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Antelope Valley Residence
Research on sectional stacking from earlier projects is re-visited in this still-in-progress design for a small unit poised above a garage and tucked into the side of a forested, north facing slope. Materials common to the region – each evoking a specific set of fond memories and sensations for the client – define the levels of the stack of plateaux. Grouped by dimension and programmatic requirements, multiple stacks comprise each story of the structure.
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Arcturus Offices
Seeking to align themselves with the new business models of the technology sector, Arcturus – a Pasadena, CA venture capital firm named after the dominant star of the Little Bear constellation – wanted offices which were simultaneously "business casual" yet "starched". The striped reception desk was originally inspired by the shirts of one of the partners. But the idea of a striped desk expanded into a paean to six materials traditionally found in the investment business: wood paneling, desktop linoleum, green glass similar to old bankers' lamps, the color of money, formica, and rubber molding. The desk becomes a centerpiece for the theme "everything old is new again," embodying both the traditions of the industry yet pointing to this company's innovation. Simple CNC-milled oak wall panels define the entry and are inscribed by a cluster of constellations, as well as the star Arcturus itself, and serves as a minimal diagram of the synergistic business practice of the company.
See the feature article at Interior Design Magazine.
Photo Credit: Eric Staudenmeier
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Greenwich Village Res
A private garden at the rear of the eighteenth-century ground floor West Greenwich Village apartment encouraged this gut remodel to become a "dumb-bell" scheme with "living spaces" being planned for either end of the building as it accesses light. A long hall stretches between the two ends of apartment. In this portion, the history of the structure was revealed by exposing the original wood joists and peeling away the layers of plaster to reveal the rough brick. In contrast to this roughness, modern, clean-lined cabinets were constructed to look almost like giant armoires sitting in space. As the center of the apartment was relatively dark, various light boxes were developed to punctuate the space. Light artist John Wigmore was hired to design a "parade of lamps" running from one end to the other.
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Hollywood Hills Residence
The site enjoys some of the most breath-taking views of Los Angeles imaginable. With expansive panoramas across the grid below – spanning from Downtown to Santa Monica and select views of Lake Hollywood and the Hollywood sign on the backside – the design process for this still in-progress house moved fairly quickly to becoming a glass house. Built on the ridge of a hill, the life of the house embraces indoor-outdoor, sustainable living – enabled by walls of glass and huge sliding glass doors that open whole walls to the outdoors. The life of the house will smoothly flow between the indoor and outdoor rooms between shaded and sunny areas. Below the living level is the entrance through a parking court at the end of a long drive uphill. And above are three bedrooms and related programming each with excellent framed views. A balcony encircles the upper level of the structure and allows one to promenade around the house high up in the air.
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Homeless Youth Drop-In
Hollywood offers the illusion of numerous and glamorous opportunities for the youth who leave the untenable situations they had at home. But the journey often ends in homelessness, an issue that finds new dimensions with each generation. Selected after a competitive process to help renovate an existing homeless youth drop-in center located in Hollywood, the design needs to upgrade and properly house the growing number of programs this agency provides. Clients receive food, clothing, dental, medical, parenting classes, bathing opportunities and laundry, along with a host of creative classes. The design challenges lie in balancing communal areas which have clear sightlines for staff for the sake of security, with private spaces for individual counseling and case management – all within a tight space. Producing the finished environment walks a tightrope. While it must be inviting and comfortable, it should be neither too domestic nor too institutional, as homeless youth view both families and institutions as having failed them. Warren Techentin Architecture is committed to helping support My Friends Place Homeless Youth Center and can be accessed here.
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Jinhai Lake Residence 1
Sleeping Black Dragon House
During our visit to the beautiful Jinhai Lake, we remembered that Chairman Li expressed an interest in the idea of a circular house. The circle has a great tradition in Chinese architecture and we were excited by the idea of continuing that long tradition. But the circular shape is also efficient: creating a compact, energy efficient house with less surface area exposed to the elements. As we developed the house we liked how the plan began to work - the interior flow and movement of the house - how the rooms related to each other. We began to think that it almost resembled a coiled, sleeping black dragon...
This house is family oriented, luxurious, comfortable, casual, energy efficient, good for parties, and intended to be well appointed with the latest technologies and comforts.
We used numerous, sumptuous materials which are responsive to the light and weather of Jinhai Lake, ecologically sensitive, and recall traditional materials and techniques from Northern China.
The house is built with a concrete core; a wood, steel, and glass exterior wall; and hi performance roofing.
Floor Area: 421m2
Garage Area: 56m2
Number of Bedrooms: 4
Number of Bathrooms: 4.5
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Jinhai Lake Residence 2
Ice-Ray Lattice House
During Riverside Group field trip to the Summer Palace north of Beijing, we were interested to discover the many lattice designs present in the various pavilions. There were so many different types and styles. When we returned, the office researched traditional Chinese Lattice Designs further. We were fascinated in particular by the type of design known as the “Ice-Ray” design which symbolically represents the cracking of ice on a lake at the onset of Spring. We felt this was a particularly appropriate beginning to a project over looking the beautiful Jinhai Lake.
This house is large and organized around two courtyards. In warmer months one could circulate through the courtyards while in the colder months, they create a peaceful center to the house. This house is large, luxurious, comfortable, energy efficient, good for parties, and intended to be well appointed with the latest technologies and comforts.
We used numerous materials in the project - each of which are responsive to the light and weather of Jinhai Lake, recall traditional materials and techniques from Northern China, and are ecologically sensitive,.
The house is built with a concrete core; concrete and glass lattices, hi-performance glass systems, and hi-performance roofing in which we have placed all of the services.
Floor Area: 950m2
Garage Area: 70m2
Number of Bedrooms: 6
Number of Bathrooms: 6
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Los Feliz Apartments
The site sits within a quarter mile of a Metrolink stop and permits the building to be taller than typically allowed and encourages mixed programming to promote pedestrianism on the sidewalk. The ground floor features a market which opens out at the corner to the intersection and is sandwiched between parking above and below. The corner is cut back to allow for chairs and tables. A variety of unit types were developed to provide for a variety of living conditions. Green strategies were deployed to make the building more sustainable.
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Los Feliz Residence 1
Foundations for any project in Los Angeles are expensive (sometimes approaching 20%-25% of total project costs). Seeking to eliminate these costs, this remodel used the structural lines of the existing house to organize the re-design – cantilevering whole sections of the house and building a third floor to add space without additional foundation work. Existing rooms were re-organized to define five diagrammatic domestic boxes which lent coherency to programmatic relations within: 1. life spaces (bedrooms and living rooms); 2. work spaces; 3. kitchen; 4. embedded pool bathroom; and 5. underground support spaces. Joining these volumes is a loose-slung, faceted enclosure squeezed between the boxes to create double-high space and spatial directionality while simultaneously generating the proverbial nooks and crannies for storage. From each of these boxes, openings were carefully placed and calibrated to serve as frames for views directed at several impressive large trees which surround the property, making the windows and what they framed into conceptual landscapes, comprised of the living landscape.
See the feature articles at Interior Design Magazine and The Architect's Newspaper, and a house tour at Apartment Therapy.
See additional photos and coverage from the 2010 Dwell On Design Home Tour at Design Milk and at Curbed LA.
Photo Credits: Benny Chan and Eric Staudenmeier
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Montrose Duplex
Beginning as a garage that housed the client's electric vehicle and its charger, the project grew to encompass the addition of a new 484 square foot loft unit above it to adequately encompass programmatic needs and zoning potentials. The clients asked for a building that would embrace concepts of green design. Numerous strategies were integrated toward this end, including solar panels, non-toxic materials, shaded wall and roof surfaces, renewable materials, the elimination of gas as an energy source, the development of stack effects, and increased insulation. The structure is compact – squeezed into the remaining space of the lot – and the form of it is manipulated by the site forces imposed on the space – such as a large tree and tight parking back-ups – which required the structure to twist, fold, and stretch as it rises to maximize solar efficiency.
See the feature article at The New York Times T Magazine.
Photo Credit: Nicholas Alan Cope
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One World Offices
The availability of buildings in South Dakota – and the Midwest in general – is staggering due to net population losses throughout the region. Seeking to keep the youth of Mobridge, South Dakota from moving to cities far away which promise more of everything, the clients bought and renovated a 20,000 square foot nineteenth century industrial building in South Dakota. When completely built-out, the building design will accommodate nearly 200 employees, allowing it to become a major employer in the community. In addition to the 175-seat call center, 9-executive offices, and a data vault, One World wanted their new offices to offer a number of additional programs typically found in urban areas but not immediately available in the vicinity such as a day care facility, a gym, a conference center, and a cafe. The interiors are defined by minimal modern materials set against the existing architectural fragments and materials saved from the existing building as well as elements found in the local craft of the community such as Native American corncob murals and hay topiary.
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Pacific Palisades Res
A series of steel tube and structural glass walls step back across the site to modify and define the spaces of an addition to an existing home, and provides for a new kitchen, a master closet, a new stair, an office space, and a re-worked media room. In this project, the clients evoked the scenario of the house's use during a football game day as a way to understand desired flows throughout. Seven loops, returns, and circuits were developed to facilitate and energize flow inside and out. By rotating "the grain" of the house 90 degrees and running the walls front to back, the addition modulates the abutting spaces with natural light and provides needed lateral force resistance while maintaining visual privacy with the neighbors. The placement of the walls also accentuates the front courtyard and helps structure openings with the use of the space while at night they provide a soft glow through the glass for dinner outdoors analogous to a Japanese lamp.
Landscape architecture designed by David Fletcher, interiors furnished by Tim Clarke.
Photo Credit: Eric Staudenmeier
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Pasadena Residence
This soon-to-be high performance green home for a family of five is currently in the design process. These images are the result of several studies for SIPS paneling and the relationship of the paneling with a steel structural system.
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Santa Monica Residence
This soon-to-be beachfront home for a family and occasional long term guests is currently in the design process. These images are the result of several studies for ‘directional’ facades.
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Sherman Oaks Residence
It is said that architect, Joseph Eichler built over 10,000 of his nearly all-glass basilica-roofed houses which first popularized modernism in California. They were so popular that imitators popped up just to satisfy market demands. The clients bought one of these pseudo-Eichlers in desperate need of repair and needed to add space to account for their growing family. They wanted to keep the all-glass spirit of the existing house. To achieve this, all the glass needed to be switched out with high performance insulated panels. Insulation was added to the structure where possible. A new master bedroom suite was positioned just outside of the existing structure and connected with a short hallway, allowing freedom from the confinement of the low roof of the main house. The roof of the addition soars upwards to allow views down the valley from a small writer's perch, and of California sycamores around the property from the bed of the master suite.
Photo Credit: Nicholas Alan Cope
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South Pasadena Studio
An artist known for her portraits and landscapes wanted to create a multi-function accessory structure at the rear of her lot largely to serve as a painting studio, but also as an ancillary garage, a pool house, future play room and to provide an end to their large property for her family. The structure is based on the size required to house 4 cars and carried to its maximum allowable height of 15'-0". One bay is given over to "closed" functions and accommodates storage, a clean-up area, a bathroom, and an office loft. Several strategies for the roof were proposed during a stringent Design Review process. The final, curved version represents the desire to embrace and wrap the space in addition to reducing the scale of the large structure from the house. The studio is anchored in the garden by the column of an outdoor fireplace which offers warmth after a swim on summer nights.
Photo Credit: Eric Staudenmeier
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Sun Valley Residence
The typical log cabin tends to be apathetic or indifferent toward their sites in all respects other than the material with which they are constructed. Generally they require the builder to make a flat cleared site and produce a rectangular house of iconic proportions punctuated with regularly cut windows. This project investigated how this traditional construction system could be adapted to a design process which integrated the shifting topography of the landscape – to provoke specific responses in the form of the house to its context – terracing progressively down to the Big Wood River and bending towards it and opening up to the views around it and down the valley. Because the shape of the house diverged from standard orthogonal corners, special joints were required. Traditional construction methods were modified – sometimes incorporating Japanese joinery techniques to accommodate the angles.
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Tallinn Street 2020
Tallinn Architecture Biennale: Street 2020 Competition
Peer-to-Peer Urbanism: Developing a high performance landscape network in Tallinn
Our concept was to develop a street which connects as many people and ideas as possible through the use of landscape strategies with a simple "user interface". This new Boulevard will connect the historic City to the beachfront, provides a strong edge to the port area, and seeks to unify the disparate existing but undefined open spaces into the collective use of the entire district as a large pedestrian park. The new district which will emerge around this street accommodates a wide array of programming types - at all scales - from the micro clustering of kiosks to provision of large footprint (5000 square meters) office space desired by Internet businesses. The street will form a new entry to Tallinn for visitors and a place to enjoy the city outdoors with physical activity and street vending. Lastly, the street incorporates a series of man-made and natural infrastructural systems to treat wastewater and sequester carbon – some of which will be open to tourism and businesses underground. Following is a list of urban features to be included in the renovation of the overall site area.
1> Small Lot Development: Proposed with limited height along the entirely of the south side to avoid deep shadows on the new, super-GREEN Pedestrian Boulevard. The scale of these lots will help reproduce the existing scale of the architecture found in Tallinn and play host to hybrid programming strategies.
2> Subterranean Parking: Required for each construction with garage. Access is NOT from the new Boulevard.
3> Pocket Parks: A series of landscaped Greenways are being introduced to connect with the university district to the south, traversing through the proposed large scale internet office spaces.
4> Green Alley: Covered in a pervious surface, it allows access to parking and the collection of trash.
5> Housing Wall: Provides a boundary between the port and the new Boulevard. It serves as a solar reflector to optimize light in the winter on the new Boulevard. This super long building provides nearly 1000 new units and is punctuated with raised green-roofed decks.
6> Green-roofed Decks: Offering multi-level, outdoor life in Tallinn.
7> Underground Truckway: Passes through the city underground to avoid conflict with pedestrians. At certain locations, the truckway rises up to access the ferry port. Also at these locations, retail and other amenities are planned.
8> Retail Vendors: Commercial retail lines the northern edge of the vehicular, lower street.
9> Area of Toxic Remediation: Trees and other plants are used to help remediate the area which is currently used for industrial purposes.
10> Pedestrian Crosswalk with Enlarged Sidewalk: Sidewalk flares to "shorten" the distance across the street.
11> Dedicated Bike Lane: This lane, painted in Estonian blue clearly marks where bikes have right-of-way.
12> Walkable Center Median: Between opposing lanes of traffic, the median functions as a small linear garden one can navigate through.
13> Digital Street Sign: The entire edge of the raised street will incorporate a digital street sign which not only hosts quotidian information like shop names and addresses, but will also host numerous embedded sensors linked to cellphone use and GPS to help people discover their environment and each other in real time.
14> TallinnTRAM Promenade: a place to wait for the new tram line but also to go jogging or push your baby in a stroller.
15> Walk-able Tramway: Like Alexander Platz in Berlin, this tramway is easily crossed by pedestrians and in areas where it is raised, the ride along it affords amazing views of the city of Tallinn.
16> Ornamental Gardens: the flows of the pedestrian traffic slowed somewhat by large, mass-plantings of monolithic bulbs and flowers which seek to encourage as many different growing seasons throughout the year as possible.
17> Fruit and Shade Trees.
18> Kiosks: Vegetables, Currywurst, etc.
19> Pedestrian Promenade: A large multi-surfaced promenade which encourages micro scale retailing, a series of small landscape interventions, and seating.
20> Stairways: Multiple stairs and elevators ease flow between the upper and lower street levels. Access to adjacent building can occur at upper or lower levels too.
21> Bus Stops.
22> Wastewater Catchment Basin: Large underground water trough for all rainwater run-off as well as greywater treatment to be purified to be used to help water landscape and clean streets.
23> Anaerobic Digesters: To convert sewage and other biodegradable sludge into energy and fertilizer.
24> Catacombs and Caves: As in Paris, underused underground spaces can be converted into graveyards, wine caves, aeroponic agriculture, and civilian defense shelters. A number of non-specific underground spaces are planned alongside all of the infrastructure interventions which support tourist needs today but could also house future yet-to-be realized infrastructure upgrades.
25> Tours of the Wastewater Treatment Facility.
26> Rentable Server Farms: Dedicated storage space for internet cloud infrastructure.
See an interview with Warren Techentin at the blog Urban Lab Global Cities.
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Wallpaper* Residence
Stemming from childhood vacation memories in post-hippie California spent in convivial A-frames, tents, yurts, and modern bungalows, the design begins with the 'great room', a casual space where everyone sleeps, eats, plays games, and hangs out together in one room, though sometimes on different levels. The design explores an interest in the tradition of fabric walls typical of tent structures such as traditional Mongolian yurts which assure a close relationship with the weather and the natural systems of the world just outside but can be regulated through layering and the peeling back of layers. Set in Sun Valley, Idaho – a place where luxury yurt expeditions have a keen following - this vacation home begins by using layers of high performance ETFE insulated skin as an enclosure with a final skin of Merimekko fabric lining the inside.
See Wallpaper* Magazine's photo shoot here.
Photo Credit: Nicholas Alan Cope
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West Los Angeles Apts
The developers of this project asked for a 94-unit condominium over two floors of parking in a historically Japanese neighborhood in West Los Angeles. To counter the impact a building of this size has – both inside of the building and upon the neighborhood – the building "snakes" back-and-forth on the site, introducing a number of different courtyards of various configurations – some of which can be viewed into from the street. The design of each unit was varied to optimize its relationship with the courtyard outside, while also helping to develop differentiation between units and a sense of individualized personality to each of the units. The ground floor is given over to live /work units which each have a sleeping loft, a front yard, and a direct entrance from the street. The diversity of units was seen as one of the major reasons the building sold out so quickly even after the economic downturn.
See additional photos and coverage at Curbed LA.
Photo Credit: Eric Staudenmeier
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Westwood Residence
The client's desire to completely start over with the unit she had already lived in for ten years was impressive. She wanted to re-build with a minimal, clean look and wanted to correct a bizarre floor plan, marked by a long, circuitous, mirrored hall snaking around the unit to find the living room. This required moving the kitchen and a number of services, which – on the 11th floor of a 30 story tower – became a feat of choreography. A direct connection from the entry to the living / dining / bar area was carved out, allowing natural light to enter deep into the apartment. All other rooms were re-modeled and modernized, with special attention to non-toxic and sustainable materials in conjunction with furnishings by Kimberly Biehl Schmidt Interior Design.
Photo Credit: Eric Staudenmeier
