The street entry to the house provides motor-court off-street parking, uniquely landscaped by the award-winning Orange Street Studios of Los Angeles. The minimalist, native drought tolerant theme of landscape is continued through the development of four distinct zones: the parking court, an active play area, the swimming, outdoor dining and entertaining area, and a meditative succulent garden.

The kitchen/family room area exemplifies casual day-to-day living. The generous family room includes a built-in home theater with surround sound as well as a cozy fireplace, and includes sliding door access to a south-facing secure yard. The kitchen features sleek “Euro-style” cabinets, top-of-the-line appliances including built-in SubZero refrigeration and wine storage, double eye-level Bosch ovens, and an over-sized island with Gagganau cooktop and breakfast bar seating. A banquette dining area with family table rounds out the truly functional “heart of the house”.

The formal interior entertainment areas connect to the outdoor spaces by utilizing fully-pocketing sliding glass doors, providing the true definition of Southern California “indoor/outdoor” living. The sun drenched, south and west-facing backyard features a dramatic swimming pool bordered by an elevated, trellis-shaded deck with outdoor fireplace.

The home was designed by architect/owner Mark Kirkhart, founder and principal of the multiple award winning firm DesignArc, Inc, whose work has been published nationally in Architectural Digest, Architectural Record and Trends magazines to name a few. Completed in 2009, the renovation achieves a high level of detail, including state-of-the-art, energy efficient, recessed low voltage and LED lighting, European lever door hardware, the finest plumbing fixtures such as in-wall tank-less toilets, and Kohler, Duravit and Dorn Bracht faucets. Exterior materials include fire-retardant cementitious panel siding accented with redwood slats, and a lifetime standing-seam metal roof.

Location: “Hedge Row” Montecito

Currently listed with Suzanne Perkins of Sotheby’s

DesignARC
29 East Calle Laureles
Santa Barbara, CA 93105-3301
(805) 687-1525
www.designarc.net/

Photography by Jim Bartsch   (www.jimbartsch.com)

Currently Listed with Susan Burns of Coldwell Banker

The Walker Residence was built by architect Rodney Walker and is a spectacular looking building located in Ojai, California. According to the official project description, “the carefully chosen site is a unique hilltop on the west side of the Ojai Valley which affords 270 degree panoramic vistas while still providing total privacy for the occupants. Curtain glass walls and mobile glass panels are set back beneath the roof eaves and structural perimeter. From the interiors the effect is cinematic. To steal from Wright; from this vantage you don’t just see the Valley and the Mountains, you are the Valley and the Mountains! The experience is transcendent, and not fleeting. Communing with nature here is a moment by moment daily reality. The site is over 3.4 acres. A gated private drive curves gently up the hill to a generous parking plaza and the residence entry. In addition to the living areas, there are four bedrooms (one of which is currently used as a media room), and three baths”. Enjoy the architecture details of this project!

Currently offered at: $3,995,000

Call Josiah Hamilton: 805-284-8835

  [Photography by Scott Mayora] 

Neumann Mendro Andrulaitis Architects:

888 Linden Ave
Carpinteria, CA,
93013-2043

Phone: 805-684-8885

Fax: 805-684-8700

Currently listed with Susan Burns of Coldwell Banker.

The project site is located on a ridge in the foothills of Carpinteria, ten miles down the coast from Santa Barbara. The program asked for a master suite, one guest room, a study for two, a more contained den and an informal open living space they could share with their children and grand children. The site strategy was to separate the guesthouse, pool and pool house from the main house, by locating them amongst the oaks on a lower terrace. The smaller structures were easier to place around the mature oak trees without disturbing their root systems. Each structure has its own orientation and privacy.

How to develop a strategy with dramatic 360-degree views was a challenge for laying out the main house. Placing the main living space and study further away from the edge was determined to be quieter from the distant freeway noise. A courtyard created an inward oriented counterpoint to the distant vistas. A flat roof modernist scheme complemented the couples taste for modern art and furniture. Designers in their own right, they were the driving force in the overall design team. The design was limited to a simple palette of materials and forms. A European window and sliding door system was used to minimize the frames and optimize the glass. These glass walls were framed between large stonewalls constructed of the local Santa Barbara Sandstone, and volumes contained in plaster walls with an integral color (pantry, guest room, master bath and closet, storage area). The flat roofs were supported by steel columns separated from the curtain walls.

The landscape design became a hobby of the owner who studied local native plantings that were both fire resistant and drought tolerant. Some large oak trees were brought in to augment the existing oak grove, further nestle the house into the site, and create a foreground to help frame the spectacular views.