Eames House

A Laboratory for Living

The approach to the Eames House follows a private driveway down from Corona Del Mar street. Tall eucalyptus trees planted in the 1880s frame your first view of the two rectangular structures tucked into the hillside. The 17-foot-tall facades display geometric patterns in primary colors, black, white, and gray panels between steel frames. This is Case Study House #8, and it looks less like a house than an elegant shipping container transformed into art.

Charles and Ray Eames designed their home as part of Arts & Architecture magazine’s postwar experiment to create affordable, beautiful housing from industrial components. They ordered every piece from manufacturer catalogs. Steel decking, modular window systems, glass panels. Nothing custom. When materials finally arrived after a three-year delay, the couple had spent so much time picnicking on the property that they redesigned the entire plan to preserve the meadow they’d grown to love.

Inside the Collaboration

Tours begin in the meadow where docents explain the couple’s design philosophy and the Case Study program. Staff then open the living room door for views into the residence. The double-height space reveals exactly what Charles and Ray lived with: their molded plywood chairs, a spiral staircase, Abstract Expressionist paintings, Native American baskets, Chinese lacquered pillows. Every object tells a story about their travels, interests, and experiments.

The bedroom overlooks this main room from a mezzanine level. Sliding panels allowed the Eameses to close off the space or leave it open. Wire-embedded skylights bring in natural light. Aluminum closets line the hallways. The kitchen sits behind a 14-foot Modernfold door. You can peer through glass walls to see how they arranged their daily life.

The Studio Opens

For the first time, visitors can step inside Charles and Ray’s working studio. This matching structure housed their creative process. Photography darkroom. Large open workspace with double-volume height. Furniture prototypes in various stages of completion. The tools and materials they used to develop designs now manufactured worldwide.

The studio’s preservation offers insights into their methods. They built mockups, tested ideas, refined details. The physical evidence of this iterative process fills the space. Visitors spend time examining these artifacts while docents answer questions about specific projects and techniques.

Grounds and Context

The 1.4-acre site maintains its original landscaping. The concrete retaining wall runs 200 feet along the hillside. The meadow spreads out in front of the buildings, offering views toward the Pacific. The Entenza House (Case Study House #9) sits next door, designed by Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen for the magazine’s editor.

Walking the grounds takes about an hour during the standard Overview Tour. The structures look different from every angle as light changes throughout the day. Eucalyptus leaves filter sunlight onto the glass walls. The geometric facade creates sharp shadows and color blocks that shift with the sun’s position.

Understanding the Achievement

The Eames House succeeded as both architectural statement and functional living space. Charles and Ray raised a family here, developed their most famous furniture designs, produced films, and hosted gatherings. The house worked for them because they designed it around their actual needs and habits.

The interiors show their philosophy of mixing high design with personal collections. Noguchi floor lamps stand near Japanese kokeshi dolls. Thonet chairs sit alongside Eames prototypes. Folk art from travels worldwide fills shelves and walls. This approach made modern design feel human rather than cold.

The Getty Conservation Institute now partners with the Eames Foundation on preservation. The house survived the 2025 Palisades Fire that destroyed much of the surrounding neighborhood. Its reopening in July 2025 included the studio’s first public access, expanding what visitors can experience.

Planning Your Visit

Tours require advance booking and sell out quickly. The Overview Tour provides the most accessible option for seeing the property. Private tours offer deeper access but come at premium prices. All tours remain on the exterior except for the studio entry, though open doors and windows provide clear views into the residence.

Comfortable walking shoes help on the sloped site. The outdoor tour means weather matters. Bring layers for morning fog or afternoon sun. Photography of exteriors is welcome. No interior photography is permitted to preserve the collections.

The experience appeals to architecture students, design professionals, and anyone curious about how two creative people built a home that became a monument. The Eames House demonstrates what happens when designers live in their own experiments and refine them daily for 40 years.