In Northern California, William McDonough + Partners designs an energy-neutral residence rooted strongly in its surroundings For sustainability guru William A. McDonough, FAIA, buildings aren't vampires sucking up natural resources, but regenerative systems that should improve the environment. “The idea of 'getting to zero' for water or energy use is ridiculous. Is that the best we can do?” he says. This ethos, the guiding principle of his design career, is clearly embodied by the Meadow Farm House, completed in 2013 for a family whose values align closely with his own. The building site, a secluded three-acre perch in northern California,
Architect and developer Jonathan Segal's cast-in-place concrete house for his family in La Jolla, California, brings urbanity to the suburbs. In temperate La Jolla, California, a narrow building lot and a desire for a generous outdoor living area gave rise to the straightforward rectilinear motifs of the 5,300-square-foot Cresta House, a three-story coastal residence designed by San Diego architect Jonathan Segal for himself and his wife, Wendy. “The house wanted to be a pure form on this site,” Segal says. He conceived the cast-in-place concrete structure as an orthogonal volume, slicing and shaping rooms and functional spaces within and around
For years, Philip Johnson's glass-skinned Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California'completed in 1981 for televangelist Robert Schuller and his Reformed Church in America'operated as a broadcasting venue as well as a house of worship.
A sympathetic design raises the bar for affordable housing in a not-so-affordable city. Affordable housing in Santa Monica sounds like an oxymoron. In 2013, the city's average monthly rent of $2,328 was the priciest in Los Angeles County. Adding insult to injury are local homeowners who fear that buildings for lower-earning households will be eyesores that drive down property values.
Many architects make names for themselves by experimenting with building materials. But Dwayne Oyler and Jenny Wu, the married couple who ditched budding careers in New York to form Oyler Wu Collaborative in Los Angeles nearly 10 years ago