The philosophy with the bridges,
is allowing the landscape and the hillside to work its way up into the house.
When Trevor and I were designing this house he referred to those pieces of landscape as,
landscape fingers, these fingers of landscape working their way up help disguise and break
down the exterior scale of the home. A home that we didn't want to look boxy and and massive.
We were very fortunate to have a client that
really wanted everything to be perfect and also really respected our vision.
This allowed us to really fine tune every detail in the home.
We're in Los Angeles in the Pacific Palisades, in a neighbourhood known
as The Riviera. The Riviera is an exclusive neighbourhood comprised of about 700 homes.
The house from the street level is a one-story
house and then the second floor happens below that.
We have this show garage, which it's a multifunctional space
and it also opens up onto an amazing view of Rustic Canyon.
So you enter on the main level, you come through the entry into this beautiful, tall space that is
lit by skylights and designed specifically to let light reflect in and bounce in.
The main living area contains the kitchen,
main dining room and a living room that looks out over the pool to the views
and then to the left, a covered outdoor dining space, an outdoor living room.
And there's also an outdoor kitchen.
A tall corridor then leads you to the primary suite.
You've got two separate sides to the bathroom with their own soaking tubs and dressing rooms
that meet in the middle with the shower.
Connected to the primary bedroom is a bridge that allows you just to walk right into the pool.
Underneath there's there's a whole other level of living spaces,
above the staircase is a lovely story window that brings soft light to the bottom floor.
As you walk towards the guest suites, very simple bookshelves are embedded in the wall.
We have three secondary suites on the lower floor
with bathrooms and balconies looking out over the canyon.
And a gallery that leads to another living area.
This is one of my favorite, just kind of little moments, just this
slot with the exterior staircase that goes down to the guest house below.
Which allows private access for guests so they don't have to go through the house.
Given our location this is high fire hazard zone
and so the exterior materials all have to be either non-combustible, so we have the concrete,
we have the metals. Where we do have some wood on the exterior to bring a little bit of warmth,
there's a layer of fire protection board just behind that wood veneer because of its
location within the canyon, it's subject to winds that come up at a certain time of day.
We designed a series of windscreens that the
homeowner can operate. These panels are custom designed.
I think the things that I'm most proud of are
the selection of a material palette that was just very simple and subtle.
When you see a house like this it's not just one person,
there are builders and craftsmen, this was a great opportunity for everyone to show their best.