Some might say the way the house that previously sat on this Hollywood Hills lot underplayed the view of Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean was architecturally criminal. The decision to tear it down was easy to make, but erecting a house that serves design justice to the fabulous view was not as simple.

Challenges are faced head-on at Bonura Building in Los Angeles, so fitting a new home on the oddly shaped existing foundation was not an insurmountable hurdle. “I enjoy all those challenges, even the most mundane,” says Joshua Frank, project architect. “Working within the parameters of what the client wants, and coming out with what you as the designer want aesthetically, is rewarding.”

The geometry of the demolished home’s foundation created design challenges in terms of making rooms regular in shape, Frank says. “A lot of the space planning was conceived without actual walls and doors defining spaces. So we defined spaces with ceiling height changes. That in turn helped the layout of the furniture in that large open space where we defined about three different rooms.”

To pardon the demolished home’s crime of short-changing the view off the rear of the house, the line between inside and outside is defined by a wall that isn’t really there. A series of Fleetwood pocketing sliding doors makes the rear wall of the house virtually disappear, extending the living space out and onto the deck, and serving justice to the glorious view. Creating the illusion of more living space was necessary to compensate for the comparatively small size of the home at 4,400 sq. ft., roughly half that of neighboring homes.

“We had some problems getting the doors to pocket into the wall. At one point the owner wanted them on a motor to make them automatic, but there are no headers, which they call flat framing. That leaves no space for motors, or pockets to hide a motor. That was one situation where we had to tell a client they couldn’t have what they wanted,” Frank explains.
A cantilever system supports the rear half of the roof which opens up the rear of the house. A structural engineer designed the cantilever system which is supported by massive beams that penetrate the living space. At the top of these beams are skylights on all sides that create the effect of a roof that is not connected to the house (see the right).