Architecture Wednesday: The Natzler Residence

This home, in Upper Nichols Canyon in the Hollywood Hills, tucked at the end of a long private drive, is on the market for the first time in 80 years. Built in 1937 the home served as both sanctuary and working studio for master ceramic artists Gertrud and Otto Natzler, who purchased the property in 1945 and it remains a testament to their creative lives.

Drawn to the site for its privacy, natural light, and detached guest house—which they envisioned as a studio—the Natzlers transformed the property into a center of artistic and musical life.

In sun-filled rooms overlooking treetops and quiet canyons, Gertrud threw delicate ceramic forms on the wheel while Otto developed groundbreaking glazes; together they hosted intimate chamber-music evenings and gathered a circle of artists, musicians, and thinkers to a serene, natural, space removed from the pace of the city .

The original house remains intimate and unconventional—a sequence of cozy, character-rich rooms including a living room with fireplace, dining room, and a kitchen with ceramic tiles, many glazed by Otto Natzler. The main residence includes two bedrooms and two and one-half baths; the second bedroom later became Otto’s office following completion of a 1988 addition.

Their hillside studio eventually proved challenging for photographing ceramics with the precision their archive demanded so in 1988, Otto commissioned a striking two-story addition inspired by his Austrian roots—a nod to an Alpine chalet. Designed for photographer Gail Reynolds Natzler, Otto’s second wife after Gertrud’s passing in 1971, the addition introduced a dedicated studio and darkroom and above that a large primary suite with laundry, bath, vaulted ceilings, and walls of windows; both levels open to wraparound balconies with sweeping canyon views. The original detached Natzler ceramic studio suite, situated above the two-car garage, is preserved in remarkable condition with its own kitchen, small bedroom, and bath.

The property directly abuts the Briar Summit Open Space Reserve, ensuring lasting privacy and a strong connection to the surrounding landscape and for the first time since 1945 it can be yours for $2.5M and you can test your own creativity.

As always click to emBIGGERate…

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Architecture Wednesday: Historic Covent Garden Townhouse

Built around 1700, just 34 years after the Great Fire of London, Number 1 Goodwin’s Court celebrates well over 300 years of existence with the completion of its painstaking ten-year renovation. As part of a row of Grade II Listed buildings this home is a rare survivor of a building type reflecting the conditions of London’s Georgian working-classes; it’s also a piece of London’s rich history as well as more recent fame as the inspiration for Ollivanders Wand Shop in the Harry Potter films.

To start with, slowly and carefully, 325 years of architectural history were peeled back, revealing an astonishing level of originality still intact. Four time-worn stone steps sit just below the exquisite front door.

Once inside the upper ground floor you can walk down a preserved staircase into a beautifully appointed kitchen with cool York stone floors and period fireplace. Hidden away, to preserve that history, are fridge, freezer, microwave and dishwasher while an induction hob sits atop a solid oak countertop. Overhead, exposed, original time aged beams have been exposed and re-installed complete with state-of-the-art fire prevention misting system. The room also has space for a kitchen table and chairs for dining while, a Accessed through a reclaimed door, is a Georgian inspired tiled shower room with antique water closet and wash basin.

Back on the upper ground floor is the reception room and its original intricate bow window from the 1700s; the room is anchored by a central fireplace, flanked with recessed shelving and original Wainscot paneling. As a nod to its history as a former shop, two softly worn patches in the floorboards mark the spot where a shopkeeper stood for generations.

That history extends to the original staircase carrying you up to the first floor; its distempered walls and original plaster work take center stage, its light blue patina resembles an impressionist painting. On the first floor is a double with forward-facing windows overlooking the historic alleyway. Original plaster work sits between the windows and above the wainscot with an authentic fireplace and reclaimed wood paneling elsewhere. Cupboards on either side of the fireplace now house the convenience of an antique water closet to one side and a wash hand to the other.

On the second floor is the second bedroom with softly textured lime rendered walls creating a warmth intensified by the natural light penetrating the room through dual windows; historic details continue with beautifully aged & waxed, reclaimed floorboards and muted hue of the paneled walls and cupboards on either side of a fireplace.

Essentially untouched since 1700, the historic loft space is in a class of its own and a glimpse into the past of its honest construction with 326-year-old pegs and roof tiles remaining intact.

It’s a piece of history brought back to life perfectly.

As always click to emBIGGERate …

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Architecture Wednesday: Tan y Coed

Wisteria trails elegantly over this Welsh stone longhouse, built in 1800,  located in a serene valley in Oswestry, Tan y Coed [‘under the trees’] and surrounded by the bucolic Candy Woods. It was carefully renovated to create a series of bright, open spaces. Outside is a separate one-bedroom guest house as well as a studio space, and a geodesic dome greenhouse.

Tan y Coed is a brilliant example of a Welsh longhouse; traditionally designed to house livestock—either cows or sheep—on the ground floor with living accommodations on the first, these houses are found across Wales and the rest of the country.

Beyond the front gate, a spacious driveway approaches the house where a path leads to the two main points of access: the formal entrance which sits underneath a porch, and a more frequently used side entrance, which leads directly into an open-plan kitchen, dining area, and living area.

The kitchen is composed of white cabinets and wood countertops and white-brick tiled backsplash set against original wooden floors. Beyond the kitchen is the oak, garden room extension, bathed in light throughout the day through the stretches of glazing on three sides and warmed by the underfloor heating beneath the slate floor.

A more formal dining room lies beyond in the original part of the house with parquet floors and a wood-burning stove; from there you enter an expansive sitting room, which also has wooden floors and an original inglenook—a small nook or alcove adjoining a fireplace—that is now home to a wood-burning stove; original exposed beams run the length of the ceiling overhead.

A set of contemporary open-tread stairs leads upstairs to the sleeping quarters; the principal bedroom has a bright en suite bathroom with a shower and access to a generous balcony while three further bedrooms are positioned on this floor, served by a shared bathroom. 

Behind the house, a barn has been converted into a one-bedroom guesthouse, constructed from the same Welsh stone as the house, equipped with a downstairs kitchen downstairs and a raised living space on the first floor. To the other side of the house, near the driveway, is a large new block that houses two open carports, a garage underneath and an open-plan room above, currently used as a gym.

And the gardens that surround the house are planted with thousands of daffodils, wild garlic and raised vegetable beds; a stream meanders from the end of the garden lawn towards the house, which fronts onto a pond where a new terrace raised on stilts sits above the water.

It all seems idyllic and peaceful and worth the £1.1M price tag considering it’s already been sold.

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