[upbeat music]
- Welcome to Crescent House, located at 532 Neptune Avenue
in beautiful coastal Encinitas, California.
This home is perched on the Pacific,
on a bluff with 74 feet of ocean frontage.
The lot at 0.43 acres is large for a bluff front Encinitas.
The house itself is also immense, 6329 square feet,
with four bedrooms, six bathrooms,
endless indoor and outdoor living
with panoramic ocean views, and a pool.
And it's all on the market for 23,500,000.
[bright music]
So we're now inside the beautiful courtyard,
and in front of the pool for which the house is named.
And we're fortunate today to have Wallace Cunningham,
the visionary architectural designer.
One of the things I've heard
when I've heard you speak about this house is this gate.
Can you tell us a little bit about the gate
and the design of this courtyard?
- Absolutely, so, from the outside,
you see this sweeping crescent stainless steel shape.
In plan, you can see the ramps winding up,
which also has that same piece.
And then the swimming pool itself
is a crescent moon shape around a circular terrace.
So, this part of the house
is all about radiating curves and ramps.
So when I start to design, you really analyze the site.
Number one is the view.
You figure out how you're going to portray it.
It's like framing a work of art.
And since that's what you're interacting constantly
with the ocean, you want to be able to see as much of it
as possible and from the most dramatic angles.
- So, another feature, Wally, that is so fascinating
when I tour people through this house are the ramps.
- [Wallace] My feeling was that the house was designed
for an older couple.
So, I wanted it barrier-free.
I wanted people, regardless of all ages,
to get where they wanted safely and effortlessly,
because this building is designed upside down.
All of the principal day rooms are above.
[bright music]
- We're upstairs at the top level here,
which you call the main living area.
When you were building it,
you were envisioning, I would imagine, views.
Tell us more about your thoughts for this space.
- Absolutely.
We're standing on a bridge above the breezeway
with the largest panorama of the ocean.
So you can look up and down,
just an amazing 180-degree view.
And you can also overlook the city beyond to the east;
lots of cross ventilation.
It's as though the roof just hovered above the structure
supported on the fireplace and the far walls.
The room is as big as the view.
Most rooms end at the glass line
or a wall or window coverings.
This is infinite space.
It's just going until you can see no more.
So, it's almost alive because the house appears to move
and change throughout the entire day.
So, it's on an east west exposure.
So you're getting this very dramatic lighting
actually going right through the house, under the house.
So, the furniture reflects the architecture of the space.
So this table has an unusual shape
to maximize the views out and across to the east.
And it's reflected in the ceiling lines.
It connects everything; every piece of furniture,
every piece of art is part of the picture space
and the design.
- One of the little hidden gems in this house
is this movable wall, and it is the bar area.
So when entertaining, this glass panel slides,
and it camouflages the kitchen, reveals this beautiful bar.
And with the mirror here, then you get the effect
of the panoramic ocean view from both sides.
So, no matter which side of the table
your guests are sitting at, they have the money shot.
Although, sometimes it's hard to decide
whether to camouflage the kitchen
because it is so beautiful.
[gentle music]
What was your inspiration with these levels,
and with angling the kitchen sinks like you did?
- The levels are basically all people
aren't the same height, size, reach.
And so, I wanted to have a cascade of countertops
to offer people different possibilities,
and people have children, grandchildren, et cetera.
So, it opened that up.
The sinks, again, are based on the ceiling.
So, all of the ceilings are based on a triangle.
All of the sinks and this cabinet in particular
are going to the point of this roof above and ceiling.
And this is actually position alpha, this V,
so they're seating there.
And this is one of those infinite views
looking as far into the ocean as you can.
And then the big panorama once again.
So, instead of it
being at some confining little kitchen window,
you have the same view as everyone else.
- So in terms of appliances in the kitchen,
we have a Wolf induction cooktop, a subzero refrigerator,
and then hidden behind these panels
are Wolf double ovens and the microwave.
So beyond just its stunning beauty,
the kitchen is very practical, functional,
and great for a chef.
[soft music]
We're heading into the primary suite.
And one of the things that is always interesting
about this room to me, Wally,
is the way you curve the wall and that there's no door.
It seems like a natural question to ask why no door,
until you look and see the view you would've lost
had there been a door.
- I wanted them to wake up
to the most commanding and beautiful view possible.
The daylighting is very interesting
in this part of the house.
Everywhere you walk, you're walking towards the light,
you're walking from east to west,
and then there's a series of skylights in an adjacent space
that pours light over the walls.
The walls do not touch the ceiling in the closets,
the bathroom, and the bedroom
that are within the structure of the house itself.
[upbeat music]
- Another nice surprise with this home
is that in the primary suite,
there are dual primary closets.
So, that tends to be uncommon this close to the ocean,
where space is typically a consideration.
This one is particularly beautiful as well
because like the rest of the home, it's art,
it's got triangles and angles.
The walls don't go all the way to the ceiling
to let in light.
So, you see all the sculpture and the beauty
and there are even light panels in the back corner here.
So, like so much of the house,
more surprises around every corner.
[soft music]
So, we're here in the primary bathroom.
So we've got dual sinks, the tub,
but Wally, when you talk about what people look at
when they brush their teeth, I imagine that
that's part of why you opened up this window here.
- Absolutely. So, it's a panorama to the east.
The morning sun is coming up, you're brushing your teeth.
And that's washing through.
Again, the walls don't touch the ceiling,
so there's light coming from the west
and the south and north as well.
So, here's a bathroom with four directions of light.
The tub is part of the actual architecture.
So, it's easy access for grandchildren or anyone.
So you can hold on to the counter, easy steps,
lay down this way, and the back is sloped appropriately.
And so it makes a beautiful sculpture
coming up the steps and the intersections
and implies the underlying triangular structures.
[bright music]
- So, a show stopper in this house
is this stainless steel staircase that you designed.
- It's a big open sweep, much steeper than the main ramp,
but echoing that change of level and ascension.
It joins all of the spaces in the house levels.
And you get this incredible vertical,
with a screen of metal and glass,
which breaks the view to the neighboring house,
but allows the light to come through the space.
- Another convenient and beautiful feature of the home
is the lift,
convenient because when you pull into the garage,
you can come in with your groceries
and ride the lift up to the kitchen level.
- The elevator experience
is usually confining and disturbing.
So, I wanted maximum light, beautiful materials,
woven stainless steel,
and to see through the doors continuously,
so you can see the floors go by
and the space again is as large, visually as possible.
[upbeat music]
- As much as this house is about art and architecture,
it's also about comfortable living.
This room is where the television is.
It's cozy, it's comfortable.
It has the views that we've come to expect from this house,
but it does tend to be one of the favorite rooms
of the owners.
They spend a lot of time lounging here,
and find it lovely at night to see the twinkling lights.
It's a perfect cozy room that really invites you in.
[bright music]
So, we're now in the guest house
which is a detached structure from the main house,
totally self-contained.
And we're on the east side of the house,
and yet I have a big ocean view.
How did you make that happen?
- Basically, we were trying to give everyone the ocean view
and not allow rooms to feel second class.
So, this is a morning room with direct light,
and then a Southern exposure through these louvered windows.
The ramp actually comes through the space and goes outside,
so it makes a very sculptural connection
to the entire composition.
And it's really multipurpose space.
The stainless steel wall acts a light device
to bounce the east light into the space.
And it also creates Murphy beds for overflow guests.
It actually makes a beautiful apartment
for an older child, or a parent, or guests
that you don't wish to see
or have connected to you. - Right.
And then your guests never wanna leave.
- Yeah, it is a problem.
- [Lisa] So, the bedroom of the guest house,
this is one of my favorite rooms.
- The object was to create the biggest panorama possible,
and the largest visual space
and joining the breezeway courtyard to the ocean.
So, you get this amazing 180-degree view of architecture
as well as the sea and the major fire features.
And you're seeing the fire features from the side.
So, you're seeing the stainless steel fins,
so it creates entirely different vista and feeling
than the other parts of the house.
So, you want every room to be special.
You don't want it to just simply be a whole series
of more of the same.
So, sculpturally, this creates an extraordinary space
and something entirely different than the other rooms.
[upbeat music]
- Here we are right outside of the garage.
And in addition to the concrete and the glass,
another unusual detail of the home
is these panels are all titanium.
Titanium is a metal that is impervious to the elements,
and that's so important living on the ocean.
We have a spacious two-car garage with custom cabinetry,
and the garage follows the unique angles and architecture
of the rest of the house.
So even the most utilitarian of spaces here in this home
is visually stunning.
[gentle music]
This magnificent outdoor space
is probably the perspective that when I walk in,
I feel like I'm on the bow of a ship floating somewhere.
And there's so much room here for entertaining.
And I notice as I look around all the different vignettes,
where some of the outdoor space is covered.
- Well, the reason for the house being here
is of course this view,
emphasizing that and collecting all of those views
and all of the ephemeral aspects of being by the ocean;
the sound, the smell, all of that,
getting that into the house and into your face,
and making you comfortable on various weather conditions,
you can actually live outside,
which is the dream of everyone in California.
The visual connection to all of the upper spaces
flow through that fireplace, down through this point
with the radiating stainless steel and fire,
and then connecting to the ocean terrace fire,
and then tons of water, clouds, and atmospheric events
make this a whole sense of place
that you can get from nowhere else.
As you travel through it,
you're traveling through space and time.
So, there's hints of the world past, and hints of a future.
[bright music]
- Crescent House, at 532 Neptune Avenue,
in coastal Encinitas, California, 6329 square feet,
including four bedrooms and six bathrooms
with one of those being a standalone guest house.
The property has a pool
and these incredible panoramic ocean views.
It's a modern masterpiece of architecture.
It is a piece of art really.
So, live here and life is art,
and it's all on the market for $23,500,000.
[soft music]