Cliff House
Loosening Up Laszlo: Cliff House
Los Angeles, California
Perched on a cliff high on one of the "Crest" streets above Beverly Hills, the original single-story house was a fashionable mid-century modern take on a small hillside pad with panoramic views of the L. A. basin. It was designed in 1947 by the prolific (and famously intransigent) Hungarian-born furniture and interior designer-to-the-stars, Paul Laszlo. When compared with the grandly scaled living room, the narrow, streetside wing containing tiny His and Her bedrooms suggests that his clients, Scandinavian art glass importer Axel Zacho and his wife, may have asked for a “party house”. A huge, symmetrically set fireplace dominated the tightly designed interior and axial steps led straight out from it to formally planted terraces and a cross-shaped pool that together consumed the level part of the property.
Our young clients’ spatial needs were quite different from the Zachos’. To accommodate their rapidly growing family and adapt both indoor and outdoor spaces to their lifestyle, our renovation confronts the dimensional limitations of the site head-on to expand it and, in the process, loosen up and reorganize the original composition.
City building restrictions and a famous uphill neighbor’s legally protected views combined to rule out conventional expansion outward or upward. The only direction left for adding-on was DOWN. The addition is pushed off the pad and inserted into solid rock as a new bedroom wing that supports the original house above. A stairwell to the new lower level drops past the TV room allowing views of Downtown to sweep into the house as they always have, but now through a larger expanse of glass.
Structural requirements made cast-in-place concrete the most economical material for walls, floors, and roof. The monolithic enclosure thus formed is completed on its east-facing view side by floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors that open onto a cantilevered balcony and are protected from above by a concrete overhang. The roof surface is a paved deck with built-in planters that expands usable outdoor area.
Severe restrictions on wall openings are imposed by the site and skylighting is a theme. The new bathroom is lit from above through a tiled shaft and a narrow skylight backlights the remodeled kitchen. The former entry court is converted into an open air atrium with thick walls that deepen the entrance off the street and give new solidity and presence to the house.
Outside, the removal of a massive brick barbeque and chimney initiated an overall relaxation of the stiff formality of original outdoor spaces and increased their usefulness for everyday living. Relocating the spa nearer the master bath allowed reshaping of the pool and surrounding terraces and steps in a more usable way that also accentuates certain views. A lightly structured canopy replaces the much heavier-looking original to frame and shade an outdoor dining room.
The whole thing feels bigger and less fussy now. Outside, the view is still breathtaking but now you can take it in while having your breakfast.
Los Angeles, California
Perched on a cliff high on one of the "Crest" streets above Beverly Hills, the original single-story house was a fashionable mid-century modern take on a small hillside pad with panoramic views of the L. A. basin. It was designed in 1947 by the prolific (and famously intransigent) Hungarian-born furniture and interior designer-to-the-stars, Paul Laszlo. When compared with the grandly scaled living room, the narrow, streetside wing containing tiny His and Her bedrooms suggests that his clients, Scandinavian art glass importer Axel Zacho and his wife, may have asked for a “party house”. A huge, symmetrically set fireplace dominated the tightly designed interior and axial steps led straight out from it to formally planted terraces and a cross-shaped pool that together consumed the level part of the property.
Our young clients’ spatial needs were quite different from the Zachos’. To accommodate their rapidly growing family and adapt both indoor and outdoor spaces to their lifestyle, our renovation confronts the dimensional limitations of the site head-on to expand it and, in the process, loosen up and reorganize the original composition.
City building restrictions and a famous uphill neighbor’s legally protected views combined to rule out conventional expansion outward or upward. The only direction left for adding-on was DOWN. The addition is pushed off the pad and inserted into solid rock as a new bedroom wing that supports the original house above. A stairwell to the new lower level drops past the TV room allowing views of Downtown to sweep into the house as they always have, but now through a larger expanse of glass.
Structural requirements made cast-in-place concrete the most economical material for walls, floors, and roof. The monolithic enclosure thus formed is completed on its east-facing view side by floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors that open onto a cantilevered balcony and are protected from above by a concrete overhang. The roof surface is a paved deck with built-in planters that expands usable outdoor area.
Severe restrictions on wall openings are imposed by the site and skylighting is a theme. The new bathroom is lit from above through a tiled shaft and a narrow skylight backlights the remodeled kitchen. The former entry court is converted into an open air atrium with thick walls that deepen the entrance off the street and give new solidity and presence to the house.
Outside, the removal of a massive brick barbeque and chimney initiated an overall relaxation of the stiff formality of original outdoor spaces and increased their usefulness for everyday living. Relocating the spa nearer the master bath allowed reshaping of the pool and surrounding terraces and steps in a more usable way that also accentuates certain views. A lightly structured canopy replaces the much heavier-looking original to frame and shade an outdoor dining room.
The whole thing feels bigger and less fussy now. Outside, the view is still breathtaking but now you can take it in while having your breakfast.
Project Year: 2007
Country: United States
