The modest 1942 residence is part of a rare collection of Richard Neutra-designed homes built near the Lockheed aircraft factory for Southern California defense workers.
A modest North Hollywood home with an important connection to Southern California architectural history has come onto the market. The two-bedroom residence was designed by internationally recognized modernist architect Richard Neutra as part of a small wartime housing development known as the Progressive Builders Homes.
A Different Kind of Neutra Home
Richard Neutra is best known for dramatic custom residences characterized by glass walls, horizontal rooflines and carefully framed views of the surrounding landscape. The homes on Denny Avenue represent a very different side of his architectural career.
Rather than being commissioned as a custom residence for a wealthy client, this house was part of a collection of compact and relatively economical homes designed during World War II for employees of Southern California’s rapidly expanding defense industry.
The Progressive Builders Homes were constructed in 1942 near Burbank Airport and the Lockheed aircraft factory. The small residences used simple materials and relatively restrained forms while retaining Neutra’s interest in efficient planning, natural light and connections between indoor and outdoor living.
Fourteen Neutra Homes on Denny Avenue
The Denny Avenue development consisted of approximately 14 Neutra-designed residences constructed during 1942 and 1943. One of the neighboring homes previously appeared on the SFV Blog when a Progressive Builders residence was listed as a short sale in 2014 .
The SFV Blog previously documented the collection in a broader survey of Richard Neutra’s work throughout the San Fernando Valley . The group remains one of the Valley’s more unusual concentrations of homes associated with an internationally significant architect.
Unlike Neutra’s better-known custom houses, the Denny Avenue homes were conceived as practical housing for ordinary workers supporting Southern California’s wartime industries. His more individualized Valley projects included the Josef von Sternberg House in Northridge , the Milton Goldman Residence in Encino and the now-demolished Gene Fields House in Encino .
Neutra also collaborated with William Beckett on the elevated Stone-Fisher speculative platform homes in Sherman Oaks . Another example from that group returned to the market in 2013 .
The residences were originally compact two- or three-bedroom homes of approximately 1,000 square feet. Several have since been enlarged or remodeled, making it increasingly difficult to recognize the development as a unified architectural collection from the street.
Neutra’s Valley work was not limited to residences. He also designed the former Fine Arts Building at what is now California State University, Northridge, a structure later demolished following damage from the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The building was previously featured in the SFV Blog’s Library and Fine Arts Building postcard post .
The Denny Avenue houses show how Neutra’s modern planning principles could be adapted to economical wartime housing rather than a singular luxury residence.
Inside the Newly Listed Home
The single-story residence contains two bedrooms and one bathroom and sits on a lot of approximately 7,384 square feet.
The real-estate listing advertises approximately 1,231 square feet of living space, while the public-record information displayed with the listing reports approximately 981 square feet. The difference may reflect an addition, a measurement variation or a discrepancy between the listing and assessor records.
The home includes a living room with a fireplace, a separate family room, a kitchen with substantial storage and a detached two-car garage.
Listing photographs reveal a largely traditional interior that has evolved considerably from the home’s original 1942 appearance. However, the property retains the compact proportions, simple roof form and backyard-oriented arrangement associated with the Progressive Builders development.
First Sale in Decades
The property is being offered for the first time in decades. Available sale records indicate that the home last changed hands in April 1983 for $93,000.
It returned to the market in July 2026 with an asking price of $888,000. That is a nominal increase of $795,000 from the recorded 1983 sale price, although the comparison does not account for inflation, renovations, property expenses or changes made during more than four decades of ownership.
Using the advertised 1,231-square-foot measurement, the asking price is approximately $721 per square foot.
An Accessible Piece of Architectural History
The Denny Avenue homes may not immediately resemble the glass-walled architectural landmarks most commonly associated with Neutra. That is also what makes them historically significant.
They demonstrate how modern architectural ideas were applied to smaller, relatively economical houses during a period of severe housing demand. Instead of designing a singular showcase residence, Neutra used his planning principles in repeatable housing intended for defense workers and their families.
More than eight decades later, this Denny Avenue home remains in residential use, just as the original development intended.
For prospective buyers, the property offers a rare opportunity to own a residence connected to one of Southern California’s most influential architects at a price considerably below what many of Neutra’s custom homes command.
For the neighborhood, the listing is also a reminder that an easily overlooked North Hollywood street contains one of the San Fernando Valley’s notable collections of wartime modernist architecture.
Photo Gallery
Sources and Further Reading
- Redfin property listing
- Neutra Institute — Progressive Builders Homes
- USModernist — Richard Neutra project archive
- SFV Blog — Richard Neutra in the San Fernando Valley
- SFV Blog — Architecture and Real Estate
Listing information, pricing and availability are subject to change. Square-footage figures may differ between the real-estate listing and public records. Property photographs remain the property of their respective photographer, listing agent, brokerage and copyright holders and are used here for editorial commentary. The hero image is an editorial composite created for the SFV Blog. Its Richard Neutra portrait element was adapted from a 1935 Los Angeles Times photograph in the UCLA Library collection, distributed through Wikimedia Commons under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
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