The Dwell on Design tradeshow was fun but what we were really looking forward to was the Dwell Home Tours. Dwell sets up an Eastside and Westside tour of 6 homes each that are all built in a Modern style. The interiors are also designed and decorated in the Modern theme.
Some of these homes were over the top in terms of design but we were pleasantly surprised that most of them were not pretentious and very livable.
Saturday was the Westside home tour and our favorite home was Reilly Biddle residence in Venice, CA designed by duArchitects.
Description from Dwell:
We organized the public spaces (dining room, kitchen, and living room) of Our House in an open plan and on a 15’x 23′ modular grid. The kitchen is located in the center of this room, where it is the symbolic heart of the house. The kitchen is flanked to the front by the dining room and to the rear by the living room. The living room opens to the pool and the garden via floor to ceiling glass. A display wall made of walnut cabinetry separates the bedrooms and baths from the public spaces.
The house steps up from the living spaces to 4 bedrooms, which we organized inline along a gallery hall. We raised the floor in this portion of the house to encourage a sense of intimacy and a feeling of separation from the more public parts of the home. The master bedroom anchors one end of the gallery; from there one can access the pool and yard.
Gordon Polon, the structural engineer, used tube steel and engineered lumber to economically achieve a 23′ span and 14′ ceiling heights in the living spaces. In the living spaces, the floors are made of polished concrete with a hydronic system for floor heating. The windows and doors are a customized version of standard commercial glazing systems.
Our house is a well planned, economically constructed, single-family home designed in the tradition of the Case Study Program, which was begun to provide modern, economic, well designed, housing in post-war California.
The construction was expertly completed in 12 months by Glenn Lyons Construction.
The Landscape was designed using California Native and drought tolerant plants by Coen + partners.
The next day was the Eastside home tour. We felt these homes all had a bit more personality than the ones we saw on the Westside and came across as being more livable.
Our favorite was the Deronda Drive residence in Beachwood Canyon which is just underneath the Hollywood sign (shown above). Designed by architect Michael Ferguson of Space International.
It was one of the most gorgeous homes we have ever seen. It’s nor overly big nor is it pretentious or showy. It is nestled on the hill and takes advantage with spectacular views. We also loved the way it infused nature with tall pines swaying by the master bedroom and succulents throughout the property.
Description from Dwell:
Situated near the apex of Beachwood Canyon, the 2800 sf Deronda Drive Residence is comprised of two main rectangular volumes, shifted off axis from one another to accentuate their programmatic difference. The public, living areas of the house are situated on the ridge of the site, so as to take advantage of flanking outdoor spaces, designed as extensions of the living and dining areas when connected via a series of large sliding glass openings.
The more private, sleeping and bathing areas, are housed in a cantilevered bar which hovers over a parking court and floats amidst the treetops at the perimeter of the property. A newly defined plaster shell, folds and undulates around these public and private volumes of the house, mitigating different degrees of privacy and exposure to the picturesque surroundings and skyline views.
There were a couple of smaller homes of note on this tour and our favorite among them was this well-appointed cottage in Atwater Village built and designed by RST 73.
If you ever have the opportunity to take these self-guided tours we highly recommend it. We see Los Angeles through a whole new perspective.
More of our photos of the Dwell home tours.
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