4422 Grimes Pl
Encino, CA 91316, USA

Glazier House

One of Encino’s loveliest Mid-Century Modern designs can be found in the Glazier House, perched above its curving hillside street. This house was designed by celebrated architect Richard Dorman and won a merit award from House and Home and Sunset magazines several years after its 1960 completion.

It expresses all of the key features of a Dorman-designed Mid-Century Modern house, interpreted for the split-level plan that was popular at the time. The house features post-and-beam construction which strongly expresses its structure, expanses of floor to ceiling glass, and the use of the seven foot module. This module, Dorman’s favorite, lent his post-and-beam designs a larger and more spacious feel than the more commonly used three or four foot modules.

The house features another Dorman hallmark, an expressive fireplace, in an unusual place: it is on the house’s exterior, with a cylindrical metal chimney extending all the way from the deck up through the roof, piercing the overhanging eave along the way.

Dorman’s overall design gives the house a feeling of lightness and openness to the outside both figuratively and literally, with extensive patios and decks accessed from multiple interior rooms.

All this was done fairly cheaply—the house’s construction cost only $14 per square foot—meaning the occupant benefited from a master architect’s design at a merchant builder’s price.

Photo courtesy Architectural Resources Group