A 1925 family home passes to an adult child who transforms its single story spanish suburban front with an ADU tower blooming behind, wrapping a court with main-house Master Suite expansion and rebuilt garage.

Submitted for Plan Check. Est completion late 2024

Set into the base of San Gabriel ridge this rustic mid-century bungalow has a new Great Room, expanded Master Suite and upstairs office/guest room, rising into the majestic branches of a huge chinese elm tree. The two story stair hall is peaked by skylights washing daylight into the dining, kitchen and sitting area which opens downhill to an oak-filled ravine.

Approved by County Planning; first phase in construction drawings. Est completion mid 2024

A scientist, a teacher, and their three girls have rebuilt their hillside ranch home using the optimistic futurism of a shared 1960’s childhood. Architect Richard Neutra and the Southern California Case Study program are recalled in creation of a new ‘Garden Room’ which extends downhill and into the hillside garden. The new room’s roof deck holds an outdoor fireplace and extends views eastward above the trees. Eight ‘Sun Tunnel’ skylights illumine a new bookcase lined stair hall, inserted along with rebuilt kitchen, bedrooms and baths. (2370 SF + 280 new SF; 2008 completion; Cameron Carothers photography).

The architect builds for his family on a small site off the path of his childhood newspaper route. The hillside slopes up gently from a 100 year old river-rock wall beside an oak and cedar covered street corner. Views west and south from the raised platform extend miles across the Eagle Rock valley. A tall, thick-walled and arched modern building terraces up the hill with roof decks, red oak cabinetry and floors, and an unusual dark-stained wooden ceiling. (2000 SF; 1997 completion; Cameron Carothers photography)

A mid-century hillside residence is expanded by replacing an open carport with a new 2 car garage which lifts the new apartment up into trees and over the steep double lot to panoramas reaching from DTLA, the ocean and up to the San Gabriel mountains. Close proximity to the Metro Gold Line allowed a compact project without new site parking. The project passed approvals by the Highland Park/Garvanza Historic Preservation Overlay District Board.

(955 SF; 1/2022 Construction complete; Cameron Carothers photography)

Far above the LA basin, a modest mid-century home is expanded with (2) ADU’s: the first has two-floors terracing above a 3-car garage, making a tower with a 270 degree panorama; second a single story ‘Jr ADU’ with one bedroom. Gathering together these activate the hillside around a family pool courtyard.

The project site borders the protected San Gabriel/Verdugo Mountains Specific Plan zone, which focused size and building placement.

In process; design paused 1/2023

Hilltop home on a ranch re-envisioned:  Facing long views northward to the San Gabriel range, a media industry couple re-sculpt their post and beam timber framed pavilion with roofed light towers inspired by deep porched tropical huts and the ancient tiki shed beside the existing pool. A new bookcase-lined new stairwell connects formerly separated upper and lower floors, along with a rebuilt kitchen, baths and bedroom suites.

(2300 SF; Mid 2011 Ph-1 completion; Ph-2 in design; Cameron Carothers photography)

A teacher and restaurateur requested adaptation of a pre-designed home plan package for their 10 Acre horse ranch.  The resulting 3900 SF residence uses the core floor plan but transformed the exterior and interior form from anonymity to a spanish colonial villa. Of interest in the purchased plans are an octagonal grand room, enclosed roof terrace, guest apartment and tower study.  Deep within the rather ordinary suburban tract-home design an Italian country house was discovered, bringing dignity to the interesting store-bought floorplan. Completed through semi-final municipal review.

(3938 SF; 4/2019 Final Riverside County Plan Review Halted)

A builder and educator wife develop their rustic site edging the San Gabriel range reached by bridging the dry flood wash.  Its 1920's craftsman spirit rises up from the river rock wall base to attic rafter tails using detailed woodworking performed throughout by the owner himself.  Sleeping porches and a vaulted stair hall unify the residence and tie inside to the dramatic outdoors.

(3000 SF with 1100 SF garage apartment; 2005 completion)

The architect invested part of an inheritance in this steep lot facing eastward across Eagle Rock toward our 1st and current residence, eventually for construction of a new single family residence. These images are site studies showing response to city zoning rules and emerging design concepts. Of particular interest has been the 20th C Modernist spirit, engineering and vision studied in the sketches above.

Le Corbusier’s Ahmedebad Villa Shodhan has culminated the modernist research thus far, and is emulated in the first concept shown here. It raises a set of open concrete decks atop point columns across which rooms and gardens can be freely, even casually placed. Our benign local climate, like the Indian one can truly exploit this blend of inside and out. By contrast, the second concept uses a more expressionist sculptural approach - more to come!

This new site interestingly sits exactly on axis with Colorado Boulevard, the historic East-West arterial stretching across the northern edge of our urban basin. Views to and from the building and the boulevard are a potential to be discovered.