Pro Portfolio: Awkward Pasadena home remodeled with an open plan, a refreshed facade
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Every Monday we post a recently built, remodeled or redecorated home with commentary from the designer. This week:
Project: Whole house remodel
Location: Pasadena
Design: Wayne Schlock, principal, Blue Point Architecture, Los Angeles. Project team: J. Mateo, A. Solis, R. Hines. Structural Design: Koje Shoraka principal, Efficient Consulting Engineers, Los Angeles, (310) 474-9041.
Architect’s description: This once homely and awkward house, right, was transformed into the contemporary home pictured above to suit the needs of a modern family. Located in a leafy neighborhood of Pasadena not far from the Huntington Library, the Greenwood house project started as a modest window replacement project and eventually evolved into an extensive remodel.
The main challenge of this project was to make architectural sense out of an existing pileup of additions and jumble of rooms and styles. Zoning restrictions posed another challenge, which dictated working mostly within the building’s existing footprint. The home’s size limitation also corresponded to a relatively modest project budget, while an existing pool located 3 feet from the rear of the house further restricted expansion possibilities.
Considering the asymmetric organization of the existing home, the transformation moved forward by employing a new arrangement of doors and windows, introducing new materials such as cedar siding to articulate the kitchen/service core of the house, and also introducing a new green ‘wrapping wall’that visually connects the front to back.
These elements carry through to the interior of the home to create an integrated design. The wrapping wall’s large square window not only provides a new feature on the exterior of the house but also frames a view from the interior of a new den.
The layout of the home was reorganized, combining a series of small rooms and closets into larger open flexible spaces to accommodate informal modern living. Most notable is the combination of several rooms into a large kitchen and dining area.
The house’s physical and visual connections to the outdoors were improved, as were the quantity and quality of usable outdoor space, allowing outdoor spaces to become extensions of the indoors. A new wall of glass sliding doors from the kitchen and dining area opens onto a new cantilevered deck over the pool.
A new second-floor terrace off the master bedroom was created by removing an existing pitched roof above the living room and replacing it with a flat roof.
Interior materials of this project include rift-cut white oak flooring and sills; dark, monochromatic porcelain slab pavers; white lacquer, factory fabricated cabinets; matte white Dutch tile; and marble countertops and tub surrounds.
To see more photos, keep reading ...
The large square window in the new den frames a view outside, across the pool.
The new green wrapper wall seen outside the den in back ties with the new front, above left. The main entrance of the house, above right, includes an oversized door and a cedar slat wall gate that screens the service areas of the home.
A second-floor bathroom uses a translucent band of white windows to provide light while preserving privacy. The tub surround is marble.
Mirrored and oak storage cabinets are also part of the new second-floor bathroom.
Several small rooms in the old house were combined to provide space for a large open kitchen and dining room.
The new kitchen-dining area includes translucent cabinets, white lacquered cabinets and windows above white stone countertops.
The new cantilevered deck was a way to expand usable outdoor space slightly without having to remove or modify the pool.
The deck acts as a more natural transition from the kitchen, dining area and den to the outdoors.
The redesigned foyer is filled with light and offers space to display art. The floor is dark Italian porcelain slab paving, and the stairs are rift-cut oak.
The existing pitched ceiling was removed above the living room and replaced with a flat roof in order to create a second-floor terrace off the master bedroom.
-- Lisa Boone
Photo credits: Lucy Gonzales
Pro Portfolio appears on this blog every Monday. Submit projects to home@latimes.com.
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