Skyline Residence

Perched atop a ridgeline in the Hollywood Hills, the Skyline Residence represents an earnest approach to creating an environmentally sensitive building without sacrificing beauty or budget. We worked with the inherent physical and visual characteristics of this challenging site to reduce the architecture’s overall imposition on the landscape and create an exceptional experience for the residents.

The 5,800sqft residence comprises two buildings – the main house and the guest house – that are formally linked, but physically separated by an auto-court in between which doubles as a gathering space for social events and a viewing platform for projections onto the southern face of the latter. By activating this exterior space and encouraging interaction between the two houses, we maximized the value of the limited available space on site.

Due to the existing ridgeline of the property, the shape of workable land was generally long and narrow, abutted at both sides by steep, brush-covered hillside. The severity of the slope and dense granite stone beneath the surface also meant that in order to keep to budget, minimal excavation was done. As a result, our design forms a linear footprint with a single-loaded corridor on the west façade of the main house that acts as a heat buffer. Both buildings formally appear as a single, folded exterior surface matched with a screen of lapped Extira (a low formaldehyde-emitting composite lumber); these two materials also help manage heat gain from direct solar exposure. Meanwhile, floor-to-ceiling walls of low-e glass on the east-facing bedrooms provide the iconic and much sought after unobstructed views of downtown Los Angeles, Laurel Canyon and the San Fernando Valley.

Status: Completed 2007

Project Type: Residential; Building Type; New Construction; Size: 5,800 sf

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Partners: Hagy Belzberg, Brock DeSmit, Daniel Rentsch

Project Manager: Bill Bowen, Erik Sollom, Manish Desai

Project Team: Barry Gartin, Carina Bien-WIllner, David Cheung, Eric Stimmel, Erin McCook, Ryan Thomas

Awards:
2009 International Property Awards (America’s Property Award): Housing-Single Family Award
2008 Interior Design magazine - Best of the Year Award for Residence
2008 AIA California Council Award: Honor Award
2008 Los Angeles Business Council Architecture Award: Private Residence
2007 AIA LA Next LA Design Awards: Honor Award

Publications:
MOCA's A New Sculpturalism: Contemporary Architecture From Southern California, Architecture Now! Houses, Construir, 21st Century Sustainable Homes (Australia), Architecture Zone (China), Synthesis (Cyprus), A5 Los Angeles, Angelino, Interior Design & Space (Malaysia), VIlla Journal (Czech Republic), Oikos & Design (Greece), New Green Homes, Design Today (India), IW Magazine (Taiwan), Collection: US Architecture