Site size: 3.3 acres
Project size: 650 square feet
Program: The clients—two attorneys—commissioned an addition to their residence for use as a satellite home office. Despite the large residential property, code requirements limited the two-story development to a relatively tight building envelope at the foot of a steep hillside. The program’s double-height space allows partners and their staff to work either together or remotely. A fireside area serves private client meetings, and ample shelving offers storage for legal documents and office equipment. An elevator provides easy accommodation for clients as well as circulation between the library, powder room, and master bedroom on the lower level, and the media room on the upper level; a new hallway with skylights separates the Case Room from the master bedroom and bathroom, and brings in daylight and access to the exterior. For daytime and evening events, a landscaped exterior patio with built-in benches, a fireplace, fountain, and outdoor kitchen were added.
Location: Serra Retreat, Malibu, California
Solution: Clerestory windows capture the north light at the foot of the hillside, diffusing light, orienting the space, and framing views up the hill. The massing of the Case Room, designed as a series of blocks obliquely sliced and assembled in a descending sequence in section, transitions in plan from a vestibule threshold with the existing house to a transposition of the existing exterior wall geometry. The addition is both symmetrical and asymmetrical, and aligns with existing orthogonal and diagonal wall geometries. The serial, symmetrical roof gables, which step down one foot at each progression from the maximum city-defined height limit, align in plan with the major programmatic divisions of the space. The new second-floor landing adjacent to the Case Room, flanked by an elevator to the northwest and clerestory light well to the southeast, frames simultaneous views both into the double-height room and above its roof toward the hillside. The interplay of reflected daylight on the folding ceiling surfaces throughout the day provides a gently modulating, diffused top lighting for contemplative work.
Construction and materials: The structure is steel with wood framing, reinforced concrete footings and foundation walls.The exterior has vertical grain cedar siding, a standing seam metal roof, thermally insulated glazing with low-e coating, and French doors with electrochromatic (switchable) glass panels. The interior features painted drywall with whitewashed and sealed hardwood paneling and millwork, and slate tiles and hardwood for flooring.
Additional Information
Completion date: December 2017
Gross square footage: Approx. 650 square feet of new construction, plus interior remodeling
Total project cost: withheld
Total construction cost: withheld
Client: Suzelle Smith and Don Howarth