Lipetz House

It is fitting that Raphael Soriano’s first residential commission arose from his knowledge and passion for both language and music. While at a
Los Angeles screening of a French film, Soriano translated the jokes into English for a woman seated behind him. She, in return, invited him to hear a piano concert to be given by her cousin, Helen Lipetz some months later. Soriano did attend, and after the concert, he entered into a lively conversation with Helen and her husband Emanuel, where he so impressed them with his extensive knowledge of music that they entrusted him to design their house.

The site itself was on the pinnacle of a hill overlooking Silver Lake. The main feature of the house was to be a music room with excellent acoustic properties that could accommodate Mrs. Lipetz’s Bechstein Grand piano and up to twenty guests. Soriano designed the north end of this 15 foot x 32 foot room as a semi circle with continuous windows, creating a real-life backdrop of the vast San Gabriel Mountain Range, for Mrs. Lipetz’s performances. Several hundred music albums were accommodated in shelves placed under built-in seating areas, and much of the other furniture in the house was also built-in. The music room comprised nearly one third of the total 2,300 square foot area of the two-bedroom house. The design is in the International Style, built with traditional wood stud construction, similar to Richard Neutra’s frame, References

*“House for E. M. Lipetz, Designer, Raphael Soriano, Los Angeles, California.” California Arts and Architecture. 58, January 1941, p. 28
*“Transition 1935-1955, Architectural Design, Work of Soriano.” Architect and Engineer. 205, May 1955, pp. 14-21
*McCoy, Esther. The Second Generation. Salt Lake City, Utah. Peregrine Smith Books, 1984 p.146;
*Jackson, Neil. The Modern Steel House. London: E & FN Spon, 1996. p 54;
*Gebhard, David and Winter, Robert. Los Angeles: An Architectural Guide. Layton: Gibbs Smith, 1994 p. 180; Smith, Elizabeth A. T. (ed.).
*Blueprints for Modern Living, History, Legacy of the Case Study Houses. Boston and London, 1989p 102
*Gebhard, D. And Von Breton, H.; Los Angeles in the Thirties 1931-1941, Hennessey & Ingalls, Inc. Los Angeles, 1989
*Shulman, Julius. Architecture and its Photography. Köln: Taschen, 1998 p. 40,41,44
*Rosa, Joseph. A Constructed View. The Architectural Photography Of Julius Shulman. New York, 1994. p. 115
*Soriano, Raphael S. “Transition 1935-1955, Architectural Design, Work of Soriano.” Architect and Engineer. 205, May 1955, pp. 14
*Soriano, Raphael S. “Substance and Function in Architecture.” Laskey, Marlene L. Interview. Oral History Program, University of California, Los Angeles, 1988. pp. 79-80, 85-86, 88-89, 82-94, 105-106, 141