Duxbury

An older couple commissioned a modestly scaled house in a west Los Angeles neighborhood to be closer to their grandchildren and to extend a welcome to their family and friends. They wanted everything, from forecourt to pool, to be on one level, though an elevator gives them easy access to a media room, gym, and a pair of guest bedrooms on the lower floor. In plan, the house is a cranked rectangle, set back from the street behind plantings that afford privacy, and turned 30 degrees to capture a view of the Century City towers—a glittering beacon of urbanity at night.

In style, the house draws on the rich legacy of modernism. A shallow-pitched roof is a nod to its traditional neighbors. Within, axial vistas alternate with intimate and expansive rooms that are warmed by honey-toned wood floors, soffits, and paneling. More than a century ago, Adolph Loos shocked the conservative public of Vienna with houses that were stripped of ornament but still intricate and inviting within. This house has strong affinities with the pacesetting villas of central Europe. There’s a totemic sculpture in the entry hall that evokes Brancusi’s Endless Column. The furnishings, by Studio Jackson, are an inventive mix of bespoke pieces and modern classics, such as the Barcelona chair of 1929, and they are a perfect match for the architecture.

In this strikingly original house, the architects have achieved a brilliant fusion of old and new, tailoring it to the needs and tastes of discerning clients and weaving it into the urban fabric. It takes advantage of the site in an effortless way, although this was no less demanding a task than it is on the steeply inclined lots that McClean Design are usually offered. The lower floor exploits a downslope and is tucked in under the primary suite and pool. Above, in the living areas, the flow of space is more subdued than in some of the houses to the north, since the owners preferred a more traditional layout, including a formal dining room, niches that contain treasured artworks, and a jewel of a powder room. The spacious primary suite opens onto a covered deck, a leafy backyard with a monumental golden fig tree, and the view at the end of the pool. Here, saved for last, is the grand sweep of space and the feeling of endless horizons that is a recurring feature in all of McClean Design’s residential work. - Michael Webb