Constructed in an exclusive enclave of Los Angeles, this contemporary luxury home spreads modern life out over 14,500 square feet of indoor space and nearly one and a half acres of prime Holmby Hills property. Designed by London’s Quinn Architects, the house takes advantage of the privacy offered by a buffer of trees on each property edge to create an outdoor-focused environment with glass window walls and plenty of amenities on the rear lawn. The property itself has been modifies extensively by the architects, with two tiers of flat recreational space juxtaposed over a sloping overall landscape. Because of the hillside location of the house, the front portion of its construction is sunken somewhat into the lawn to allow two uninterrupted levels inside instead of a split design. Above, a series of skylights project the sun’s rays into the innermost portions of the home, allowing each room to connect to the outdoors.
The house’s interior, much like its exterior, is dominated by pure white walls, meant for mounting art and decor pieces on. Each room is large enough to suit its intended task, but not made gargantuan simply for the sake of showing off. Where restraint in the floorplan is called for the rooms are smaller and more intimate, as seen in the house’s kitchen and secondary living rooms. Each space has its own unique blend of materials and accent colors to bring out an individual personality in its purpose, helping to give the dwelling a custom, personal atmosphere. On the top floor, many private rooms feature their own decks large and small, including a wide rooftop deck accessed through the master suite.
Located in the historically glamorous neighborhood of Holmby Hills, the impressively large hillside property occupied by this modern masterpiece is bordered by more traditional California estates. As one of the most recent homes built in the area, the glass-lined contemporary house certainly stands out among its peers.
With a thick layer of trees along each edge of the lot and a property wall at its street-facing side, the design of the building isn’t severely restricted by privacy concerns. As a result, the rear of the dwelling features plenty of outdoor living spaces and glass window walls, which combine with rooftop skylights to bring natural light inside.
The home’s hillside construction has lead to a tiered lawn design, with flat expanses of grass mounted on artificially created terraces. This helps to mitigate some erosion concerns, and divides the property into a number of distinct recreation spaces.
The principal exterior space revolves around the house’s pool, with an L-shaped joint in the floorplan frames deck and lawn spaces on the main floor. Above, decks extending from private upstairs rooms overlook the lawn, while more expansive rooftop decks occupy each edge.
On each side of the pool deck, a number of outdoor extensions to indoor rooms are present. Most of these additional spaces are living areas, placed intelligently to take advantage of the building’s shade at specific times of day.
Between each tier of the rear lawn, a set of steps runs down through the remains of the natural hillside of the original undeveloped property. The upper tier drops off next to these steps, with a textured stone brick finish.
Down below at the end of the snaking path, a wide private tennis court rounds out the amenities of the residence’s exterior. Such a flat playing surface would not have been possible without re-sculpting the land the home sits on.
Beyond the front gates at the front edge of the house, the garage and front entry are sunken half a floor into the hill so that the floors inside are level throughout instead of relying on an inelegant split-level front foyer. All the second-story windows here are thin to protect from prying eyes, and most of the front walls have no view inward at all.
The sunken nature of the front entryway lead to the creation of a grand, one-and-a-half-story covered stairway leading down toward it. Slots in the roof above let in shafts of sunlight, but the pattern cuts out just before the doorway to ensure that a portion remains impervious to rain and wind.
A great variety of high-quality finishes are utilized in the details of the house, including the uniform wood hue of the custom front door and the floorboards beneath it.
The main living room of the house, suitable for hosting large groups of people, occupies the tallest single portion of the home at the rear corner of its main wing. With two full walls of glass spanning two stories, this focal point of the floorplan has commanding views of the decks and lawn beyond and below.
One of the smaller rooms of the house, the kitchen is intended as a personal space for the homeowners to prepare and eat their food in a private environment. Unlike the vast show kitchens of many modern dwellings or starkly professional rooms designed for the use of servants, this kitchen is made for the personal enjoyment of the home’s residents.
Another of the home’s tallest rooms is its eight-person dining space, which is separated from the living room by a solid wall. Unlike in many contemporary houses, the two rooms are kept intentionally separate for their distinct purposes.
Each wall inside the house is kept smooth and white, a passive space onto which art and colorful decor pieces can be mounted. At the top edge of this interior hallway, a strip of accent lighting adds a warm glow to the white finish.
Down the hall from the vast public living room and dining room, a smaller gathering space features built-in shelving and an attractive modern fireplace. Here, a smaller group of people can sit and socialize, or an individual can read or write in comfort.
This room, too, has access to the main deck along the wide rear edge of the dwelling, through a sliding glass door.
Each piece of the house’s wall art goes without a frame, standing out by virtue of its visual characteristics rather than from an elaborate border. This decor decision also helps the paintings to appear as an integral part of the house’s design instead of as additions to it.
The home’s main staircase is uniquely elegant, with a solid wall of polished stone dividing each flights. This wall is carved with built-in illuminated banisters, providing a discreet yet luxurious spin on a conventional architectural item.
The master bedroom combines modern elegance with supreme comfort, with warm yet light tones on its walls and floors. The space includes its own private sitting area, and a deck which can only be accessed from within that room.
Just behind the wood-covered rear wall of the master bedroom, the decor changes to mostly greyscale tones and reveals a spacious bathroom, complete with a freestanding tub and water-resistant wood floors.
At the corner of the house’s smaller wing, a second bedroom offers many of the same amenities as the master on a smaller scale and with different colors, establishing it as a luxurious yet not dominant guest suite.
The guest bathroom is similar in layout to the master, but its walls don’t feature the same stone and there is no freestanding tub to be seen here. It’s spacious and accommodating, but not on the same level as the master bathroom.
Outside above the smaller wing of the home, the master roof deck occupies a unique spot with unobstructed views of the sky and the property around it.
Quinn Architects
