Concept for a single family home in a Los Angeles neighborhood based on a U shaped CMU shell with glazed end and a low monopitch roof draining water into a small lily pond. The loft-like interior opens out onto a wide deck. Landscaping contrasts from a desert street frontage to lush green backyard.

Concept for a simple conversion of an existing two-car garage to ADU.

Renovations to a craftsman style home in Cypress Park, new kitchen and updated dining room and bathroom with bold colors and comtemporary style. 

Extensive renovation to a craftsman bungalow in the valley. Work included a new master suite, two guest baths, and a completely renovated kitchen. The old kitchen and dining room were small with low, flat ceilings, we opened them up and vaulted the ceilings to match the beamed ceiling in the dining room.

Project completed 2016.

Tenant Improvements for new day spa in Studio City, Los Angeles. Spa Le La features multiple treatment rooms, a soaking tub, mini-sauna,  and retail space. Their parent friendly concept is organized around a sound-proofed day-care space, so customers can bring their kids to be watched while they relax in the spa.

For more info see: www.spalela.com

Photos by Howard Wise.

Renovations to a 1940's home in the Sherwood Forest neighborhood of Northridge. We opened up compartmentalized interior spaces, creating connections between living, dining, and kitchen areas and organized them off a new entry hall. We gave the home a colorful contemporary slant while keeping its original character. The kitchen and master bath were completely redone, reorienting the kitchen to a new exterior door leading to the patio, and providing better connection to the dining and living rooms.  Clients provided custom image tiles from their own photographs in both the kitchen and master bath. Project also features landscape design by Tack LU

Completed 2015

A new music mixing studio on a residential property in Montecito Heights, this project uses the small volume of new building on the property, as well as an additional car-port and covered patio, to re-organize the site into public and private spaces. Each zone connects indoor and outdoor spaces in true California live-work style.

Project completed early 2015

Renovations to a duplex in the Beverly Grove neighborhood of Los Angeles. Work included making the building wheelchair accessible by adding a new entry ramp, interior elevator, bath with roll-in shower and widening doorways. We also renovated the kitchens and baths in both units. Project completed 2015.
A joint project with Catherine Garrison Architect, Inc.

Extensive renovations to a modern home perched on a hill in Silverlake with a fantastic view over Los Angeles. This project opens up the interior and pushes it in a more contemporary direction while keeping it's modernist spirit. The living space is extended out into the yards through expanses of folding glass wall, where two decks act as outdoor rooms. Designed in close collaboration with the owners.

Project currently under construction.

A joint project with Lara Hoad/Nuudel
 

Small garden folly to connect/separate four garden spaces. A Miesian, dymanic space shaper with a decidely non-Miesian expression. Constructed of a simple post and beam system of wood and steel, treated with strong color with sliding panels that move to create a variety of spatial configurations.

A backyard renovation with a new retaining wall to create more usable space in both upper and lower yard areas. We are also adding a wood soaking tub with a small access deck. Currently in progress.

Interior design featureing a system of customized cabinets and shelving to create more enclosed storage and a private sleeping area in a small loft.

Addition and renovations to a single family house in Silverlake. Currently in design.

A ground-up, backyard ADU and Studio complex consisting of two buildings connected by outdoor work space.

Architectural folly to celebrate the art of skateboarding. A hybrid form somewhere between a triumphal arch, groin-vaulted arcade, and a concrete skate ramp.

Extensive renovations to a three-story home that has been used as both a residence and restaurant since its construction in 1918. The design unifies and simplifies the existing accumulation of haphazard additions and spaces into a roomy and inviting home.

Desert Camp with re-purposed pickup truck camper bodies, water tower fed tub and shower, fire pit and grill with chimney, day glo furniture.

Renovations to a modern home on one of the highly desirable "bird streets" above Sunset Blvd. Updated exterior finishes and added some new elements, opened dining room to pool area with operable glass walls, created outdoor lounge area with fire/waterfall, new bar, kitchen and baths. 

Project designed at Boto Design with principal Bret Thoeny

Interior designer: Clodagh Design. 

Addition and renovation to a small family home that is part of an historic bungalow complex in Santa Monica. The project tucks a new master suite into an existing excavated area previously used for storage and a small yard, and tops it with a new family room and patio. The master suite, mostly below grade, is bracketed by small garden patios which allow light into the space - creating a paradoxically bright and open lower level. Views from the master bed open right up through the whole lower level, using the glass bath/shower for borrowed light.
The upper family room and connecting stair open up to the nearby park with a large window, and clever cabinetry details provide storage as part of the stair and hallways.

Designed at PMA | Pablo Maida Architect with Pablo Maida

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Retail showroom, office space, and photo studio for a modern furniture company in Van Nuys, CA. The offices are separated from the showroom by a block of enclosed spaces broken in the middle by a raised conference pavillion. The dividing block is painted in vertical stripes of green to suggest an idealized natural setting for the modern home.

Project won a 2007 AIA San Fernando Valley design award.

Designed at PMA | Pablo Maida Architect with Pablo Maida.

New mixed use retail, residential, hotel and exposition center in Changzhou, China. The 244,420 square meter site is home to an historic textile manufacturing facility and sits along the central canal in Changzhou. These elements are played up in the design, which takes design cues from China's textile manufacturing history.

Designed at 5+Design, team led by Dave Moreno and Mike Swischuk

Conversion of a large warehouse space to creative offices for a progressive marketing firm. The underlying strategy involved a series of towers; “monoliths” to give the space a human scale by creating a height datum, and to provide a way-finding system between departments, accentuating the scale of the large space.
The design also features a large amphitheater for big group meetings, a private yet visually open conference room and a lush outdoor patio. Also proposed were custom plywood workstations and a raised grove of trees to create park-like informal space, or alternately a series or raised turf platforms with sculptural lighting above.
The client completed the space by adding a large, very realistic, artificial tree in the center of the space.

Designed at PMA | Pablo Maida Architect with Pablo Maida.

New three story middle school for 1,350 students, set above underground parking, for the Los Angeles Unified School District. This 133,598 sf, $39 million project was set on a challenging 5.85 acre triangular site with barely enough room to meet the school district's needs.

For this design we developed a scheme with an off-center entry plaza underneath a cantilevered library block. This plaza formed a hinge point for the three main building areas - academic, gymnasium and food service, and administration - as well as creating a secure and recognizable entry to the site. In order to satisfy open space requirements, the building is stacked to three stories and pushed into the corner and edge of the site as much as possible, giving it an urban density that contributes to the local context, south of downtown Los Angeles. Role: Designer and Job Captain.