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GREGORY AIN (1908-1988)
Born in Pittsburgh PA, Ain was raised in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles CA. For a short time during childhood, the Ain family lived at Llano del Rio, an experimental collective farming colony in the Antelope Valley of California. He was inspired to become an architect after visiting the Rudolf Schindler House as a teenager. He attended the University of Southern California School of Architecture in 1927-1928 but dropped out after feeling limited by Beaux Arts training. Ain's primary influences were Rudolf Schindler and Richard Neutra. He lived in Neutra's then-new VDL Research House for a while and worked for Neutra from 1930 to 1935. He also worked for Harwell Hamilton Harris.
Ain's first wife Agnes was the roommate of Galka Scheyer, the client for Ain's first completed commission working with Neutra. His second wife Josephine Cohen later married Robert Chuey and had Neutra design them a house. Beginning in 1935, Ain cultivated a practice designing modest houses for working-class clients featuring flexible floor plans and open kitchens. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1940 to study prefab housing. During WWII, he was Chief Engineer for Charles and Ray Eames in the development of their well-known plywood chairs.
After working for the Eames office, he formed a partnership with architects Joseph Johnson and Alfred Day and landscape architect Garrett Eckbo to design large housing tracts. He later had a partnership with James Garrott, a Black architect. They built a small office building together on Hyperion Avenue in the Silver Lake neighborhood. Ain also taught architecture at USC after WWII.
Ain's projects attracted the attention of Philip Johnson, the curator of architecture at the Museum of Modern Art, who engaged Ain to build a house in the Museum's garden in 1950, officially missing for 70 years until USModernist's George Smart found it. At the same time, Ain was accused of being communist and was actively investigated and spied on (by among others, the family babysitter) by the FBI starting in 1941. J. Edgar Hoover considered him the most dangerous architect in America - which caused the loss of many commissions including participation in the famous Case Study Program. At times he had to use an alias, Fred Grant.
Ain left California and from 1963 to 1967 served as the Dean of the Pennsylvania State University School of Architecture. He died in 1988, leaving one daughter, Emily, and a son, Christopher. Ain's archives are at the Architecture and Design Collection at the University of California Santa Barbara.
"Ain idolized Schindler," recalled architect John Blanton, who also worked for Richard Neutra. "But Ain was more user-oriented; he wanted his designs to work for the clients, and therefore might compromise style. Because of this, clients loved him." Bio adapted from Wikipedia.
Subdivisions: Modernique * Park Planned
1929 - The Mrs. C. Ain Triple Dwelling, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1929 - The Evans and Zukin Construction Company Apartment House, 191 North La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1929 - The Archie Lamm Five Foot Module Home, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1929 - The Lipschitz and Tobin Sixteen Unit Apartment Building, Los Angeles CA. A collaboration with Rudolf Schindler and Richard Neutra. Unbuilt.
1929 - The M. & S. Stutz Residence, Huntington Park, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1930 - The Gregory Ain Apartment Renovation I, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1931 - The Gregory Ain Rented Apartment Renovation, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1932 - The J. Ford Henderson House, Echo Park, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1932 - The E. W. Pottle Residence, Beverly Hills CA. Designed with Richard Neutra. Unbuilt.
1935 - The Billie Whiskers House, Altadena CA. Unbuilt.
1936 - The Benjamin Berg House, 6362 Bryn Mawr Drive, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1936 - The S. Hunter House, designed with Harwell Hamilton Harris. Unbuilt.
1936 - The Glazer Duplex, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1937 - The Charles H. Edwards House, 5642 Holly Oak Drive, Los Angeles CA. Commissioned 1936. Harwell Hamilton Harris assisted Ain with the design. The house had its floor plate fastened to the foundation with steel straps, an unusual seismic precaution in 1936. There was a fire around 1975. Restored by Theodore Lindauer. Declared a Historical Cultural Monument by the City of Los Angeles in 1983. Altered in 1996. Sold to Christine Chatterton.
1937 - The Ansalem A. Ernst House I, 5670 Holly Oak Drive, Los Angeles CA. Built by Shy Kaplan. Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 840. Sold in 1994 to John Kevin Laffey. Sold in 2016 to Chet Fensler.
1937 - The Misch House, 5656 Tuxedo Terrace, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1937 - The Byler House, 914 West Avenue 37, Los Angeles CA. Sold in 2005 to Mark and Samantha Jones. Sold in 2008 to Ryan and Robert Hirahara. Restored around 2019. Bottom photo by Michael Locke.
1937 - The Count Hamilton Von Breton House, Silver Lake, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1938 - The A. O. Beckman House I, 357 North Citrus Avenue, Los Angeles CA. Designed with Visscher Boyd. Featured in: Arts & Architecture, February 1941; Architectural Record, July 1940. Sold in 1988 to Robert Engelsiepen. Sold in 2001 to Brooke Anderson. B/W photos by Julius Shulman; bottom photo by Michael Locke.
1938 - The Sydney Brown Remodel, 1608 Elevado Street, Los Angeles CA. Original house built in 1913. 2,600 sf. Sold in 1989 to Sid Panush. Rental as of 2018. Sold in 2021 to David and Eve Panush Family Trust. in Photos by Michael Locke.
1938 - The Isaac C. Goldberg House, 4700 Noeline Avenue, Encino CA. Remodeled in 1961. Sold in 2001 to Vardit Zilberstein, who expanded it to 20,000 sf (middle photo) and eliminated almost all the Modernist design. Still owner as of 2023.
1938 - The Model Plywood Panel House, designed in collaboration with Visscher Boyd. Unbuilt.
1938 - The Roth House, location unknown. Unbuilt.
1938 - The Herbert Stoltz House, West 62nd Street, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1938 - The Ben and Clara Eisenstadt House, 3428 Blair Drive, Los Angeles CA. Altered in 1978. Sold in 2003 to John D. Monte. Sold in 2016 to USI New Bren Holding LLC (Kimberly Harris, Richard Colton, Vasant Prabhu). B/W photos by Julius Shulman; bottom photo by Michael Locke.
1938 - The Slavko Vorkapich Studio/Guest House and Garage, 2100 Benedict Canyon Drive, Beverly Hills CA. This was one of the earliest prefab plywood houses. Destroyed in the late 1990s. Vorkapich was a Serbian-American film director and editor and Chair of USC film school. There are photos of the house in Decorative Art: The Studio Yearbook.
1960 - The David Ziskind Alterations, 2339 Silver Ridge Avenue, Los Angeles CA. Original house built in 1938 and designed by architect Saul Harris Brown for himself. Reached by a small railway. Sold to MOCA curator Philipp Kaiser. Sold in 2021 to Tara Subkoff. Renovated in 2022 by Escher GuneWardena. For sale in 2023, including plans for a pool by Barbara Bestor.
1939 - The Isador and Rosa Becker House, 1828 San Jacinto Street, Los Angeles CA. Commissioned in 1938. The second owners enclosed the deck behind the garage. Sold in 1960 to Roy and Delores Dundas. Sold in 2003 to architect Barry Milofsky who did a renovation lasting until 2007. Color photos by Michael Locke and Samuel Dématraz.
Instead of the usual right angles, Ain Streamline Moderne with curved walls along the upper corners and garden walls. According to Milofsky, the Beckers wanted a 'party house,' with access to a roof deck. There was originally an open patio behind a privacy wall at the street level, and a narrow deck on the east side in back of the garage and at the lower level where the dining room was located. A dumbwaiter was installed to bring food from the kitchen at the lower level. A second owner enclosed the deck behind the garage. The third owners, Roy and Delores Dundas, purchased the house in 1960.
Dundas made significant alterations, including relocating the kitchen to the enclosed patio area on the street level, maintaining a small patio off the kitchen and adding a powder room between the front door and the garage. A second bedroom was added on the lower level, and a large deck off the living room.
After purchasing the home in 2003, Milofsky began the task of upgrading the out-of-date elements, exposing and refinishing the original hardwood floors, upgrading 40-year old kitchen appliances, adding lighting in the living room and deck, and removing extensive mini blinds to expose the views. In 2007, he added a large open-able skylight in the kitchen to allow light into the living room and replaced the kitchen roof to reestablish the original garage roof/fascia line in front of the house. In keeping with Ain, he added a floating shelf in the kitchen and cabinets below the living room windows, assuming the original design. Original railings were re-created plus the original Ain color palette to the upper level.
1939 - The Urcel Daniel House, 1856 Micheltorena Street, Los Angeles CA. Designed with Visscher Boyd and George Agron. Featured in California Arts & Architecture, August 1940. Sold in 2006 to the Ilze Lozencins Trust. Sold in 2014 to Dominic Mondavi. B/W photo by Julius Shulman.
1939 - The Marjorie Eaton House, 945 Old Trace Road, Palo Alto CA. Original address was 26915 Old Trace Road. Sold to P. and C. Burke. Sold in 1991 to Robert and Diane Master, who did a major restoration by Lee and Carol Lippert, still owners as of 2022. Photos by Norbert Von der Groeben.
1939 - The Margaret and Harry Hay House, 3132 Oakcrest Drive, Los Angeles CA. Sold to Hannah Muldevin. Sold in 1999 to Eric Klusman. Sold in 2007 to Constance L. Han, still owner as of 2023. B/W photos by Julius Shulman; color photos by Michael Locke.
1939 - The Dunsmuir Flats Apartments, 1281 South Dunsmuir Avenue, Los Angeles CA. Commissioned 1937. 4 units, 2 bedrooms/1.5 bath each. Sold to Jeffrey Kerns. Sold in 1988 to Robert King. Sold in 1999 Brian and Leanne Jewett. Sold in 2006 to Joseph Schwarzenbach who put it into trust in 2008. Designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument (No. 954) in 2009. B/W photos by Julius Shulman; color photo by Michael Locke.
1940 - The Richard and Ruth Hoffman House, 5732 Buffalo Avenue, Van Nuys CA. Commissioned 1939. Richard Hoffman was Chairman of the Graphic Arts Department at Los Angeles City College. The original design was too expensive and Ain reduced it. The FHA turned down the next design because it was too modern. Ain added a slanted roof in front but kept the flat roof in rear and FHA approved. Carroll Nordquist, the builder, enlisted his father C.J. Nordquist, a Swedish master craftsman, to build a house unaffected by earthquakes over 40 years. Sold in 1998 to Roger Neustaedter. Deeded to a trust with Neustaedter and Elaine Powell. Photos by Michael Locke.
1939 - The Sam Tierman House, 2323 Micheltorena Street, Los Angeles CA. Designed with Visscher Boyd. Sold in 2000 to Kristyn and Steven Dunston. Sold in 2002 to John Knight and Michelle D. Taylor, still owners as of 2022. B/W photos by Julius Shulman; color photo by Michael Locke.
1939 - The Fred and Diana Rivin House, Colony Circle, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1939 - The Abraham and Rose Scharlin House, 2363 Silver Ridge Avenue, Los Angeles CA. Both the garage and the main house have been substantially altered. As of 2011, owned by a Scharlin family trust. B/W photos by Julius Shulman; color by Michael Locke.
1939 - The One Family Defense Housing, aka the Minimum House, designed with Joseph A. Stein. This is the model. Unbuilt.
1939 - The Art Shapiro House, 731 North Sweetzer Avenue, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1939 - The Nathan and Ruth Sloate House, Alcyona Drive, Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1939 - The Homasote Panel House, location unknown. Unbuilt.
1940s - The Dodge Family Hunting Cabin Renovation, 6855 Pacific View Drive, Los Angeles CA. Now listed as a duplex with 6853 as the other unit. Original house built in 1912. Sold to the Gainsboro family, who owned it for over 80 years, lastly through the Helen Tina Gainsboro Trust. Ain remodeled one side (6853), Schindler (6855). Ain is listed as living there in 1956. 6853 was sold in 2010 to Rummel Bautista; sold in 2016 to 35535 Beach Lyn LLC (Levi and Chaya Nagel).
1940 - The Benjamin Berg House, Micheltorena Street, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1940 - The Bert Farmer House, 3335 North Knoll Drive, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt. House there as of 2011 was built in 1983.
1940 - The Dorothy Goldman House, 3817 Rhodes Avenue, Studio City CA. Unbuilt. The house at that address was built in 1948.
1940 - The Low-cost Community Housing Development, Southgate CA. Unbuilt.
1940 - The Benjamin Berg, Max B. Sosin, and Lawrence Goldman project: three cooperative residences on Rhodes Avenue or Street, North Hollywood, CA. Unbuilt. According to Sosin's daughter, they were "absolute Communists" who wanted communal housing. For Goldman, there were two more house schemes in 1941 and 1946; all unbuilt.
1940 - The Joseph Al. and Margaret Stein House, Mill Valley CA. Photos of the model by Julius Shulman. Stein worked for Neutra in the 1930s and later was a partner with Ain before WWII. According to Stein's son, David, Stein eventually built this house and Ain was not involved. Sold to architect William (Bill) Higgins.
1940 - The Alexander and Flora Hural House, 6281 Vine Way, Los Angeles CA. Commissioned in 1938. The upper level used to have a dental lab. Sold in 1971 to James and Frances Keane, who still owned it as of 2022. They put a wet bar in place of the dental lab. When they first bought it, Ain and Esther McCoy came around and McCoy told them to never remove Ain's signature showers. They didn't. B/W photos by Julius Shulman; color by Michael Locke.
1940 - The Brett Weston House and Studio, 537 West Rustic Road, Santa Monica CA. Sold in 2023 to Ducky Dodger LLC and Maxwell Epstein.
1941 - The Ruth March Ain House, 7964 Willow Glen Road, Los Angeles CA. She was Ain's second wife. Sold in 2007 to Adelle Lutz. Photo by Michael Locke.
1941 - The Benjamin Berg House, 3817 Rhodes Avenue, Studio City CA. Unbuilt.
1941 - The Doncaster G. Humm House, Long Beach CA. Unbuilt.
1941 - The Ella Ludwig House, 1255 North Clark Street, West Hollywood CA. Unbuilt. However, a nice modern house was built on the lot in 1962.
1941 - The James Schmidt House, Morro Bay CA. Unbuilt.
1941 - The Max B. Sosin House, Rhodes Street or Avenue, North Hollywood, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1941 - The Agnar Wahlberg House, Los Nietos Drive, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1941 - The Henry Mayers Guest and Pool House Addition, 2444 Silver Ridge Avenue, Silver Lake, Los Angeles CA. This was an addition to a 1930s English Tudor house. Sold in 2012 to Robert B. Garant and Cathy Shim.
1941 - The Maurice (Moe) and Alice Folb Orans House, 2404 Micheltorena Street, Los Angeles CA. Sold in 2011 to Keith Sidley and Kathleen Nolen. Photos by Michael Locke.
1942 - The Robert H. Parker House, 615 North Lemon Avenue, Azusa CA. A version of the Minimum house. Unbuilt.
1943 - The Jocelyn and Jan Domela House, 5046 Vanalden Avenue, Tarzana CA. Commissioned in 1942. Featured in California Arts & Architecture, April 1943. Address no longer exists. Possibly renumbered 4961 Casa Drive, needs verification. B/W photos by Julius Shulman.
1944 - The Wesley Barrett Alterations, 2958 Westbrook Avenue, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1945 - The Michael Leshing Sixteen Family Apartment Building, 1726 North Harvard Boulevard, Los Angeles CA. Included private front doors and backyards. Unbuilt.
1946 - The Alex Blumstein House, Albata Street, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt. Ain would use this floor plan, with variations, for the Community Homes, Avenel Homes, Mar Vista Housing, and other houses.
1946 - The Alexander and Beulah Cole House, 3642 Lowry Road, Los Angeles CA. Sold in 1986 to the Leon Angvire II Trust. Bottom photo by Michael Locke.
1946 - The Lawrence Goldman House, Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1946 - The Lucile Veterans Homes, Inc., Apartments, 1311-1323 Lucile Avenue, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt due to soil problems at the hillside site.
1946 - The Eric Schauer House, Ridge Oak Drive, Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1946 - The Albert Tarter and A. Salic Houses, two adjoining, 2224 Griffith Park Boulevard, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1947 - The Clifton Clay House, 12924 Sarah Street, Studio City CA. Commissioned 1945. Sold to Dominador Tugarde. Sold in 2000 to Michael Schwartz. Sold in 2002 to Frances and Grant Delgatty. Sold in 2006 to Shahab Aledarood. Sold in 2012 to Harborrow Mortgage. Sold in 2013 to Won and Young Choi.
1947 - The McCall's Magazine House. Unbuilt.
1947 - The Mrs. Darby House, Palos Verdes CA. Unbuilt.
1947 - The Martha Frank House with adaptive use as a school, Haverford Avenue, Pacific Palisades CA. Unbuilt.
1947 - The Leslie Gray House, 7711 Firenze Avenue, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt. House there was built in 1954.
1947 - The Lena Horne Alterations, 2136 Nichols Canyon Road, Los Angeles CA. However, in the book, Stormy Weather: The Life of Lena Horne by James Gavin, there is no mention of an alteration or any relationship with Ain. Assessor has house dated 1942/1943 (usually a second date means when there was an improvement).
"Horne appealed to a Jewish friend to help her locate a house (in 1947). 'Something away where I won't offend anyone,' she added ruefully. (She is talking about the restrictions in neighborhoods based on race.) She wound up in Nichols Canyon, a mostly liberal neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills. Her new address, 2136 Nichols Canyon, lay on the winding road where Betty Garrett lived; Ava Gardner was close by."
So it is possible that he indeed did some interior alterations for her. This is from the book Gregory Ain: The Modern home as Social Commentary by Anthony Denzern:
In 1946, 15 members of the motion picture cartoonists union met to discuss forming a housing cooperative. It would prove to be Ain's largest project, called "Community Homes", and had it been realized, certainly the most significant. Homes were to be laid out on an L-shaped parcel at the northeast corner of Victory Blvd and White Oak, bounded by Van Owen and Louise Avenue, in Van Nuys. The co-op grew from 15 homes to 280. Ain worked with architects Joseph Johnson and Alfred W. Day, forming a brief partnership of Ain, Johnson and Day, with their office in Silverlake. The project hit a snag with the conservative political positioning of the FHA and its restrictive covenants (the co-op members were 15% non-white, including Lena Horne), and the co-op eventually disbanded by 1949. Later that year the land was sold. Needs verification.
1948 - The Mar Vista Housing, Beethoven, Moore, Meier, and Marco Place, Venice CA. Designed with Joseph Johnson and Alfred Day. The Mar Vista Tract development was planned in 1947 for one hundred homes on a 60-acre lot by Avondale Development Company. They only built 52 homes with 7 house types. By rotating the one floor plan in different directions, Ain was able to create a sense of variation between the houses. The development was designated as a Historic Preservation Overlay Zone by the City of Los Angeles in 2003. There are 52 addresses. Color photos by Michael Locke.
The model house was 3508 Moore Street, originally owned by James and Jeanette Donnell. Sold to Steve and Susanna Shinmoto. Sold in 2012 to Dianne Vanderlip.
1948 - The Eric Barrett House, 3741 Woodstock Road, Hollywood Hills CA. Unbuilt.
1948 - The Avenel Cooperative Housing Project, 2839-2849 Avenel Street, Los Angeles CA. Designed with Joseph Johnson and Alfred Day. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2005, an unusually successful cooperative FHA-funded project where ten families pooled resources. The innovative design is noteworthy for the flexible use of space and open concept with sliding walls between the master bedroom and the living room and between the smaller bedrooms as well as private patios. The project was hailed as a model for low-cost urban housing in utilizing limited space. Photos by Michael Locke.
2841 1/2 Avenel: The Serril & Lilli Gerber House. First sold in 2006 to Kevin Lane. Sold in 2010 to Zachary Rae.
2843 Avenel: The Carl & Dorothy Brant House. They pushed out the living room and the southeast bedroom to add about 200 square feet to the original floor plan. Carl & Dorothy lived at the property until they passed away. Sold in 2013 to Stephen Pang.
2845 1/2 Avenel: Sold to Michael Aglion and Gain Real Estate Trust. Sold in 2019 to the Julia Meltzer and David Thorne Trust. Photos by Michael Locke.
2847 1/2 Avenel: Sold to Loretta Coha. Sold in 1992 to architect Gordon Olschlager who restored the unit back to the original Ain design and was instrumental in helping Avenel attain the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. Sold in 2012 to Howard Petersen.
2849 Avenel: Sold to Dyanne A. Simon Trust. Sold in 1997 to Raphael B. Simon. Sold in 2002 to Roger L. Simon. Sold in 2009 to Robert Nashak. Photos by Michael Locke.
2847 Avenel: Sold in 1991 to Morris and Betty Markoff. Sold in 2012 to Rebecca E. Baron and Douglas R. Goodwin. Sold in 2022 to Deardorff Limited. Photos by Michael Locke.
1948 - The Community Homes Cooperative, Reseda CA. Unbuilt. Designed with architects Johnson and Day. The FBI suspected the development was linked to the Communist Party; sadly, the project was denied federal funding because it was racially integrated.
1948 - The Morris E. Cohn Renovation and Addition, 4274 Bakman Avenue, Studio City CA. Built by Jesse Sapp. Sold in 1994 to Stephen and Angela Hirsh. Photo by Michael Locke.
1948 - The William F. and Dororthy Gantvoort House, 3778 Hampstead Road, La Cañada Flintridge CA. Unbuilt. The Gantvoorts took the drawings to Taliesin West where Frank Lloyd Wright reportedly told them, "your architect has labored mightily and brought forth a barn." The Gantvoorts decided to hire John Lautner instead.
1948 - The Hacienda Village Housing Extension, Los Angeles CA, in collaboration with Burnett C. Turner. Designed with Johnson and Day. Unbuilt. The project was ultimately designed and completed by Richard Neutra and Paul Williams.
1948 - The Donald Metz House, Sunset and Vale Avenue, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1948 - The George Rourke House, Hazen Drive, Beverly Hills CA. Unbuilt.
1948 - The Leo Salkin and Albert Tarter Adjoining Houses, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt. The owners later decided to live separately as shown below.
1948 - The Leo Salkin House, 2230 Griffith Park Boulevard, Los Angeles CA. Sold in 2012 to Matthew Linnell and Amy Davila. Altered.
1948 - The Albert Tarter House, 2401 St. George Street, Los Angeles CA. Sold in 1997 to Lynn Salle. Ain originally met Albert Tarter through the motion picture cartoonists' union whose members met in January 1946 to discuss forming a housing cooperative. The group, consisting of 15 members of the union, called itself "Community Homes." Within weeks, 88 families had subscribed to the plan. The group drew up by-laws and purchased 100 acres of land at the corner of Victory Boulevard and White Oak Avenue. The project was to be the first fully conceived social and aesthetic solution to Los Angeles housing shortage in the post war era. Ultimately the FHA rejected the plan due to the fact that the project was to be integrated, at a time when the agency openly advocated racial segregation of minorities. Tarter, an animator, would retain Ain to build a house for him on a hillside lot in Los Feliz, adapting one of the original plans from the Community Homes project. Photo by Michael Locke.
1948 - The Robert Schairer House, 11750 Chenault Street, Brentwood CA. Deeded to the Mary Schairer Trust. Sold in 2013 to The Wilshire Lot, agent Steven Hassan. Remodeled in 2015. Bottom photo by Michael Locke.
1949 - The Harold A. Butler House, aka McCall's Home of the Month, Geneva OH. Designed in collaboration with Joseph Johnson and Alfred Day. Address on plans (419 Main Street) appears to be where Butler lived at the time rather than where the house was built. Featured in McCall's Magazine, April 1949. Status unknown.
1949 - The Holley Dickenson House, 325 Sequoia Drive, Pasadena CA. Unbuilt.
1949 - The Hyman and Dorothy Miller House, 1634 Gilcrest Drive, Beverly Hills CA. Commissioned 1948. Designed with Joseph Johnson and Alfred Day. Interiors by Greta Grossman. Landscaping by Garrett Eckbo. Featured in Arts & Architecture, April 1950. Altered in 1978. Sold in 1993 to Renaud Callet. Sold in 1994 to Gilcrest Development. Sold around 1996 to Richard and Marjorie Alden. Sold in 2004 to Nora Ephron and Nicolas Pileggi. Radically altered away from the original design.
1949 - The John C. Wilfong House, 3250 Mesaloa Lane, Pasadena CA. Designed with Joseph Johnson and Alfred Day. Sold to Kaye Hilburn. There was a fire in 1993. Destroyed. Replaced in 1995 with new house, bottom photo. B/W photos by Julius Shulman.
1950 - The Grant Dahlstrom House, 780 Laguna Road, Pasadena CA. Unbuilt. They consulted Ain but later hired John Lautner.
1950 - The Joseph L. Hurschler House, 1200 Hillcrest Avenue, Pasadena CA. Designed with Joseph Johnson and Alfred Day. Photos by Fritz Block. Destroyed in the late 1980s.
1950 - The Leo Mesner House, 1141 Stone Canyon Road, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1950 - The Woman's Home Companion Exhibition House, aka MOMA House in the Garden, 4 West 54th Street, New York NY. Details. Designed with Joseph Johnson and Alfred Day. After the exhibition at MOMA, the house went "missing for 71 years" as no one could figure out what happened to it. Even a sizable New York Times article in 2017 failed to produce any clues. A model from 1950 was discovered in model maker Theodore Conrad's Jersey City home and was purchased by MOMA. Many researchers looked for it, but in 2021 USModernist's George Smart found it, remarkably intact, located in Croton-on-Hudson NY.
Here's the story: the house was auctioned by MOMA in late 1950 by MOMA to I. M. and Marcella Skol (formerly Skolnikoff) family. Marcella Skol's father Hyman dissassembled the house in late 1950 and put it in storage until the middle of 1951 when he began reconstruction at 155 South Mount Airy Road, Croton-on-Hudson NY.
The Skols owned it until 1969 when the house was bought by Iris and Paul Stevens. According to their son, David, his family knew it was an "architect-designed" house but had no idea it was connected to Ain or MOMA. Paul Stevens did two major extensions: converting a space off the kitchen to a dining room, and extending a powder room to a 3rd bedroom, where David grew up. There was a full fruit orchard in the front yard, a holdover from the Skols. When the Stevens divorced, the Kelly family bought it in 1980. They replaced the orchard with a lawn and adjacent beautiful gardens. The Kellys are still there as of 2022. Read the 2021 New York Times Article about USModernist's discovery. PDF.
1951 - The Walter W. Ralphs Jr. House, aka Ralph's House, 1350 Linda Ridge Drive, Pasadena CA. Commissioned 1950. Ralphs was part of the Ralphs family grocery store chain. Sold around 1989 to the Everett Palmer Family Trust. Sold around 2014 to the Linda Ridge Road Homeowners Association. Was a rental. Sold in 2017 to actress Rachel Bilson. B/W photo by Julius Shulman; bottom photo by Michael Locke.
1951 - The Leo Mesner House I, 13957 Valley Vista Boulevard, Sherman Oaks CA. Sold in 2011 to the James Whitney Trust. Photo by Michael Locke.
1951 - The Edward Mesner Remodel, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1951 - The Jerry Silvers House, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1952 - The James Handschiegl House, Carnavon Way, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1952 - The Eric Hausner House, De Vargas Development and Subdivision, Santa Fe NM. Unbuilt. Ain also designed of a shop in a hotel in 1952 for Mrs. Hausner that was unbuilt.
1952 - The A. Obbie and Rose Beckman House II, 15622 Meadowgate Road, Encino CA. Samuel H. Kaplan was the builder. Sold around 2004 to Valerie Curtin. Photo by Michael Locke.
1952 - The Marjorie M. Greene House, 1982 Redesdale Avenue, Los Angeles CA. 1640 sf. Designed with Joseph Johnson and Alfred Day. Sold to Joyce Poulson. Heavily damaged in November 2018 by fire; restored in 2021 by Escher GuneWardena Architecture. Featured in the New York Times, 10/31/2021. Fire photos by Michael Locke; other photos by Janna Ireland.
1953 - The Fred Feldman House, 1181 Angelo Drive, Beverly Hills CA. Feldman was Ain's therapist. Transferred in 2011 to the Gwen Silman (Feldman) Trust. Sold in 2014 to Josh Borris, Angelo Drive LLC, who designed and built an expansion to 11,000 sf in 2016. Sold in 2016 to Munico Properties, San Juan PR (singer Ricky Martin).
1953 - The Leo Mesner House II, 14571 Valley Vista Boulevard, Sherman Oaks CA. Commissioned in 1951. Original address was Encino. Sold in 1989 to Barry and Sharon Wegman. Sold in 1994 to Alexander Soroka. Sold in 2005 to Max and Alla Krumer. Main house was substantially altered in 2008. B/W photos by Julius Shulman.
1953 - The Richard N. (Dick) and Adrienne Tufeld House, 11020 Wrightwood Place, Studio City CA. Commissioned 1952. Landscape design by Garrett Eckbo. Sold in 2014 to Rachel Zabar.
1954 - The Walter M. Tasem House, 9400 Lloyd Crest Drive, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1955 - The M. Firestone House, Willow Glen Road, Los Angeles. Unbuilt.
1955 - The W. Boyd and Amy A. Mathews House, 4039 San Rafael Avenue, Los Angeles CA. Sold in 1988 to Robert E. Dawson, still owner as of 2023. Photo by Michael Locke.
1955 - The William T. and Betty A. Oliver House, 2885 Edgewick Road, Glendale CA. Deeded to the Betty A. Oliver Trust. As of 2022, Betty still lived in the house with her daughter Allison. Photos by Michael Locke.
1956 - The Anna Kulka Apartments, 11650 Chenault Street, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1956 - The Brunswick and Saunders Apartments, Fulton Avenue, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1956 - The Heinz Kaufman House, 2318 Earl Street, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1957 - The William M. Asher Additions and Alterations, 263 Loring Avenue, Los Angeles CA. Original house built in 1946. Deeded in 2010 to the Ellen Schlosberg Trust. Photo by Michael Locke.
1957 - The Hartford Mandel House, 2772 Hollyridge Drive, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1957 - The Robert and Dorothy Kahan Alterations, 914 North Kings Road, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1958 - The Fred Ayoob, Leo Mesner, and Goldie Wolf Apartment Buildings, 18422 Napa Street, Northridge CA. 18400 Malden is an apt house built in 1961; nothing listed as of 2014 at 18421 Malden Street; 18422 Napa Street built 1963. Unbuilt.
1958 - The Louis Gold House, San Vicente Boulevard, Santa Monica CA. Unbuilt.
1959 - The Ralph B. Atkinson House, aka Bixby House, 39140 Highway 1, Carmel Highlands CA. near the Bixby Bridge. Designed with James Garrott. This is one of the most beautiful lots in America. Atkinson died in 1975. Sold to Alan Funt. Sold in 1999 to investors. Sold in 2000 to Armand and Eliane Neukermans. Sold in 2020.
1959 - The Eric P. Hausner Additions and Alterations, Santa Fe NM. No address or indication this was ever built. Hausner was a refugee physician from Prague who did graduate studies at the Mayo Clinic and then began practice in Santa Fe NM. There is a previous project for Hausner, unbuilt, in 1952.
1960 - The Digby and Julie Kemper Gallas House, 5326 South Sherbourne Drive, Los Angeles CA. Sold around 2000 to the Turner Family Trust. Sold in 2005 to Shaun C. Oates. Photos by Michael Locke.
1960 - The Don Gordon House, Rodgerton Drive, Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles CA. No indication it was built. Needs verification.
1960 - The Leo Mesner and Charles Zanders Apartment Additions/Alterations, 2266 and 2272 West Adams Boulevard, Los Angeles CA.
2266 West Adams is a 4 bedroom apartment complex built in 1939. Sold in 1992 to Mary Solomon. Sold in 2004 to Juliana Ajoku.
2272 West Adams is a 6 unit apartment complex built in 1949. Sold to Edna Zanders. Sold in 2011 to 2266 Adams Blvd LLC.
1961 - The Jacobina Caro House, 7940 Willow Glen Road, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt. Site of the Rose Harris house which burned in 1959.
1961 - The Peter Yates Alterations, 1735 Micheltorena, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1961 - The S. M. Lazarus Additions and Alterations, 315 Conway Avenue, Los Angeles CA. Destroyed, new house built in 1989.
1962 - The Benjamin (Max) Berg Additions, 24912 Malibu Road, Malibu CA. The original house was built in 1958. Additions were also made in 1969. Sold in 2001 to the State of California. Sold in 2003 to Leo Baefsky. Sold in 2005 to Ronnie Shapiro, Teri Gillen, Pac Highway LLC. Sold in 2006 to Maxdog LLC.
1962 - The David I. and Frances Elterman Additions and Alterations, 15301 Kingswood Lane, Sherman Oaks CA. Original house built in 1952. Sold in 2000 by the Elterman Trust to John Grotting. Sold in 2002 to Roberta Margolis. Sold in 2003 to Mark Gates. Bottom photo by Michael Locke.
1962 - The A. R. Brandner Alterations, 3701 Landa Street, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1962 - The Phil Kerby House, 8708 Crescent Drive, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
1962 - The Verne Winchell House, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt. Winchell was the owner of Winchell's Doughnuts. Gene Flores, who worked as a draftsman for Ain at the time, observed that Winchell wanted to use the house to explore some of his own psychological issues. "Greg wound up asking him, look, why don't you spend your money on a psychiatrist? You don't need to go through this exercise." In the end, according to Flores, "he talked the client out of doing the job."
1963 - The Leon Stanley Kaye House, 4754 Vanalden Avenue, Tarzana CA. Commissioned 1961. Fellow architect Josef van der Kar, a close associate of Ain, completed the construction documents and oversaw the home's construction. Sold in 2000 to Alan Katz. Sold in 2008 to Daniel and Susan Scalisi. Sold in 2013 to Samantha Litman and Stephen Strout.
1963 - The Ansalem A. Ernst House II, 1435 Phillips Street, Vista CA. Sometimes listed as 1425 Phillips Circle, which is another house down the road. Commissioned in 1962. Sold in 2000 to Robert Nakano. Bottom photos from 2014. In deteriorating condition.
1963 - The Howard Lewin House, 5210 Jessen Drive, La Cañada Flintridge CA. Commissioned in 1961. Remodeled in 1971. Sold in 1988 to Michael Maguire. Sold in 1989 to Peter Wood, still owner as of 2020. Photos by Michael Locke.
1963 - The Robert S. Macmillan House, Starlight Crest Drive, La Cañada Flintridge CA. Unbuilt.
1963 - The Gene E. Smith House, West Covina CA. Unbuilt.
1965 - The Jack Weiss / Araby Oasis Apartments, Palm Springs CA. Unbuilt.
1968 - The William (Bill) and Midori Ginoza House, 962 East McCormick Avenue, State College PA. Commissioned in 1966. Still owned by Bill Ginoza as of 2018.
1971 - The James Haun House, 2000 La Tuna Canyon Road, Los Angeles CA. Unbuilt.
Sources include: Virtual Globetrotting; The Architecture of Gregory Ain by Gebhard, Von Breton, and Weiss; Gregory Ain: The Modern Home as Social Commentary by Anthony Denzer.