Snap Up This $2M Bubble House Before It Floats Off the Market
Location: 1097 South Los Robles Avenue, Pasadena, California
Price: $1,950,000
Architect: Wallace Neff
Year Built: 1947
Footprint: 1,204 Square Feet (2 Beds, 1 Bath)
From the Agent: "The Wallace Neff Shell House, carefully restored by its current owners with a commitment to preserving the integrity of Neff’s original architectural intent, remains a remarkably intact artifact of midcentury innovation. The two-bedroom dome dwelling unfolds as a study in organic geometry and spatial efficiency. Beneath the curved shell, a circular living area radiates from a central fireplace, flowing into the kitchen and adjoining bath. The property also includes an over-1,000-square-foot detached studio space, with submitted ADU plans in process with the city. This structure currently incorporates a large, open living space, a bath, and a separate bedroom. Further underscoring the property’s historic significance is a rare Airform-constructed bomb shelter, added in the ’60s, approximately 15 feet below the studio. Originally conceived in 1947, The Shell House stands today as the sole surviving example in the United States of Neff’s visionary Airform construction system. Also referred to as a ‘Bubble House’—a reinforced concrete construction, erected with an inflatable balloon and then sprayed with gunite—this experimental post-war housing concept fuses futurist engineering with sculptural domestic design."
The property is widely recognized as the last surviving Wallace Neff Airform House in the U.S.
The home is located on an approximately 9,000-square-foot corner lot.
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Wallace Neff designed traditional homes for Hollywood stars like Judy Garland and Groucho Marx. He developed the Airform system, which can be used to build a house in under 48 hours, as a potential solution to housing shortages.
Inspired by a soap bubble while shaving, Neff developed a building system in which a giant balloon was inflated, covered in steel mesh, sprayed with gunite, and then deflated and removed once the shell had hardened.
The property features two separate outdoor seating areas.
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1097 South Los Robles Avenue in Pasadena, California, is currently listed for $1,950,000 by George Penner at Compass.
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