America's Only Surviving Bubble House Is For Sale In CA

PASADENA, CA — A rare piece of California architectural history is for sale in Pasadena.

Listed at $1.95 million, 1097 S. Los Robles Ave. is modest in size, with two bedrooms, one bathroom and a total area of just over 1,200 square feet, according to a Compass real estate listing — but it’s remarkable in shape.

Subscribe

Called the Wallace Neff Shell House or Bubble House, the domed 1947 home is the architect’s sole surviving U.S. example of his airform construction style, which, according to the listing, “fuses futurist engineering with sculptural domestic design.”

The house was restored by its current owners with the intent of preserving the original architectural integrity, the listing said.

“The home's monolithic form blurs distinctions between structure and sculpture, embodying Neff's belief that architecture could be economical, resilient, and profoundly modern,” according to the listing.

Also on the roughly 9,000-square-foot property is a more than 1,000-square-foot detached studio, which sits atop a bomb shelter 15 feet below that was added in the 1960s, “further underscoring the property’s historic significance,” the listing said.

View the full listing here.