Across Glendower Avenue from Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis House, Richard Neutra built a quiet steel-and-glass home for the ACLU's first full-time lawyer. It hides its size, and it holds its history.
What is the Wirin House in Los Feliz?
The Wirin House is a 1949 International Style residence at 2622 Glendower Avenue in Los Feliz, designed by Richard Neutra for the civil-rights attorney Abraham Lincoln Wirin and named Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #812 in 2005. It sits directly across Glendower from Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis House. Debbie Pisaro of Coastline 840, a Los Feliz real estate agent and architectural specialist (DRE #01369110), documents the neighborhood's historic homes and what designation means for their owners.
On the same bend of Glendower Avenue where Frank Lloyd Wright's Mayan temple looms over the city, Richard Neutra built something almost its opposite: a low, calm, steel-and-glass house that gives nothing away from the street. He finished it in 1949 for Abraham Lincoln Wirin, the American Civil Liberties Union's first full-time staff attorney, and his wife Alpha. Two of the century's boldest architects, working a stone's throw apart, and the quieter house belonged to a man who spent his life arguing for the least powerful people in the room.
A Neutra house that hides its size
The Wirin House is much larger than it appears from the street, a two-level design of about 2,262 square feet that opens as it descends the hillside. Set on a generous lot of roughly 32,349 square feet, it reads from Glendower as a modest single story, then unfolds into a home with two bedrooms, three baths, and a terraced garden that most passersby never see.
Inside, the house carries the Neutra signatures that make his work worth preserving intact: built-in cabinets, a built-in daybed, and a built-in desk, all part of the original design, plus a fireplace on each of the two levels. The lot steps down to a pool on a terraced level in the backyard and an open view across Los Angeles, the kind of framed sight line Neutra treated as part of the architecture rather than a bonus. That marriage of a designed interior and a captured view is exactly what a specialist looks for in a Los Feliz historic home, and it places the Wirin House squarely in the neighborhood's modernist canon, catalogued across the Los Feliz historic homes library and in exploring Los Feliz architecture.
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Join the list Or call (310) 362-6429Who was Richard Neutra?
Richard Neutra, who lived from 1892 to 1970, was the Vienna-born architect who did more than almost anyone to define the Southern California modern house. He arrived in the United States in the 1920s, worked briefly with Frank Lloyd Wright and then with his fellow Viennese Rudolph Schindler, and made his name in Los Feliz with the Lovell Health House, a steel-framed landmark that announced a new way of building on a hillside.
Neutra's houses treated light, air, and the view as building materials, and he detailed them down to the furniture so that the architecture and the way you lived in it were one thing. By the time he designed the Wirin House in 1949, he was among the most celebrated architects in America, and Los Feliz had become a kind of open-air gallery of his and his peers' work. The Wirin House belongs to the same hillside lineage as Neutra's own Lovell Health House and, across the street, the textile-block Ennis House, two poles of the modern movement facing each other on one avenue.
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Talk architectureThe lawyer who commissioned it
The house takes its name from Abraham Lincoln Wirin, known as A.L. Wirin, who was the first full-time lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union and one of the most consequential civil-rights attorneys of his era. He is best remembered for his outspoken defense of individual rights across labor disputes, free-speech fights, the wartime cases of Japanese Americans, and unpopular defendants during the McCarthy years.
That a man who spent his career on the least fashionable side of American courtrooms commissioned a Neutra house is part of what makes the property resonate. Modernism in Los Angeles was never only an aesthetic; for clients like Wirin it was a set of convictions about how to live openly and rationally, and the house he and Alpha built reflected that as much as any manifesto. Provenance like this is not a footnote when a home like the Wirin House trades, it is central to how the property is valued and marketed, the discipline behind Pisaro's work as an architectural homes specialist.
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Get early accessWhat HCM #812 means for value
The City of Los Angeles designated the Wirin House as Historic-Cultural Monument #812 on July 8, 2005, protecting its architectural character rather than freezing it. Designation gives the city review over significant exterior alterations and can qualify an owner for Mills Act property-tax savings, while interior updates are generally permitted. For a house this intact, that protection is a large part of the appeal.
The designation came after a difficult stretch. The house was in deteriorated condition by 1995 and went through a probate sale in 2004, listed then at about $1.2 million, before a careful restoration during the 2000s brought it back. That arc, from neglect to protected landmark, is exactly why documentation matters: a monument with intact Neutra built-ins and a clear history supports a stronger number than a comparable house stripped of its origins. How designation actually moves price is the subject of Pisaro's piece on whether historic designation hurts home value in Los Feliz, with the tax mechanics in her guide to selling a Mills Act home, the process in how to get HCM designation, and the full neighborhood set in the Los Feliz HCM guide.
HCM designation in Los Angeles does not freeze a home in place. It restricts significant exterior alterations and offers Mills Act tax benefits to qualifying owners, while interior renovations are generally permitted. For a Neutra house with its original built-ins intact, that protection is what preserves the value.
Buying or selling a Neutra house in Los Feliz
A Neutra house sells to a narrow, design-literate buyer, which shapes both the price and the marketing. The pool is smaller than for an ordinary home of the same size, the provenance and the intact original details drive the number, and reaching the right buyer takes more than putting a sign in the yard and waiting.
Pricing a named-architect home is not a portal exercise. Genuine pedigree, an intact interior, and a captured view earn a premium a Zestimate cannot see, and getting the number wrong in either direction costs the seller, the reasoning behind Coastline 840's guide to pricing an architectural home in Los Angeles. Buyers drawn to this stretch of the hill can start with Pisaro's guide to buying an architectural home in Los Feliz, the enclave notes on the Oaks, and the lore of the street itself in the Castle on Glendower Avenue, while owners weighing a sale should begin with an honest Los Feliz home valuation. As with any architectural home, the agent who knows the houses is the whole difference, a standard Pisaro sets out in her piece on the best real estate agent in Los Feliz.
debbie@coastline840.com
DRE #01369110 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Frequently asked questions
The Wirin House was designed by the modernist architect Richard Neutra and completed in 1949 for the civil-rights attorney Abraham Lincoln Wirin and his wife Alpha. It is a mature Neutra work, built when he was among the most celebrated architects in America and Los Feliz had become a showcase for Southern California modernism.
The Wirin House stands at 2622 Glendower Avenue in the Los Feliz hills, directly across the street from Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis House. It is a private residence, so it is best appreciated from the public street and through published photographs rather than by visiting, and it is not open for tours.
Abraham Lincoln Wirin was the first full-time staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union and a leading civil-rights lawyer. He is remembered for defending free speech, labor rights, the rights of Japanese Americans during the wartime internment, and unpopular defendants during the McCarthy era, which makes his choice of a Neutra house part of the home's story.
The Wirin House is International Style, the steel-and-glass modernism Richard Neutra helped define in Southern California. Its hallmarks here are a low, restrained street presence, two levels that step down the hillside, built-in furniture designed as part of the house, fireplaces on both levels, and a framed view across Los Angeles.
Yes. The City of Los Angeles designated the Wirin House as Historic-Cultural Monument #812 on July 8, 2005. The designation recognizes the home's architectural importance and gives the city review over significant exterior changes, while interior updates are generally permitted.
The Wirin House is about 2,262 square feet with two bedrooms and three baths across two levels, on a hillside lot of roughly 32,349 square feet. It is often described as much larger than it appears from Glendower Avenue, because the house opens and steps down toward a terraced pool and a view that the street frontage conceals.
Not usually in a neighborhood like Los Feliz that prizes architecture. Designation restricts significant exterior alterations but generally allows interior updates, and it can qualify an owner for Mills Act property-tax savings. A documented, well-preserved Neutra house with intact original details often commands a premium rather than a discount.
The Wirin House is a private residence and is not publicly listed as of this writing. Architecturally significant Los Feliz homes often change hands quietly, before they reach the public sites, so buyers who want access to houses like it work through an agent with an off-market network rather than waiting for a listing to appear.
Work with an agent who knows the houses themselves, not just the market. Debbie Pisaro of Coastline 840 is a 24-year LA veteran and a 2025 Inman Luxury Leader who specializes in architectural, historic, and design-forward homes across Los Feliz, prices pedigree against real comparables, and reaches the design-literate buyers who pay for provenance.
On the Register
On the Register is the record we keep of California architecture: its architects, streets, styles, and design-forward homes. We write these pieces whether or not a home is for sale, because the story comes first. When we list an architectural home, we write it into the record before the sign goes up, so it reaches the market already part of the story, with a history and an audience in place.
© 2026 Debbie Pisaro, Coastline 840 · ontheregister.com