Huntington Woods is a small community with a wonderful stylistic variety of stately homes ranging from modern to traditional. The neighborhood contains early modern houses by Minoru Yamasaki and Eero Saarinen. The client has a love for modern and holds a substantial art collection.  

The house was inspired by Alvaar Alto’s Carre house in France also designed for an art collector. The way Aalto’s wedge-shaped forms work their way around the site with low horizontal covered walkways tying them together seemed an appropriate conceptual model for this house. These forms also allow for varied wall and ceiling heights and different qualities of light for different kinds of art. The point of departure from the Carre house is the way the lower forms to the south (the office and master suite) wrap around to hug the rear patio and provide privacy from the close neighboring homes.

The property is set on an elevated corner lot overlooking a small triangular park to the west. The wedge-shaped forms are brick masonry with window frames of dark ash. The brick is cut to the angle of the roofline to achieve a very thin flashing at the top. This allows the mass to read as solid blocks against the skyline. To achieve a dimensional transition between the brick and cedar siding used on other parts of the house; a recessed ‘slot’ is created at the south edge of each wedge that the brick dies into. This also helps to reduce the scale and provides a transition down to lower portions of the house.

ARCHITECT: Swanson Meads Architects
PHOTOGRAPHER: Gene Meadows
LANDSCAPE: AguaFina Gardens International