[1][2] Designed in 1948 in the futuristic style by Los Angeles architect John Lautner, it was completed in 1949 for Neo-Fauvist artist Helen Taylor Sheats, who assisted in the design,[3] and her second husband, dean of University of California Extension Paul Henry Sheats, who was also a professor at UCLA.

[4] Because of its proximity to University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), it was intended for and has been used primarily for student occupancy.

[5][6] In their book An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles, David Gebhard and Robert Winter praised its functionality by noting, "each apartment [is] completely separated from the others .

"[7] However, its condition in recent years has deteriorated, with visiting professor, Westwood resident, and former presidential candidate Michael Dukakis calling it "a dump" in 2004,[1] and pressured the agency responsible to issue parking tickets to sidewalk-blocking offenders.

[15] In 1932, she married Vern Taylor, an agronomist and a fellow student at the University of Wisconsin, and moved back to Madison.