Craig Ellwood (1922 to 1992) was a charismatic and self-made architectural celebrity, adept at whipping up mid-century fashionable confections all through the hills and canyons of California for a coterie trendy, inventive, and artistic purchasers.
(Picture credit score: Cameron Carothers)
(Picture credit score: Cameron Carothers)
Born in Texas as Jon Nelson Burke, Ellwood by no means formally certified as an architect but, remarkably, his identify is now hooked up to a few of the most iconic homes of the final century, together with Case Research Home #22, the Stahl Home, the meticulous precision of Case Research Home #16, the Salzman Home, in addition to homes 17B and 18.
(Picture credit score: Cameron Carothers)
(Picture credit score: Cameron Carothers)
Though the 1950 Ellwood-Zimmerman Home in Brentwood was needlessly demolished in 2024, there are a nonetheless a notable variety of surviving tasks that bear his signature fashion, together with the 1976 campus for the ArtCenter Faculty of Design in Pasadena, designed with James Tyler, and the renewed and restored Moore Home, additionally from 1965.
(Picture credit score: Cameron Carothers)
Now Ellwood followers have one other alternative to purchase into the legend, this time with barely much less of the cultural burden borne by the Stahl Home. The Kubly Home is situated in Pasadena and has an in depth connection to ArtCenter. Accomplished in 1965 for the princely sum of $45,000, the three-bedroom, two-bathroom home covers a modest 2,277 sq ft.
(Picture credit score: Cameron Carothers)
The purchasers had been Don and Sally Kubly, each ArtCenter alumni and educators; Don went on to change into its second president. The method of constructing the home kickstarted the inventive partnership that ultimately led to Ellwood’s involvement on the brand new campus buildings a decade later.
The kitchen sits on the coronary heart of the property
(Picture credit score: Cameron Carothers)
The construction is simplicity itself, a glass and timber field with a transparent Miesian inspiration (allegedly sketched on a serviette by Ellwood throughout a consumer lunch). All utility areas sit throughout the glazed envelope, with a galley kitchen on the coronary heart of the property, flanked by a lounge and eating/household room. The corners of the oblong plan are given over to bedrooms, with the first ensuite bed room on one facet and two youngsters’s bedrooms on the opposite, sharing a toilet.
(Picture credit score: Cameron Carothers)
Steps and terraces, aligned with the centre of the home, lead all the way down to the landscaped 0.6-acre backyard and pool. The put up and beam pavilion is raised up on brief pilotis above the gently curving web site, with mature timber alongside the perimeter offering framed views from each room.
(Picture credit score: Cameron Carothers)
The Kubly household retained the home till 2022. The following homeowners undertook a sympathetic restoration of what’s believed to be the architect’s solely residential venture in Pasadena. This included updating all the home’s main programs and restoring the surfaces, construction and glazing, readying the Kubly Home for the subsequent part of its historical past.
Kubly Home, Pasadena, Craig Ellwood Associates
(Picture credit score: Cameron Carothers)
The Kubly Home, 215 La Vereda Highway, Pasadena, on the market through Chris Suarez and Kimberly Benz of Suarez + Benz at Compass, TheKublyHouse.com, priced at $3,250,000
