Case Study house with a mystery

THOSE wonderful photos of Rodney Walker’s Case Study House 16 [“Case Study, in Duplicate,” June 8] reminded me of my Uncle Saul’s house on Woodrow Wilson Drive in Studio City.

The last time I saw that house was in the mid-1950s when I was about 7 or 8 years old. Before I read the article, I phoned my uncle and asked him if he knew of Rodney Walker. He proceeded to regale me with stories of his relationship with Walker, which started somewhere around 1949.

At that time my uncle, Dr. Saul Birnbaum, was a young dentist recently out of the Marine Corps; not yet wealthy but with plenty of charm and ambition.

He contacted several architectural luminaries and circumstances led him to partner with Walker, who did build the house I remembered. Saul mentioned that much of Walker’s plans would be drawn as the project proceeded in pencil on the plywood that he eventually would incorporate into the structure (this caused some difficulties when my uncle tried to obtain financing for the project). So the plans are apparently hidden in the walls of the house.

Thanks for the memories.

BURT M. HOLSTEIN

Studio City

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AS a Harvard-trained architect and an amateur Case Study buff who happens to live around the corner from Case Study House No. 7, I am glad to report the house has not been “moved or demolished,” as reported in the L.A. Times sidebar to the Walker story. It appears to have been only slightly modified. The original bones seem to be in place.

BILL HUANG

San Gabriel

Editor’s note: The status of the Case Study houses was researched by the Los Angeles Conservancy’s Modern Committee, whose representative, Amanda Seward, responds: “We are pleased to know that Case Study House 7 is still there and thank the reader for the follow-up.” Seward drove out to the home and discovered the source of the confusion. The property was subdivided years ago and given a new address: 6236 N. Deerfield Ave., not 634 Deerfield Ave., the address for Case Study House 7 listed in most reference books.