John Lautner

FEW GRASPED how John Lautner used architecture to embrace the natural world. He opened a Sunset Boulevard diner to the sky and was dismayed to see it become a symbol of "Googie" Atomic Age design. His flying saucer-shaped Chemosphere residence, conceived to immerse residents in sweeping mountain and city views, became emblematic of the bachelor-pad Hollywood Modernism he rejected. Movies sensationalized his creations as James Bond-style backdrops for sex machines and lethally bored rich kids.

WOOD-BLOCK models, drawings and notes for 200 Modern buildings and projects completed over half a century have taken over four rooms of Ray Kappe's Pacific Palisades house. But in a few weeks, moving vans will transport the architect's life's work a few miles away to its permanent new home: the antiquities-rich Getty Center.

ARCHITECT John Lautner was out there. He learned at the elbow of Frank Lloyd Wright that boxy buildings were only good for jails and animal pens, so he created living room walls that swung open to become outside decks and houses in the shape of spaceships, with head-spinning views.

When Benedikt Taschen, a globe-trotting publisher of stylish art books, and his then-wife first laid eyes on Chemosphere House in 1997, the iconic Los Angeles structure had seen better days. The sleek, octagonal house, perhaps the boldest work by the singular architect John Lautner, is considered a masterpiece of California Modernism and is beloved by cultists of midcentury design.

Kenneth Reiner made a fortune in Los Angeles in the 1940s and '50s designing and manufacturing two ingenious products: self-locking aircraft nuts and spring-loaded ladies' hair clips. He brought the same inventiveness to a personal project he launched in 1956: building his dream home in bohemian Silver Lake with an architect who shared his faith in the future. The industrialist labored for more than a decade to build Silvertop, a modernist landmark considered one of architect John Lautner's masterpieces.

In 1961, Dwight Eisenhower turned over the presidency to John Kennedy, gasoline was 35 cents a gallon, computers were as big as trucks and the Chemosphere House was named by the Encyclopaedia Britannica as the "most modern home built in the world." It could probably win the same title if it were built today, 24 years later.

Homes by big-name mid-century Modernist architects including John Lautner, Rudolph Schindler and Richard Neutra were on the market in 2012 -- at prices that may not be seen again soon. Among the heavy hitters were two homes by engineering-minded modernist Lautner. At the Foster Carling house in the Hollywood Hills, a retractable wall of glass separates the outdoor part of the swimming pool from an interior portion in the living room. The asking price is $2.995 million. In Malibu, a post-and-beam single-story house designed by Lautner as an ocean-view retreat features strong horizontal lines, unusually angled walls and windows and a triangular fireplace that juts into the living room.

Tropical landscaping surrounds this post-and-beam single-story house designed as an ocean-view retreat. Strong horizontal lines provide a framework for unusually angled walls and windows, a triangular fireplace that juts into the living room and a teardrop-shaped granite-topped island in the kitchen. Location: 28815 Grayfox St., Malibu 90265 Asking price: $15.9 million Year built: 1972 Architect: John Lautner House size: Four bedrooms, three bathrooms, 3,650 square feet Lot size: 1.09 acres Features: Heated sandstone floors, walls of glass, stainless-steel appliances, library/study, office, gym, covered patio, outdoor steam room and shower, tennis court, swimming pool About the area: In the third quarter, 49 single-family homes sold in the 90265 ZIP Code at a median price of $1.833 million, according to DataQuick.