Visiting hillside homes in Hollywood
The CA Boom Home Tour of West Hollywood Hills and Laurel Canyon was again a success and well worth being a part of. The Tanager Way Residence was the first stop, on our driving tour and it would have made any member of the Rat Pack proud and comfortable. The single story 60s residence, sited on an absolutely spectacular lot overlooking Hollywood, was updated in a slick and tastefully eclectic manner by Bonura Building.
Next was the understated, yet nicely detailed Braseth Riggio Residence by Michael Allan Eldridge of West Edge Studios. This was followed by another updated sixties jewel: the Peck Residence, The South African design team Unruh Boyer Architecture set out to restore a Thornton Abell design, and were very successful in adding and supplementing the striking structure without detracting from a very clean and almost sober air of the house.
The Struzan Residence by Jeffrey Daniels contrasted almost violently with the horizontal sixties modernist structures, since, among other moves, a very vertical approach was chosen to deal with a postage stamp size hillside lot. The somewhat deconstructivist elements and vibrant colors and materials used by Daniels were then again left behind us as we entered a clean and airy Leonard Residence by Steven Ehrlich Architects. The siting of this home was again breathtaking, and Ehrlich Architects took full advantage of views off both sides of the residence through smart combinations of glazing, as well as interior and exterior level changes.
The Leonard Residence was a deserving prelude to one of the icons of modern architecture: Pierre Koenig’s Case Study #22 House. There has been so much written about this structure, that I would just like to add that meeting the original owner, her children, and looking through a family album that showed the different building stages of the house, in the actual house, was a very unique experience that would have been worth going on this tour by itself. Thanks Caboom, and we look forward to the next tour with you.