Los Angeles, California, USA
While being adjacent to the Lipetz House, a historically significant architectural home, the House Stepping Down A Hill by Barbara Bestor of Bestor Architecture celebrates modernist architecture, creates a dialogue between past and present, and offers majestic panoramic views of the San Gabriel mountains.
The House Stepping Down A Hill residence has been awarded a 2023 American Architecture Award from The Chicago Athenaeum and The European Center for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
The owner of the Lipetz House saw an opportunity to build a larger primary residence on the adjacent promontory.
The distinctive streamlined moderne’s boat shape of the Lipetz showcases the music room, featuring a grand piano for the original client and a 180-degree view of the reservoir below and the mountains beyond.
This new house is shaped both by the desire to dip below the view horizon of the original house and also by creating a legitimate shape walking along the hillside.
While the Lipetz House uses a prow-like form with continuous windows, this house takes the shape of the hillside stepping down and extrudes it to create a repetitive peak and slope form to the roof volume.
Three primary materials were used in the construction: board-formed concrete, prefabricated trusses, and 80-millimeter PVC industrial roofing.
Two large trusses form the living room pavilion, which is flanked by a lower private pavilion containing the bedrooms.
This public pavilion is open to views towards the ocean via a new deck and dining area as well as to the reservoir and mountains via the pool and patio.
The ground floor spaces of a carport, pool, and indoor/outdoor living are connected to the Lipetz house through a continuous landscape, creating a larger compound zone for entertaining and continuing that history of performance.
The materiality and construction techniques are intentionally industrial and minimal.
This design carefully considers the Western US regional environment in which it resides. This house was designed specifically to withstand fire: the PVC roll roofing wraps the entire roof as well as key vertical surfaces, serves as a cool roof‚ that reflects light, and is a low-cost protective solution in a high fire zone.
Concrete forms the base and pre-fabricated metal trusses are the support system.
A pool, which could be emptied in the event of a fire, is notched into the front courtyard.
Project: House Stepping Down A Hill
Architects: Bestor Architecture
Lead Architect: Barbara Bestor
General Contractor: Allen Construction Co., Inc.
Client: Private
Photographer: Bruce Damonte
