The beginning of a journey down a successful road for Gordon Gibson, president of Gordon Gibson Construction in Santa Monica, Calif., started as a laborer, then a carpenter, framer and now a custom builder of high-end homes in Southern California. He travels extensively, which grounds his sense of architectural appreciation.

Gibson’s travels have taken him to more than 75 different countries. Design inspiration is not his intention when traveling but he adds it’s a great benefit. “Traveling gives me firsthand knowledge of true architecture for the custom home industry. When I travel to Greece and see the Parthenon or Rome, or Turkey, I see real architectural designs — how it came to be influenced by previous generations and how it moves forward to current architecture,” he says.

Custom home building was not always Gibson’s niche. However, he has been focused on this part of the industry for 30 years. “[Transferring to custom] is an outgrowth — a transformation of a goal to do better and more significant work,” Gibson adds.

As he begins each project, he finds it’s a challenge to deal with new architecture and new owners because it’s an emotional process for homeowners to build a large custom home. “It’s a challenge to work with the emotions of clients. Because they become emotionally involved, you become emotionally involved in them and trying to create their own personal masterpiece,” he says.

Demands of the site

The home pictured on these pages is located in Bel Air Estates, Calif., and features a Mediterranean style. Gibson adds that this style results from a metamorphosis of different types of architecture and might include some Roman, Spanish or Greek influences.

Gibson collaborated with J. Scott Carter, owner and architect of Wilie Carter Architects in Pacific Palisades, Calif., and interior designer Malgosia Midgal, owner of Malgosia Midgal Design Associates in Beverly Hills, Calif. All three worked closely together to create solutions for the challenges they faced when working on the project.

The lot was one challenge that presented itself from the beginning. “[The house] is located on a tracked lot amongst a group of houses that are already developed. A spec builder had secured several parcels of land and had built a house next to this site with intentions of repeating the same house on this lot. Our owners weren’t happy with the layout of that plan,” Carter says.