his most brilliant ideas.
![September 25, 2016](https://studioshamshiri.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/COSTIFAS_LECHNER_PRIMARY-BATH-scaled.jpg)
![September 25, 2016](https://studioshamshiri.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/COSTIFAS_LECHNER_PRIMARY-BATH-VANITY-scaled.jpg)
![COSTIFAS_OFFICE](https://studioshamshiri.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/COSTIFAS_OFFICE-scaled.jpg)
The house is not merely a Schindler brought back from the near-dead, but a reflection of its owner’s unique aesthetic of streamlined California cool studded with warm, organic touches and high-low wit.
![September 25, 2016](https://studioshamshiri.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/COSTIFAS_LECHNER_PRIMARY-BED-DRESSING-scaled.jpg)
![September 25, 2016](https://studioshamshiri.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/COSTIFAS_LECHNER_EXTERIOR-scaled.jpg)
![September 25, 2016](https://studioshamshiri.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/COSTIFAS_LECHNER_EXTERIOR_POOL-scaled.jpg)
No one wants to live in a museum, suffocated by the past. This exercise in respectful reimagination pays the ultimate compliment to the architect. It is decidedly a Schindler; it’s just not your grandmother’s Schindler.
![September 25, 2016](https://studioshamshiri.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/COSTIFAS_LECHNER_BFAST-TABLE-scaled.jpg)