Residential ArchitectureHouse of the Month

The Cresta

By Deborah Snoonian Glenn

The Cresta
Jonathan Segal
La Jolla, California
An outdoor room with a lap pool, reflecting pool, and seating areas wraps the house on the ocean-facing side. The hedge-lined walkway softens the transition between the street and the entry and helps create a sense of arrival. The garage is accessible via a back alley.
Photo © Matthew Segal

The Cresta
Jonathan Segal
La Jolla, California
On the main level, sliding glass walls retract to create a seamless at-grade transition between indoors and out.
Photo © Matthew Segal

The Cresta
Jonathan Segal
La Jolla, California
Photo © Matthew Segal

In temperate La Jolla, California, a narrow building lot and a desire for a generous outdoor living area gave rise to the straightforward rectilinear motifs of the 5,300-square-foot Cresta House, a three-story coastal residence designed by San Diego architect Jonathan Segal for himself and his wife, Wendy. “The house wanted to be a pure form on this site,” Segal says. He conceived the cast-in-place concrete structure as an orthogonal volume, slicing and shaping rooms and functional spaces within and around it, and creating openings to maximize ocean views and daylight.

The residences in this upmarket enclave are nestled shoulder-to-shoulder. To use the 20-foot-wide lot efficiently, he shifted the house's footprint toward the back of the lot and submerged some 2,000 square feet of living space below grade. The concrete was cast using forms made of B grade plywood. “We weren't concerned with perfection; we wanted to see some texture and didn't patch the surfaces when the forms were removed,” says Segal.

Now the house is the couple's oasis from the downtown office of the family's architecture and development firm. (Wendy and Jonathan's son Matthew oversaw Cresta House's construction.) The subterranean level, illuminated partially by in-floor skylights, comprises a wine cellar, workout room, and TV room with a bar, while the ground floor contains the main public spaces, and the second floor holds bedrooms and an office. “We spend most of our time in the outdoor room,” says Segal, referring to the living spaces on the ground floor that open to terraces. “It feels private and serene, yet we can also hear the birds and ocean and feel a strong connection to the neighborhood when we sit out there. It's our urban house within a suburban context.”

Gross square footage: 5,300 sq ft

Total construction cost: $1,500,000

Architect:
Jonathan Segal FAIA
3000 Upas Street
Suite 101
San Diego, CA 92104
619-955-5397