223 N Carmelina Avenue

About this home

223 North Carmelina, designed by the internationally renowned architect Ricardo Legorreta, is on the market for the first time. Nestled on 1.48 acres on a quiet street in the heart of Brentwood, this 9,300-square-foot masterpiece featured in countless books and publications, including cover articles in Architectural Record and GA Houses, and featured in The Iconic House: Architectural Masterworks (Thames and Hudson, 2025), which called it one of the "100 of the most important and influential houses designed and built since 1900 in the world." The approach at dusk reveals Legorreta's signature language immediately tall palms rising in front of sculptural stucco volumes, their warm ochre walls glowing against the sky. Inside, he plays architect as artist of mystery, color and light: a corridor lined in cobalt-striped glass panels filters light into rhythmic blue bands across the floor, while soaring ceilings and boldly cantilevered stucco walls create the same interplay of shadow and geometry found in his most celebrated civic works. The formal living and dining rooms carry an art-gallery quality, deliberately restrained to let the architecture and an owners' painting collection take center stage, while an interior fountain courtyard, and a chef's kitchen round out the ground floor. Every room is composed, not decorated deep-set windows, thick walls, and carved apertures that control light with the precision of a sculptor.Known as the House of Two Towers, a colorful staircase takes you to an elegant wood-beamed sunlit study, with a double-height ceiling, built-in library shelving, and a balcony overlooking the magnificent grounds, including a view of the second tower -- the sprawling primary bedroom suite with a separate office, also overlooking the property. Outside, Legorreta's design philosophy continues into the landscape. Terraced stone patios step down past a second fountain and a rolling grass lawn to a series of outdoor rooms: a covered lounge and kitchen, cabana, art studio, swimmer's pool, and a full-sized tennis court tucked privately into its own tree-canopied corner of the property. The entire house is filled with intimate spaces of elegance, peaceful refinement, and grace, with windows opening to unique, gorgeous courtyards, each interior and exterior space evoking Legorreta's vision that architecture and landscaping should serve and enhance the meaning and beauty of the home's inhabitants' lives. The most important protege of Luis Barragan, whose buildings reshaped how light, color, and mass are used in residential architecture, Legorreta was recognized with many of the highest awards in the world of architecture, including gold medals from the Union Internationale des Architectes, the American Institute of Architects, and the Pan-American Federation of Associations of Architects. The Praemium Imperiale, Japan's highest prize for achievement in the arts, was awarded to Legorreta in 2011, and described him as "Mexico's most significant living architect with a unique style combining the traditions of Western modernism with the building culture of his native country, highlighting the beauty of vibrant color, geometric shapes, fountains, light-filled spaces, and intimate courtyards.