TR-3 House


A live/work house for an entrepreneur and an artist perches on a sloping two-acre site a few blocks from the ocean. The couple has an extensive art collection; the house extends the collection, while providing a container for it.

A concrete retaining wall incised into the site establishes the relationship between house and ground and forms a garage and level area for the automobile. Above this excavation hovers the essential house: a two level, four-square block on columns that is pulled forward over the excavated volume, so that the front wall of the garage bisects the square and creates an open portico for the car to slide under the house and out of view. This block contains the main elements of the house with minimal interior walls. It is wrapped in zinc panels on three sides and fronts the view with a glass face in a steel frame The glass facade is oriented to the southeast, facing Santa Monica Bay and an expansive garden, site of an ancient landslide. The rear of the living level meets the ground and glass doors open out to the back patio and herb garden, set into the cradle of the hill.

A series of ancillary rooms are contained in a linear volume that orients to views of canyon and mountains to the north. The middle level, a corrugated zinc volume, has two larger rooms, two baths and storage, and lend themselves to use for den, studio, or a bedroom adjacent to the elevator and main living space. Its roof is a deck for the master bedroom. The corrugated volume cantilevers past the glass-walled rooms of lower level, that connect with the ground with rooms for office, and guest.