A. Quincy Jones & Whitney R. Smith, Architects
The Morris & Lydia Gelb House, 1950
Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 1332
Rehabilitation by Bruce Norelius, AIA, Architect, 2014
12450 Rochedale Lane, Los Angeles, CA 90049
Set within the utopian experiment of Crestwood Hills, the Gelb House is a rare, highly intact example of A. Quincy Jones’ Mutual Housing Association vision—where architecture was not a luxury, but a disciplined framework for living.
Completed in 1950, the house embodies a kind of rigor that feels increasingly scarce. The post-and-beam structure is expressed with total clarity—Douglas fir framing, concrete block, and redwood working together without ornament or redundancy. Every decision is economical, but never compromised. This is architecture reduced to its essential moves.
Sited gently into the hillside, the plan unfolds with a quiet logic: private rooms tucked away at one end, living spaces opening outward, and structure doing the work of both enclosure and expression. A concrete block fireplace anchors the interior, while skylights along the ridge beam pull light deep into the plan. The result is a house that feels both modest and spatially expansive.
What distinguishes the Gelb House is not just its authorship, but its integrity. Owned by the original family for decades, it remained largely untouched—preserving the original intent of the MHA experiment, a community that reimagined postwar housing as cooperative, modern, and deeply connected to landscape.
The recent restoration by Bruce Norelius Studio approaches the house with a studied restraint. Systems have been updated and key spaces—kitchen and baths—reworked with a sympathetic material palette, while the original structure and envelope remain entirely intact. Where interventions occur, they are legible and deliberately quiet. This is not a reinterpretation—it is a careful continuation.
Connected to the mature landscape and surrounded by tall trees, the flat pad on a large corner lot offers potential for future expansion, with ample room for a swimming pool or additional living space. In a market where “mid-century” is often diluted, the Gelb House stands apart as the real thing—clear in its thinking, exacting in its execution, and increasingly rare in its level of preservation.
Photography: ©Tim Street-Porter
3 Bedrooms
2 Bathrooms
1,197 Square Feet
14,068 SF Lot
$1,995,000
