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I was hired to renovate and expand a neglected, single-story, low-ceiling 1960’s ranch house situated on an awkward shaped hillside lot inside the east gate of Bel Air. My clients, an attorney and an art collector, envisioned a two-story house to showcase their expanding collection of contemporary art.

The existing residence contained a series of small cramped rooms of varying ceiling heights, a steep, unusable backyard and a front yard dominated by an enormous kidney-shaped swimming pool. However, my climb to the roof revealed uncompromised views of lush Bel Air Canyon to the East and the sparkling Pacific Ocean to the West.

Due to complicated Los Angeles building codes, the house could not be torn down without significantly reducing the size of the building footprint.  I developed a careful renovation and addition solution to maximize the potential of the property.  Each room was designed to frame exterior views and accommodate art.  All the interior walls were demolished to create a new central floor plan, which includes a 20’ wide by 30’ long living space with 10’ ceilings to display large-scale paintings, photographs and objects.

Three bedrooms, three bathrooms and a terrace were added as a second floor, taking advantage of the newly discovered views. To optimize my clients’ frequent indoor/outdoor entertaining, the rear yard was extended and backfilled by utilizing a complicated structural solution of concrete piles, decks and a swimming pool. The pool in the front yard was removed and replaced with a series of intimate garden rooms designed by noted landscape designer Scott Shrader. The garden rooms are adjacent to the kitchen and entry, creating informal outdoor entertaining spaces that increase the entertaining possibilities.