Nip and Tuck in Hollywood: A Los Angeles firm does reconstructive
surgery on a 1960s house to turn it into a glamorous pad for a pair of fashion
models.
There are any
number of reasons to envy Ryan Burns and his wife, Aline Nakashima. One is the
good looks that have made both of them very successful models—Burns for the
Ford Agency and Nakashima in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, among other
high-profile venues. Another is their sheer niceness, so genuine it's almost
shocking. But there is also their house, which might trump both perfect
cheekbones and amiability. Perched on a ridge under the Hollywood sign, not far
from the Griffith Observatory and adjacent to a publicly owned ravine that will
never be built on, it has been remade by Los Angeles firm XTEN Architecture as
a case study of compact glamour. Called Nakahouse, after Nakashima, it has
unrivaled views and a sleek all-white interior. But at 1,890 square feet, it is
superefficient, packing a remarkably complex spatial experience into a small
container. The place feels as though it could be folded up and slipped into
your pocket.
Burns came to the door of the
house one morning in February, smiling and game to lead a tour but clearly
exhausted, having been out late the night before with Nakashima at a couple of
Academy Awards parties. She was already up and out the door, leaving Burns to
greet Austin Kelly, the architect who founded XTEN in 2000 with his wife,
Monika Hafelfinger.
Burns and Nakashima bought a
different, adjacent house on this ridge in 2005, which they still own. Looking
for a way to expand and turn that house into a guest cottage, the couple bought
this place five years ago. Built in the 1960s, it had been owned by the same
woman for decades and was decorated in a mixture of Canyon Hippie and Cluttered
Chalet. “It had this hanging fireplace and barely any windows,” Kelly says.
XTEN started remaking the house
without adding any new interior square footage, which would have triggered a
long list of code requirements and hillside building restrictions. Burns had
already started taking down some interior walls, and the architects accelerated
that process, adding glass on nearly every elevation and opening the master bedroom
on the north edge of the house, in particular, to the outside.
What turned this project from a
remodel into a complete reinvention were two bigger moves. One was to slide a
500-square-foot terrace and wide outdoor stair next to the kitchen on the south
end. This insertion creates an outdoor connection between the living room and
the kitchen, and another between the living room and a large rooftop deck.
Perhaps most important of all, it turns the multilevel nature of the existing
house from a drawback into a major amenity.
“Most of the modern houses on
these hillsides are just one interior plane supported by a couple of columns,
which makes their views mono-directional,” Kelly says. “What you don't get is
any tension, like we get in this house, between views in various directions.”
The second move was to treat
the exterior (and to a lesser extent the interior) as a single architectural
volume. Kelly and Hafelfinger decided to wrap the structure in new plaster and
the roof in a thermoplastic membrane; Burns suggested they paint the whole
thing black, roof and all. While that gesture increases the maintenance
required—Burns plans to have the roof resealed once a year—it has produced a
house of uncommon graphic strength and legibility. The architects tucked all of
the gutters on the inside of the roofline to further streamline the exterior
profile.
Finishes inside are similarly
monochromatic, though all white instead of black. The floors are concrete
epoxy, the cabinets lacquered to a high sheen. Though hidden on the outside,
the original wood roof beams are exposed inside (but painted white like
everything else). The open interiors and operable clerestory windows on the
upper level create natural ventilation, eliminating the need for
air-conditioning.
While the existing house and
the way it grew out of the hillside offered no shortage of constraints, it also
made XTEN's innovation work here. “You'd never be able to build any house at
all on this site today, given the way the hillside codes have changed,” Kelly
says. Working with the existing structure also kept costs down; Kelly says the
project was completed for roughly $250 per square foot. There is some new steel
belowground, but the rest of the new framing is wood. Kelly says the firm's
experience in building hillside houses in Los Angeles, many with tight budgets,
has given it a resourceful attitude about structure.
“Other architects might look at
a project like this and see it as a formal exercise,” Kelly says. “They would
frame the entire thing in steel, because of the shape. On most of our houses we
couldn't afford steel, so we had to figure out how to do it with wood.” If
you're willing to spend the time to really understand structure, he adds, “it's
astonishing how little you can build for in L.A.”
Total
construction cost: Withheld
at owner’s request
There are any
number of reasons to envy Ryan Burns and his wife, Aline Nakashima. One is the
good looks that have made both of them very successful models—Burns for the
Ford Agency and Nakashima in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, among other
high-profile venues. Another is their sheer niceness, so genuine it's almost
shocking. But there is also their house, which might trump both perfect
cheekbones and amiability. Perched on a ridge under the Hollywood sign, not far
from the Griffith Observatory and adjacent to a publicly owned ravine that will
never be built on, it has been remade by Los Angeles firm XTEN Architecture as
a case study of compact glamour. Called Nakahouse, after Nakashima, it has
unrivaled views and a sleek all-white interior. But at 1,890 square feet, it is
superefficient, packing a remarkably complex spatial experience into a small
container. The place feels as though it could be folded up and slipped into
your pocket.Burns came to the door of the
house one morning in February, smiling and game to lead a tour but clearly
exhausted, having been out late the night before with Nakashima at a couple of
Academy Awards parties. She was already up and out the door, leaving Burns to
greet Austin Kelly, the architect who founded XTEN in 2000 with his wife,
Monika Hafelfinger.Burns and Nakashima bought a
different, adjacent house on this ridge in 2005, which they still own. Looking
for a way to expand and turn that house into a guest cottage, the couple bought
this place five years ago. Built in the 1960s, it had been owned by the same
woman for decades and was decorated in a mixture of Canyon Hippie and Cluttered
Chalet. “It had this hanging fireplace and barely any windows,” Kelly says.XTEN started remaking the house
without adding any new interior square footage, which would have triggered a
long list of code requirements and hillside building restrictions. Burns had
already started taking down some interior walls, and the architects accelerated
that process, adding glass on nearly every elevation and opening the master bedroom
on the north edge of the house, in particular, to the outside.What turned this project from a
remodel into a complete reinvention were two bigger moves. One was to slide a
500-square-foot terrace and wide outdoor stair next to the kitchen on the south
end. This insertion creates an outdoor connection between the living room and
the kitchen, and another between the living room and a large rooftop deck.
Perhaps most important of all, it turns the multilevel nature of the existing
house from a drawback into a major amenity.“Most of the modern houses on
these hillsides are just one interior plane supported by a couple of columns,
which makes their views mono-directional,” Kelly says. “What you don't get is
any tension, like we get in this house, between views in various directions.”The second move was to treat
the exterior (and to a lesser extent the interior) as a single architectural
volume. Kelly and Hafelfinger decided to wrap the structure in new plaster and
the roof in a thermoplastic membrane; Burns suggested they paint the whole
thing black, roof and all. While that gesture increases the maintenance
required—Burns plans to have the roof resealed once a year—it has produced a
house of uncommon graphic strength and legibility. The architects tucked all of
the gutters on the inside of the roofline to further streamline the exterior
profile.
“Early on we knew we had to
treat it as a single piece,” Kelly says. “It was a really important thing for
such a small building that it look completely uniform from the outside.”
Finishes inside are similarly
monochromatic, though all white instead of black. The floors are concrete
epoxy, the cabinets lacquered to a high sheen. Though hidden on the outside,
the original wood roof beams are exposed inside (but painted white like
everything else). The open interiors and operable clerestory windows on the
upper level create natural ventilation, eliminating the need for
air-conditioning.While the existing house and
the way it grew out of the hillside offered no shortage of constraints, it also
made XTEN's innovation work here. “You'd never be able to build any house at
all on this site today, given the way the hillside codes have changed,” Kelly
says. Working with the existing structure also kept costs down; Kelly says the
project was completed for roughly $250 per square foot. There is some new steel
belowground, but the rest of the new framing is wood. Kelly says the firm's
experience in building hillside houses in Los Angeles, many with tight budgets,
has given it a resourceful attitude about structure.“Other architects might look at
a project like this and see it as a formal exercise,” Kelly says. “They would
frame the entire thing in steel, because of the shape. On most of our houses we
couldn't afford steel, so we had to figure out how to do it with wood.” If
you're willing to spend the time to really understand structure, he adds, “it's
astonishing how little you can build for in L.A.”
Completion
Date: March 2011
Size: 1,890 square feet (interiors); 945 square
feet (terraces); 2,835 square feet (gross)
Total
construction cost: Withheld
at owner’s request
Architect:
XTEN Architecture
XTEN Architecture
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