concrete forms, skylights and light-wells and panoramic expanses of plate glass. Another key characteristic of Lautner's architecture is his heterogeneous approach, not only in his overall concepts – each Lautner building is a unique design solution – but also in his use of materials, as Jean-Louis Cohen notes in his essay "John Lautner's Luxuriant Tectonics": It is ironic that, although famous Lautner works like the Carling and Harpel houses, the Chemosphere and the Sheats Goldstein Residence have become inextricably linked with Los Angeles in the public imagination, Lautner repeatedly expressed his dislike of California. In his oral history interviews he was highly critical of the standard of architecture in Los Angeles, and idealised the rural Michigan environment of his youth, as he recalled in 1986: Major works Lautner Residence In 1939, Lautner had just finished working with Frank Lloyd Wright and was trying to establish himself. He set out to build his first house on 25 feet of filled hillside in the Silver Lake area. The 1,200 square-foot house has three levels, which descend according to the contour of the hillside. The patio is the top level; next, the kitchen and dining area; at the bottom of the house is the living room. The house has a ceiling of redwood plywood, kitchen counters of mahogany, and walls and floors of bagac, an African wood. Lautner lived there for only two years and never built another for himself. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016. Foster Carling House One of Lautner's most significant early works, this house embodies many of his central design concerns and includes key features that he would continue to explore and develop throughout his career. It was also important as the project that united him with builder John de la Vaux. Fortuitously, the pair met through their wives, who knew each other socially – at the time, Lautner was having trouble finding contractors to work on his houses, and de la Vaux, a boat builder, was keen to move into housing construction. At his wife's suggestion, de la Vaux approached Lautner and offered to build the Carling House, and they sealed the deal with a handshake. As de La Vaux recounted in the 2009 Lautner documentary, the project was briefly halted by a rare snowstorm that dumped more than six inches of snow on the Hollywood area. Lautner's design incorporates many