Homes of the Times: The latest in Southern California design

Although most of us know about architect John Lautner through iconic works such as the circular Chemosphere house or the Silvertop estate, his first official commission in Los Angeles was a modest 600-square-foot guesthouse, a refuge that has the peaceful feeling of a cabin with warm wood floors and paneling, and floor-to-ceiling glass windows overlooking an Echo Park canyon.

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When Vanessa Choy and Andrew Wong closed their architecture practice in Hong Kong and moved to Los Angeles, they bought a Studio City lot and made plans for a traditional house with a progressive spin.

Drawn by the 2-acre landscape, Katrina Rivers bought the nondescript house and made it into an offbeat, bohemian, only-in-L.A. retreat.

Please don’t call it split-level. It’s a split plane house.

The Maltman Bungalows in Silver Lake represent that rare Southern California combination: small houses, good location, not-so-outrageous prices.

Janna Levenstein’s 1950s home was a maze of small, dark rooms.

Architects Alice Fung and Michael Blatt help homeowners make the most of a 1963 Gregory Ain design.

Victoria Gilbert wanted to transform her cramped, claustrophobic rooms into a home with a more contemporary look and flow.

Spare and simple is the rule in the oceanfront home of Arnoldi and his wife, Katie, a novelist.

The painter, collector and now filmmaker sets up his own bit of bohemia in a Los Angeles guest house.

With Southern hospitality and an artist’s eye, this gracious hosts sets the scene for an entertaining evening of good cheer, alfresco.

The midcentury architect’s house in the Hollywood Hills had been written off by preservationists after one resident added a second story and other features ill-suited for the 1956 design.

Architect Barbara Bestor builds a cool, clever house in Los Feliz with a nod to the landmark across the street: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House.

Architect Dan Gallagher’s design for his brother, Tim, stands like a series of stacked boxes sheathed in glass, cement board and corrugated metal.

Jerome Dahan, founder of Citizens of Humanity, shares a 1927 Santa Monica house with Lela Tillem, Citizens’ head of sales.

Though some may see Steven Sharpe’s house as urban in nature, architect Zoltan Pali says the structure fundamentally is a country house responding to its setting.

William Krisel, 83, never won as much acclaim as Richard Neutra, Albert Frey or others who defined mid-century modernism in Palm Springs.

Designers Karen and Guy Vidal turned a dreary Spanish-style four-plex into a color-splashed bachelor’s pad.

In a fire-prone canyon of the Angeles National Forest, architect Russell K.

Keyshawn Johnson, the former football star at USC and now wide receiver with the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, worked with Idea Space Design to create a modern, uncluttered penthouse on the Wilshire corridor.

Architectural designer Tim Campbell turns a tough hillside site into a showcase for his art collection.

The traffic out front can be terrible and the stream in back posed even more problems.

When John and Eva Simpson remodeled their 1920s home in San Marino, they sought a Spanish style with some personal twists.

A 2003 Home article followed art gallery owner Laurie Frank as she hosted one of her renowned dinner parties at her Whitley Heights home.