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Perched atop a ridgeline in the Hollywood Hills, the Skyline Residence represents an earnest approach to creating an environmentally sensitive building without sacrificing beauty or budget. We worked with the inherent physical and visual characteristics of this challenging site to reduce the architecture’s overall imposition on the landscape and create an exceptional experience for the residents.

The 5,800sqft residence comprises two buildings – the main house and the guest house – that are formally linked, but physically separated by an auto-court in between which doubles as a gathering space for social events and a viewing platform for projections onto the southern face of the latter. By activating this exterior space and encouraging interaction between the two houses, we maximized the value of the limited available space on site.

Due to the existing ridgeline of the property, the shape of workable land was generally long and narrow, abutted at both sides by steep, brush-covered hillside. The severity of the slope and dense granite stone beneath the surface also meant that in order to keep to budget, minimal excavation was done. As a result, our design forms a linear footprint with a single-loaded corridor on the west façade of the main house that acts as a heat buffer. Both buildings formally appear as a single, folded exterior surface matched with a screen of lapped Extira (a low formaldehyde-emitting composite lumber); these two materials also help manage heat gain from direct solar exposure. Meanwhile, floor-to-ceiling walls of low-e glass on the east-facing bedrooms provide the iconic and much sought after unobstructed views of downtown Los Angeles, Laurel Canyon and the San Fernando Valley.

We made a conscious effort to minimize the carbon footprint during construction in particular. This included reusing excavated earth to eliminate export hauling while decomposing granite on site to reduce shipments of other ground materials to the site. The low-e glazing, steel, and concrete mixes were all California-manufactured; wood framing and wood flooring were recycled from a nearby construction project; and drought-tolerant flora was transplanted from a nearby demolition site. In the end, our creative approach to site planning and construction means resulted in an affordable, sustainable residence that embodies the idyllic Hollywood Hills living.