The clients wanted the house—which is situated on a ravine near the city center—to have a strong connection between indoor and outdoor spaces, and to encompass a modernist sensibility, with every space and site line being fully considered.
The architects reimagined the contemporary rowhouse through this renovation and expansion of an 1899 wood frame house that had been stripped of detail and left in disrepair.
The architect removed a previous addition to the home, then added a new wing with the master suite, a glazed dining terrace, a sitting space with a wood-burning stove, and utility rooms.
The flat, overhanging roof of the new house echoes the horizontal composition of the original modernist house, meant to evoke the vast Los Angeles horizon.
In conceiving this house’s shape, silhouette, and material palette, the architects took cues from familiar forms seen around the neighborhood, like garden sheds and small garages.
With this modern rammed-earth house, the architect’s aim was to ignite the community’s interest in a sustainable building typology characteristic of the region.
Originally built in 1939, this flat-roofed Art Moderne house with a curved, speed-striped stucco wall, nautical-inspired detailing including a porthole window, and a prominent front door was purchased in 2013 by new owners who wanted to restore it and increase square footage while remaining respectful of the designated heritage building’s past.
Near Anza Borrego Desert State Park, Richard Orne designed a single-family residence for himself and his designer wife, Susan Hancock, in one of only two “dark sky” communities—areas designated to minimize light pollution and preserve the natural darkness of night skies—in the U.S.
The owners, a retired couple in their 70s, commissioned Mork-Ulnes Architects to design a vacation house for them, their children, and grandchildren: three ski-loving generations whose older members have been skiing in the area since the 1940s.
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