The L.A. Forum is pleased to announce a rare opportunity to tour one of the few surviving Sun Villas designed by modernist architect A. Quincy Jones—now beautifully restored and updated for contemporary living.
Originally conceived in 1950 as a low-cost model home, the Sun Villa earned the prestigious AIA Builder House of the Year award and stood as a prototype for elegant, efficient suburban design. Yet despite its accolades, only a small number of these homes were ever built, primarily in the San Diego area. This particular house, quietly nestled in Glendale, is a true gem—both for its architectural pedigree and its remarkable journey from obscurity to revival.
The renovation was guided by restraint: architects Claret-Cup’s goal was to peel back layers of misguided alterations added over the decades and allow the original design to re-emerge. They restored the home’s spatial transparency and post-and-beam elegance, enhancing it with subtle modern upgrades to improve thermal performance and comfort, while preserving the delicate indoor-outdoor flow that defined Jones’s work.
