Tree Top Residence in Los Angeles, California by Belzberg Architects

Article source: Belzberg Architects 

The Tree Top Residence celebrates the site’s complex landscape, merging with it seamlessly and emerging from it atop the canopy of trees that surround it. Built along a natural ridgeline, the long and narrow plan of the three-story house mimics and inverts the angles of the site’s topography, creating dynamic vertical and horizontal relationships.

Image Courtesy © Bruce Damonte and Art Gray

• Architects: Belzberg Architects
• Project: Tree Top Residence
• Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
  
• Photography: Bruce Damonte and Art Gray
• Partner-in-Charge: Hagy Belzberg
• Project Manager: David Cheung (Daniel Rentsch, Jennifer Wu, Chris Sanford, Barry Gartin, Susan Nwankpa, Brock DeSmit, Chris Arntzen, Glenn Ginter, Andrew Kim, Ashley CoonKim, Ashley Coon)
• Interior Designer: Curated, Inc.
• Landscape Architect: Pamela Burton & Company Landscape Architecture
• Structural Engineer: Thornton Tomasetti

Image Courtesy © Bruce Damonte and Art Gray

• MEP Engineer: South Coast Engineering
• Civil Engineer: Fuscoe Engineering, Inc.
• Soils Engineer: Grover Hollingsworth & Associates, Inc.
• Specifications: InterSpec
• General Contractor: Winters Schram Associates
• Surveyor: Northlake Surveying
• Expeditor: Kimberlina Whettam & Associates
• Project Management: Planning Partners Limited
• Special Fabrication: Spectrum Oak (Stairs), Funtime Cabinet Factory (Millwork),Fusion Flooring (Kitchen Stair and wood flooring)
• Area: 13,900sqft
• Completion Date: 2015

Image Courtesy © Bruce Damonte and Art Gray

Image Courtesy © Bruce Damonte and Art Gray

Vertically, an eccentrically-helical stair functions as a primary organizing element and a sculptural gesture upon entry into the house. On the ground floor, it acts as a threshold into the open plan; on the floor above, it separates the master suite and children’s quarter, while providing a light well to the basement. Horizontally, walls are used sparingly in favor of fluidly connected spaces. Movement and views between dining areas, kitchen, play and gathering spaces are uninterrupted, and floor-toceiling sliding glass doors blend the interior with the outside.

Image Courtesy © Bruce Damonte and Art Gray

Image Courtesy © Bruce Damonte and Art Gray

Hidden from the street, the residence is insulated from its neighbors, but open to its site. Canted limestone louvers, and dense planting on the north facade shield the interior from the closest adjacency. Conversely, the rest of the building opens to the site with floor-to-ceiling glazing, relying on both the house’s generous distance from the property line, and the densely wooded valley below to create a natural screen. The design culminates in the master bedroom, which features full-height sliding doors at its cantilevered corner. The orchestration of this view, overlooking a dense canopy of trees, embodies the intent to offer respite from the city below.

Image Courtesy © Bruce Damonte and Art Gray

Image Courtesy © Bruce Damonte and Art Gray

Image Courtesy © Bruce Damonte and Art Gray

Image Courtesy © Bruce Damonte and Art Gray

Image Courtesy © Belzberg Architects

Image Courtesy © Belzberg Architects

Tags: California, USA

Categories: House, Residential

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