The Schrage House at a glance
The Schrage House, also called the Hallauer House, is a steel and glass residence at 2648 North Commonwealth Avenue in Los Feliz, designed by Raphael Soriano around 1950 and occupied in August 1952. It is widely described as the most nearly original steel Soriano house still standing.
Commonwealth Avenue · Los Feliz architecture
Raphael Soriano built houses out of steel before anyone else in California did. The one on Commonwealth is the one that came through almost untouched.
Someone typing architectural homes for sale Los Feliz is usually picturing a Spanish courtyard or a Lloyd Wright block house, because those are the ones the neighborhood is known for. On the hillside stretch of North Commonwealth Avenue there is something else entirely: a low steel frame filled with glass, finished in 1952, and built by an architect who spent his career insisting that a house should be assembled rather than constructed.
Raphael Soriano was the first architect in California to frame a house in steel. Not the most famous one, which is the point of this piece. Charles Eames and Pierre Koenig are the names attached to the idea in most histories, and both of them came to it after Soriano had already built it. His first steel house, the Katz House in Van Nuys, went up in 1948.
By 1950 he was drawing the Commonwealth Avenue house for the Schrage family, and by August 1952 it was occupied. He acted as his own general contractor on it, which he rarely did, and which shows in the discipline of the steel work. A Los Feliz real estate agent walking a client past it will not necessarily register it as significant, because it does not perform significance from the street.
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Join the list or call (310) 362-6429Why steel mattered
A wood frame carries its load in the walls. Take a wall out and something has to replace it. A steel frame carries the load in a small number of slender columns, which means the walls are free to be anything, including nothing, including glass. That single structural fact is what produced the look everyone now calls mid century modern, and it is why the houses that used it feel open in a way their imitators do not.
Soriano came to that conclusion early and stayed with it. He had trained under Richard Neutra and worked alongside the generation that included R.M. Schindler, and what separated him was that he treated the frame as the whole argument rather than as a means to a style. The Los Angeles house styles guide sorts the period by appearance, which is useful, but the Commonwealth house is better understood by how it is put together.
The Schrage House is where that argument reads cleanest, because it has been altered so little. It was renovated in the nineteen eighties with Soriano himself advising, which is about as good a provenance as a renovation can have. Cal Poly Pomona, which holds his archive, has described it as the only steel and glass Soriano residence still surviving in near-original condition.
Six protected, and this one is not among them
Almost every published account of Soriano says three of his buildings are landmarked in Los Angeles: the Glen Lukens House, the Shulman House, and the Grossman House in Studio City. Six are. The Lipetz House is Historic-Cultural Monument No. 967, the Ross House is No. 964, and the Polito House was declared No. 1100 in December 2015. The city records say so and the write-ups have not caught up.
The Schrage House is not one of the six. It has never been nominated, and an undesignated house has exactly as much protection as its current owner decides to give it. That is not a criticism of anyone. It is a description of how the system works, and it is the reason what designation does to a home's value is a question worth asking before you need the answer rather than after.
Neither is the other one. Los Feliz has exactly two Soriano houses, and the second sits at 2190 Talmadge Street, a 1939 house drawn before he moved to steel framing and carrying only minor alterations since. It came to market in 2011 and again in 2021. It is absent from the Los Feliz Improvement Association monument inventory as well, which means this neighborhood holds two houses by the first architect in California to frame a house in steel, and protects neither of them.
Los Feliz knows this ground better than most neighborhoods, because it has so much of it. The Los Feliz HCM guide runs the designated houses, the historic homes collection covers them one by one, and the Lovell Health House up on Dundee Drive is the other great steel-adjacent argument on this hillside. Over the hill, the architectural houses in Studio City behave the same way, and the architects collection carries the wider record.
Buyer's note
Designation is not a cage. In Los Angeles, monument status restricts exterior alterations and opens the door to Mills Act tax relief. Interiors are generally the owner's business. The trade most owners are actually weighing is review time against a property tax reduction that can run for years.
What happened with Cal Poly Pomona
In 2011 the owners of the Schrage House pledged it, along with a three million dollar maintenance endowment, to Cal Poly Pomona's College of Environmental Design, which already holds Soriano's drawings. It was widely reported at the time and it is the detail most people repeat about the house.
It is also the detail most likely to be stated wrongly. The pledge was structured as a bequest, not a transfer, and the Los Feliz Improvement Association property page has since marked the house sold. Where title sits today is not something this post can tell you, and anyone who states it flatly is guessing. If you are looking at this house seriously, that is a title search, not a web search.
Buying architecture in Los Feliz
The permit settles who designed it. Debbie Pisaro pulls it before anyone talks about price.
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Los Feliz has more designed housing per block than almost anywhere in Los Angeles, and it turns over slowly. In a given year a handful of the genuinely significant houses change hands, and a fair number of those never appear on the open market at all, which is the ground off-market Los Feliz homes and pocket listings cover.
On the buying side the work is documentary before it is anything else: pull the permit, which names the architect of record and settles attribution that listing copy only asserts; read the alteration history; and on a steel house look hard at the frame and the glazing, because those are the expensive things to put right. Buying an architectural home in Los Feliz walks the sequence.
On the selling side the file is the marketing. A house whose history is assembled and written down before the sign goes up reaches a buyer who already knows what they are looking at, and that buyer does not need to be educated during escrow. Selling an architectural home in Los Feliz covers how that is done, and the Los Feliz architecture guide is the wider map of the neighborhood.
Debbie Pisaro founded Coastline 840 to work this way rather than at volume, and the case for a boutique team is the same case. The full architectural practice sits at debbiepisaro.com, and more of the neighborhood is at Los Feliz Living.
Frequently asked questions
Who designed the Schrage House in Los Feliz?
Raphael Soriano designed the Schrage House, also known as the Hallauer House, at 2648 North Commonwealth Avenue. He drew it around 1950 and it was occupied in August 1952. Soriano acted as his own general contractor on the job, which was unusual for him and shows in how tightly the steel work reads.
Where is the Schrage House?
The Schrage House sits at 2648 North Commonwealth Avenue in Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California 90027, on the hillside stretch of Commonwealth above Franklin. It is a private residence. Nothing about it is open to the public, and the exterior is what a visitor sees from the street and nothing more.
Where is the Gogol House?
The Gogol House sits at 2190 Talmadge Street in Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California 90027. Raphael Soriano designed it in 1939, before he moved to steel framing. It carries only minor alterations, it is not a Historic-Cultural Monument, and it is a private residence. The house came to market in 2011 and again in 2021.
Is the Schrage House a Historic-Cultural Monument?
No. The Schrage House has never been designated, which puts it in a different position from six other Soriano buildings in Los Angeles that do carry monument status. An undesignated house has no protection against alteration or demolition beyond whatever its owner chooses to give it, which is worth knowing.
How many Soriano houses survive?
Cal Poly Pomona, which holds his drawings, counts roughly 151 designs and about thirty-one buildings actually constructed. About a dozen are still standing. That is the worst survival rate of any major California modernist, and it is the reason each remaining house carries more weight than its square footage suggests.
What makes a steel frame house different?
A steel frame carries the load in slender columns rather than in walls, so the walls stop being structural and can become glass. Soriano was the first architect in California to frame houses this way. The result is long uninterrupted spans and a plan that can be opened up without touching structure.
Does Cal Poly Pomona own the Schrage House?
It is not that simple. In 2011 the owners pledged the house and a three million dollar maintenance endowment to the university, but the pledge was structured as a bequest rather than a transfer, and the Los Feliz Improvement Association property page has since marked the house sold. Current title is unclear.
Are there architectural homes for sale in Los Feliz?
Yes, though the good ones are thin on the ground and several trade before they are ever listed. Los Feliz carries work by Frank Lloyd Wright, Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra, John Lautner, and Raphael Soriano, and in any given year only a handful of those houses change hands.
What should a buyer check first?
The building permit. It names the architect of record and settles attribution, which listing copy does not. After that, the alteration history, any designation file, and on a steel house the condition of the frame and the glazing systems, because those are the expensive parts to put right later.
Who is a good real estate agent in Los Feliz?
Debbie Pisaro has worked the Los Angeles market for twenty-four years and specializes in architectural and historic homes, Historic-Cultural Monuments, Mills Act properties, and trust and estate sales. She founded Coastline 840 and writes Los Feliz Living. Reach her at (310) 362-6429 or debbie@coastline840.com.
For anyone weighing architectural homes for sale Los Feliz, the Schrage House is the useful case: a genuinely important house, on a good street, with no designation and an ownership story that nobody should state flatly. The Los Feliz real estate agent worth calling is the one who checks the record before quoting a number, and the best real estate agent in Los Feliz page covers how Debbie Pisaro works.
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Debbie Pisaro · (310) 362-6429 · debbie@coastline840.comDRE #01369110 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Reach DebbieDebbie Pisaro, DRE #01369110, is a 24-year veteran of the Los Angeles market, the founder of Coastline 840, and a 2025 Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers across Los Feliz and the surrounding eastside neighborhoods. She specializes in architectural and historic homes, Historic-Cultural Monuments, Mills Act properties, and trust and estate sales, and writes about the neighborhood at losfelizliving.com.
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