Location: Beverly Hills, California, US
Area: 5600.0 ft2
Year: 2014
Architects: Dennis Gibbens Architects
Architect in Charge: Dennis Gibbens
Project Architect: Oren Dothan
Project Team: Scott Graham, Ryan Childers, Ricardo Moura, Raul Aguilera, Shana Cunningham
Landscape Design: Art Luna Studio
Interior Decorating: Jamie Bush + Co
This project called for the complete renovation of a 5500 square foot existing home in the Trousdale Estates section of Beverly Hills, California. Paul Trousdale bought 410 acres of the unbuilt property from the Doheny Estate in 1954 and soon after began developing sprawling view properties limited to single-level homes.
This property sits near the top of a cul-de-sac road and enjoys roughly 270° spectacular views of Beverly Hills and Los Angeles. The original house was designed in 1962. Curved and circular elements are repeated motifs that can be found throughout the original design.
The current owners bought the property with the intention of turning it into an open, airy and contemporary home for living and entertainment and to showcase their evolving collections of modern and contemporary photography. The remodeled design is timeless and elegant with elements of swank to be sure, but with a very forward-looking sensibility.
Throughout the design process, the goal was to edit the various elements of what had become, over time, an out-of-date house with some unfortunate additions. The bones of the house were quirky and meandering, yet encouraging.
At the exterior, the front façade was re-organized as a simple, platonic gesture in the curved shape of a monumental wall. The elevation is clad in ribbed Indiana limestone panels. The rough stone contrasts with the smooth-trowel painted stucco exterior of the remainder of the house. At night, a warm glow provided by concealed up-lighting provides an inviting welcome to the property.
The residence, which started out fifty years ago as a relatively modest home is now enjoying another life; it is a contemporary LA house for very worldly clients. Other than the front courtyard, the majority of the exterior is a simple affair with sweeping white stucco curves and a long serpentine glass wall reflecting the generous scope of the views; the house is something of a gateway to the landscape. It is so easy to simply pass through it, to be drawn to the outside – to the pool, the garden, and the mountains in the distance. With that kind of view, the one-story exterior architecture assumes a modest position relative to the dramatic setting. In contrast, the experience of the interior architecture is complex in its spatial flow and richness of materials and refined details.
Dennis Gibbens Architects
All images courtesy of Dennis Gibbens Architects
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Dennis Gibbens Architects
Dennis Gibbens
Executive/Creative Director
Dennis Gibbens has a wide range of experience in large- and small-scale projects including high-rise apartment and office buildings in New York City and residential and commercial structures in Los Angeles. His design work includes numerous projects in architecture, art direction, interior design, and landscape, product, and furniture design.
Mr. Gibbens founded his architectural practice in 1987. The office was based in New York City until 1991 when the practice was relocated to Los Angeles. He received his B.A. and M. Arch. degrees from Columbia University. Prior to establishing his own practice, he worked in the New York offices of I. M. Pei and Partners and was an associate at the firm of Davis, Brody and Associates.
Mr. Gibbens has taught design at several universities as Adjunct Professor of Architecture at Miami University of Ohio, the Graduate School of Architecture and Planning at Columbia University, and at New Jersey Institute of Technology. He has also served as a visiting critic at universities around the country.
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1634 Ocean Park Boulevard
Santa Monica CA 90405
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