Houzz Tours
In Los Angeles, a Sensitive Restoration of a John Lautner Gem
Designer Jamie Bush explains the changes made to Silver Lake’s iconic Silvertop residence
In the hills overlooking Los Angeles’ Silver Lake Reservoir stands a 1957 home by famed architect John Lautner. Now owned by Luke Wood, president of Beats by Dr. Dre, the iconic home has recently undergone a three-year restoration and update. Interior designer Jamie Bush told Houzz about the changes made to make the home practical for modern living while preserving its architectural style and spirit.
The home’s entrance off the driveway is composed of a low-key path and a simple door. Bush sees the influence of Frank Lloyd Wright, whom Lautner apprenticed for, here. “In typical Frank Lloyd Wright fashion, the entry becomes very modest, sort of circuitous, something that was not really foreshadowing what’s to come,” Bush says.
The design team replaced the path’s orange 1970s tiles with glazed ones in a sandy bisque color and in the pattern and scale of the originals. The wood pieces jutting out from the cypress wall cover fixtures that shine light onto the path.
The design team replaced the path’s orange 1970s tiles with glazed ones in a sandy bisque color and in the pattern and scale of the originals. The wood pieces jutting out from the cypress wall cover fixtures that shine light onto the path.
Horizontal Louisiana cypress paneling continues inside the home. Much of the wood had to be replaced during the restoration. Also, due to deterioration, the entire gridded cork ceiling needed to be replaced, with new cork from Portugal. Lautner created the light well that houses the coral tree and boulders, one of many indoor-outdoor features of Silvertop.
The floor is end-cut Douglas fir laid in a chevron pattern and is original to the home. The front door is from Forms + Surfaces, a company that creates architectural products such as bronze and cast textural doors. The door is not original but was in place when the homeowners bought the home; they liked it and wanted to keep it.
The photograph on the wall is from the homeowners’ collection. The door on the back wall leads to a powder room.
Find an interior designer to help with your home
The floor is end-cut Douglas fir laid in a chevron pattern and is original to the home. The front door is from Forms + Surfaces, a company that creates architectural products such as bronze and cast textural doors. The door is not original but was in place when the homeowners bought the home; they liked it and wanted to keep it.
The photograph on the wall is from the homeowners’ collection. The door on the back wall leads to a powder room.
Find an interior designer to help with your home
This image, from Jamie Bush, shows the floor plan for the home’s main level.
The kitchen is new and replaced an inserted kitchen that wasn’t in keeping with the house’s period style. Here, Bestor’s office repeated materials used throughout the rest of the home so the new kitchen would be in keeping with the architecture. End-grain Douglas fir floors continue here, and the cork ceilings were extended.
Bestor used cypress in a vertical format — in contrast to the horizontal cypress planking found elsewhere in the home — to signal that this space is a new insertion, Bush says. The style of the wood evokes a rolling tambour cabinet.
The satin stainless steel island is “meant to look like a contemporary insertion,” Bush says. “That is like a glowing anomaly in the space. Everything attached to the walls looks like it’s more period.”
The columns in this space are original. The team removed a wall by the first column that had separated the cooking area from a breakfast space. To the left of the concrete columns is a bar and coffee station.
Bestor used cypress in a vertical format — in contrast to the horizontal cypress planking found elsewhere in the home — to signal that this space is a new insertion, Bush says. The style of the wood evokes a rolling tambour cabinet.
The satin stainless steel island is “meant to look like a contemporary insertion,” Bush says. “That is like a glowing anomaly in the space. Everything attached to the walls looks like it’s more period.”
The columns in this space are original. The team removed a wall by the first column that had separated the cooking area from a breakfast space. To the left of the concrete columns is a bar and coffee station.
Here’s a closer look at the bar and coffee station. Bush designed the sliding black and red panels on the shelves. The lower bar cabinet features more vertical cypress. This area faces the casual dining area.
Bush designed the built-in banquette in the dining area. “Part of our job as the interior designer is to merge the architecture with interior design,” he says. “With a lot of these modernist houses — Lautner, Frank Lloyd Wright , [Rudolph] Schindler — there were so many built-ins. It was a period thing.”
Bush also designed the table, chairs and pendant and had them fabricated. Most of the home features natural, organic materials and a neutral palette that emphasizes the materials and architecture. But the client likes primary colors, so Bush introduced reds and blues throughout the house in an “insertion of saturated colors that freshens the otherwise natural tones of everything.”
Find midcentury-style furniture in the Houzz Shop
Bush also designed the table, chairs and pendant and had them fabricated. Most of the home features natural, organic materials and a neutral palette that emphasizes the materials and architecture. But the client likes primary colors, so Bush introduced reds and blues throughout the house in an “insertion of saturated colors that freshens the otherwise natural tones of everything.”
Find midcentury-style furniture in the Houzz Shop
Here’s a closer look at the built-in banquette. The framed photo is from the clients’ existing collection. Notice the spokes supporting the dining table: They are a graphic design element that repeats throughout the home like variations on a theme, Bush says.
The living space is the largest room in the home and its focal point is the dramatic concrete fireplace, which has a plaster finish. Notice the exposed flame, as well as the plant stand, which can be moved up and down the slot. Both features are original.
The homeowners asked Bush to make this a livable room rather than a showpiece that wasn’t practical for everyday life. Bush divided it into four zones: a more formal living area, a cozier TV zone, a bar and piano area (see next photo) and a dining area. The key challenge was “how to make this livable for a family of four with two teenage daughters,” Bush says. He wanted to strike a “balance between creating warmth and functional space to live in, and also at a scale appropriate to the architecture of the home.”
Key to achieving the right feel was selecting a mix of vintage and current pieces. Bush contacted midcentury furniture designer Vladimir Kagan to design a custom sofa as the centerpiece of the room, but unfortunately Kagan died around that time. So Bush’s team took matters into its own hands. “We designed it ourselves as an homage to Kagan,” Bush says. The back-to-back double sofas are joined together by a triangular console table. This photo shows what Bush thinks of as the public-facing side of the sofa, which curves toward the fireplace.
The room is ample, and the center coffee table with spoked base (by L.A.-based Phase Design) is 6 feet in diameter and the round rug is about 18 feet in diameter. The green chairs (Arne Norell) and white lounge chair by the fireplace (Jens Risom) are both midcentury vintage pieces. The travertine-and-brass coffee table (Ten10) between the two green chairs and the ceramic vase (Heather Rosenman) atop it are from current California artisans.
One of the challenges of laying out this room was including a TV in a way that looked appropriate. Bush’s solution was the Louisiana cypress wood tambour cabinet against the brick wall, which hides the set.
Rug: Marc Phillips
The homeowners asked Bush to make this a livable room rather than a showpiece that wasn’t practical for everyday life. Bush divided it into four zones: a more formal living area, a cozier TV zone, a bar and piano area (see next photo) and a dining area. The key challenge was “how to make this livable for a family of four with two teenage daughters,” Bush says. He wanted to strike a “balance between creating warmth and functional space to live in, and also at a scale appropriate to the architecture of the home.”
Key to achieving the right feel was selecting a mix of vintage and current pieces. Bush contacted midcentury furniture designer Vladimir Kagan to design a custom sofa as the centerpiece of the room, but unfortunately Kagan died around that time. So Bush’s team took matters into its own hands. “We designed it ourselves as an homage to Kagan,” Bush says. The back-to-back double sofas are joined together by a triangular console table. This photo shows what Bush thinks of as the public-facing side of the sofa, which curves toward the fireplace.
The room is ample, and the center coffee table with spoked base (by L.A.-based Phase Design) is 6 feet in diameter and the round rug is about 18 feet in diameter. The green chairs (Arne Norell) and white lounge chair by the fireplace (Jens Risom) are both midcentury vintage pieces. The travertine-and-brass coffee table (Ten10) between the two green chairs and the ceramic vase (Heather Rosenman) atop it are from current California artisans.
One of the challenges of laying out this room was including a TV in a way that looked appropriate. Bush’s solution was the Louisiana cypress wood tambour cabinet against the brick wall, which hides the set.
Rug: Marc Phillips
This side of the double sofa faces the TV-containing cabinet and forms the TV zone. Compared with the seating arrangement on the public, more formal side of the sofa, this area is “a little cozier, it’s a tighter space, it’s closer to the wall so it’s easier for TV watching,” Bush says.
The back wall of the room is the backdrop for the piano.
Work with an architect near you
The back wall of the room is the backdrop for the piano.
Work with an architect near you
With a push of a button, a portion of the brick wall lifts and the homeowners can access the bar on the other side. Bush added floating shelves to the wall to help ground the area as a distinct, intentional zone. The terrazzo beneath the piano is the same material as the patio beyond the room’s glass wall, helping to merge the indoor space with the outdoors.
The fourth zone in the living space is the dining area. Bush’s team designed the curved, built-in steel-and-Douglas-fir bench that hangs from the back wall. The curved table (New York-based Egg Collective) is made of walnut and brass. The homeowners spend a lot of time in this space, taking in the fantastic view of the reservoir. “They don’t just eat there,” Bush says. “They sit there and read, do work on the laptop. It’s super functional.”
The design team couldn’t wire and hang lighting from the concrete ceiling, so Bush designed the massive floor lamp for the space. “You could actually walk underneath it to sit down for dinner,” he says.
The design team couldn’t wire and hang lighting from the concrete ceiling, so Bush designed the massive floor lamp for the space. “You could actually walk underneath it to sit down for dinner,” he says.
To the right of the dining table, Bush placed two pivot lounge chairs by L.A. designer Michael Berman, creating a nook for reading or conversation. Bush likes to bring in products by local designers in his work “to have a rooted injection of the city whenever possible,” he says.
The cactus planter, original to the home, spans both sides of the glass, so that some of the cactus grows indoors, some of it out.
The cactus planter, original to the home, spans both sides of the glass, so that some of the cactus grows indoors, some of it out.
This exterior shot provides perspective on the main living space. To the left you can see the bar and piano area, in the center is the back of the fireplace, and to the right is the dining table and double sofa.
The master bedroom has a fireplace with a concrete surround and a real boulder suspended within it. The boulder “refers to the boulders on the property” (see next photo) and “visually bridges the gap between the indoor and outdoor spaces,” Bush says.
Push a button and the cork ceiling accordions back over the bed to reveal a skylight, which opens fully to let in fresh air. The wooden louvers on the window wall can be open, as shown in this photo, and can pivot out at various angles. Alternatively, the wood can close flat to create a solid wall with a cozy, lodge-like feel. The glass can also pivot out to create an open-air feel.
Rug: Marc Phillips
Push a button and the cork ceiling accordions back over the bed to reveal a skylight, which opens fully to let in fresh air. The wooden louvers on the window wall can be open, as shown in this photo, and can pivot out at various angles. Alternatively, the wood can close flat to create a solid wall with a cozy, lodge-like feel. The glass can also pivot out to create an open-air feel.
Rug: Marc Phillips
Beyond this bedroom window are the boulders referenced in the fireplace, as well as a massive cypress tree. “We wanted to have a chaise that floated in the window so it’s really levitating on these spokes,” Bush says. The spokes of the chaise repeat the spokes of the table by the dining banquette and the spokes of the large coffee table in the living space, helping to create the variations on a theme that Bush wanted.
Notice that the cork ceiling extends to the exterior, an atypical choice given that this material will degrade outdoors. However, the homeowners felt the move fit the spirit of the house and were up for the required maintenance.
The master bedroom had red shag carpet that Bush replaced with wall-to-wall sisal. “To have regular wood floors wouldn’t make sense. You have terrazzo and end-grain wood floors” in other parts of the home, he says. “This is a natural woven material and it feels almost like wood.”
The root table (vintage, from Paris) references the organic, twisting natural forms outside the window. “There’s aspects of the landscape that reflect that brutal, naturalistic, organic quality that is like a little side table like that,” Bush says.
The planter (Modernica) is new but done in a midcentury style, while the floor lamp is vintage (Serge Mouille).
Find outdoor pots and planters in the Houzz Shop
Notice that the cork ceiling extends to the exterior, an atypical choice given that this material will degrade outdoors. However, the homeowners felt the move fit the spirit of the house and were up for the required maintenance.
The master bedroom had red shag carpet that Bush replaced with wall-to-wall sisal. “To have regular wood floors wouldn’t make sense. You have terrazzo and end-grain wood floors” in other parts of the home, he says. “This is a natural woven material and it feels almost like wood.”
The root table (vintage, from Paris) references the organic, twisting natural forms outside the window. “There’s aspects of the landscape that reflect that brutal, naturalistic, organic quality that is like a little side table like that,” Bush says.
The planter (Modernica) is new but done in a midcentury style, while the floor lamp is vintage (Serge Mouille).
Find outdoor pots and planters in the Houzz Shop
When the current owners purchased the home, this master bathroom featured 1980s decor with a lot of green marble. It was, like the kitchen, completely redone during the restoration.
Bestor’s team kept the bathroom within the existing footprint and introduced materials used in other parts of the home: cypress and terrazzo. The wall with the plant overhanging it is an exterior wall. The glass ceiling above the shower head and the glass wall separating the shower from the outdoors both retract. When they do, they create an outdoor shower space, as seen in this photo.
Bestor’s team kept the bathroom within the existing footprint and introduced materials used in other parts of the home: cypress and terrazzo. The wall with the plant overhanging it is an exterior wall. The glass ceiling above the shower head and the glass wall separating the shower from the outdoors both retract. When they do, they create an outdoor shower space, as seen in this photo.
Here’s a closer look at the open-air shower. The slots in the wall and the floor mark where the glass shower wall would be when not retracted. “All of a sudden you press a button and you’re showering outside,” Bush says.
Bestor designed the layout of the bathroom with input from the homeowners, and Bush helped with the detailing and some of the finishes.
“For the most part, if you look at the home everything’s a natural, earthy material,” Bush says. But here the owner wanted a white bathroom, and “it’s the only room in the house that’s actually white,” he says.
Bestor designed the layout of the bathroom with input from the homeowners, and Bush helped with the detailing and some of the finishes.
“For the most part, if you look at the home everything’s a natural, earthy material,” Bush says. But here the owner wanted a white bathroom, and “it’s the only room in the house that’s actually white,” he says.
This is the master bedroom closet.
The home has patios on two sides: this one, and another that features a pool, just visible on the left.
This pool was the first infinity-edge pool in the U.S., Bush says. But by the time the current homeowners purchased the property, it was cracked and stained and needed replastering.
The original plaster was a pure white, which was typical for the period and made the pool water “very turquoise and Palm Springs,” Bush says. For the upgrade, the design team chose plaster with some gray in it to tone down the color of the water so it would better match the reservoir beyond it. “The whole point of it was to visually merge the two bodies of water,” Bush says.
The white chaise lounges are vintage, by California midcentury furniture designer Van Keppel-Green. The dining set is by contemporary brand Gloster.
The portion of the home visible from the pool contains an office and a powder room that’s accessible both from the office and the patio, for poolgoers.
The original plaster was a pure white, which was typical for the period and made the pool water “very turquoise and Palm Springs,” Bush says. For the upgrade, the design team chose plaster with some gray in it to tone down the color of the water so it would better match the reservoir beyond it. “The whole point of it was to visually merge the two bodies of water,” Bush says.
The white chaise lounges are vintage, by California midcentury furniture designer Van Keppel-Green. The dining set is by contemporary brand Gloster.
The portion of the home visible from the pool contains an office and a powder room that’s accessible both from the office and the patio, for poolgoers.
The powder room’s terrazzo walls were falling apart and had to be redone.
The solid portion of the privacy screen on the window is actually wood railroad ties. The ceiling light is from Greek designer Michael Anastassiades.
Find a general contractor near you
The solid portion of the privacy screen on the window is actually wood railroad ties. The ceiling light is from Greek designer Michael Anastassiades.
Find a general contractor near you
Here’s another look at the patio off the main living space, from a pulled-back angle. The design team extended the terrazzo and added a new fire pit.
On the lower level beyond the fire pit is a brick wall that curves around the home. Above it is a tower that was part of Lautner’s original design but that had never been built. The current owner wanted to create it. The bird’s nest, as it’s called, is a concrete column with a red ladder that leads to a viewing platform overlooking the reservoir.
Beyond the brick wall is a staircase that descends to a guest house, a recording studio and a gym.
More on Houzz
John Lautner’s Organic Architecture in the Desert
Houzz Tour: ‘Interior Surrealism’ in a San Francisco Row House
Find a pro
Shop for products
Beyond the brick wall is a staircase that descends to a guest house, a recording studio and a gym.
More on Houzz
John Lautner’s Organic Architecture in the Desert
Houzz Tour: ‘Interior Surrealism’ in a San Francisco Row House
Find a pro
Shop for products
Who lives here: Beats by Dr. Dre President Luke Wood and his family
Location: Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles
Size: 4,721 square feet (439 square meters)
Designers: Jamie Bush (interior design) and Barbara Bestor (architecture)
Lautner was known for his Space Age designs, and this home, Silvertop, shows off that style. Inventor-industrialist Kenneth Reiner commissioned Lautner in 1956 to build a technologically and structurally advanced home, and the residence contains a number of then-cutting-edge features: a custom mechanical glass door in the living room, automated wood louvers, folding shades for skylights and the nation’s first infinity-edge pool.
According to architect Barbara Bestor’s office, Lautner and Reiner indicated that “the house was to be quiet, both to the ear and the eye, and achieve a sense of natural beauty by blending into the natural surroundings.” Construction began in 1957 and continued for several years, though Reiner fell into financial ruin and had to sell the home in 1970.
The restoration included upgrading many of the home’s hidden mechanical elements with today’s technology. In terms of design, contemporary insertions were made in two areas — the kitchen and the master bathroom — though care was taken to keep them in the spirit of Lautner’s work.
“I think our whole ethos for the house was to, in some ways, look like we weren’t there — like we did nothing,” says Bush, who handled the interior design. Bestor managed the architectural program, and contractor and architect Lyn Call of Arc Con Associates Contractors, who apprenticed for Lautner and constructed some of his projects, was the general contractor.
This image shows the terrazzo patio off the home’s main living space, which overlooks the reservoir. The patio was extended as part of the restoration. The glass wall of the home’s back facade slides open and was upgraded from the original 1950s technology.
Design Through the Decades: The 1960s