One of Richard Neutra’s Protégés Designed This $1.7M House for a Caltech Professor

Location: 1642 Pleasant Way, Pasadena, California

Price: $1,680,000

Year Built: 1935

Architect: Harwell Hamilton Harris

Footprint: 1,449 square feet (2 bedrooms, 2 baths)

Lot Size: 0.13 Acres

From the Agent: “This is architect Harwell Hamilton Harris’s second built home, which came after he had spent several formative years in the office of Richard Neutra. One of the many things he learned there was the importance of the module, having witnessed Neutra’s design. It was the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, however, that had sent him down the path toward architecture—the seeds having been planted by a visit to the Hollyhock House years prior. It can be seen at the Laing home, with its stucco walls, broad eaves, ribbon windows, and boxed-in balcony. Stepping up from the street, the one-story home consists of two distinct volumes, separated at the entrance. Spaces of the home unfold into each other in such a way that makes each room feel part of another, and much larger than its measurement would suggest. The original garden plan was composed of California native plants, and was devised in consultation with Theodore Payne.“