John Lautner is one of the best known among modernist architects who worked in southern California in the mid-20th century. Born in 1911, Lautner spent six years studying at Frank Lloyd Wright's Wisconsin school, Taliesin, where he worked with some of the great architects a generation older than he. Lautner had early commercial success in Los Angeles in the 1950s but he gained greater professional respect for his residential work. He was the architect of the Chemosphere—the towering, futuristic Los Angeles home owned by book publishing house founder Benedikt Taschen. Lautner died in 1994.