Rockefeller Partners Architects designed the modern house in Mandeville Canyon, a small community in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The house project for a family with two kids. The client was Sky Dayton, the EarthLink founder, which has bought a beautiful 3.14-acre lot in Mandeville Canyon with over 200 mature trees and expansive views of the city and ocean beyond.
This modern residence pays homage to the craftsman architecture of the early 1900s with its originality, simplicity of form, use of natural materials and the visibility of handmade details. Much like its turn-of-the-century predecessors, the design rejects opulence and mass-produced housing elements.
The house design takes full advantage of the expansive site and allows one to experience the exterior and interior of the home simultaneously. Nestled between groves of trees, the residence is divided into two main wings. The public living spaces and master suite are located in one, while the children’s quarters, guest rooms, and auxiliary spaces are located in the other.
The formal dining room steps down to a sunken living room featuring the great stone hearth while floor-to-ceiling windows provide views of the grounds and periphery eucalyptus groves. Mahogany accordion doors open to a stone patio, again blurring the distinction between indoor/outdoor living, and a formal/informal setting.
The furniture’s textures and natural tones complement the architectural materials of wood and stone. The furnishings are custom-designed to be heavy and substantial to match the solid quality of the structure.
The great stone fireplace wall appears in the master suite on the second floor, there encompassing a reading niche and an outdoor raised spa on the balcony, which offers expansive views of the property.
The facade is clad with gray-stained cedar, inspired by the soft gray tones of eucalyptus bark. The material’s color and texture unifies the structure with the surrounding groves of trees. The cedar carries from the exterior through the main entry hall, representing its signifi cance as an interstitial space or articulation between the two sections.
Rockefeller Partners spent over four years designing and building the house for the Daytons, preceded by 6 years designing a house for the Mandeville site’s previous owner. After over a decade, it is enormously satisfying to finally place the right structure on this property.
Photography by Eric Staudenmaier
