Los Angeles, California, USA

Category:            Private Homes
Year:                2025
Architects:          Paul Murdoch Architects 
Design Team:         Paul Murdoch, Milena Murdoch, and Eric Cunningham 
Landscape Architects: Pamela Burton & Company
Client:             Jalmia Creek Investments, LLC.
Photographs         Courtesy of the Architects 

The site is in a lush canyon, seemingly secluded but only minutes from the busy streets of Hollywood, California. The owner values the site’s natural setting while being so close to urban amenities. With running water in a stream most of the year, the canyon supports abundant tree growth. The property itself is in a clearing within a surrounding canopy that provides shade and privacy.

The site lies at the base of a steep hill to the north, where the owner’s primary residence looks down through the trees onto the site. An existing retaining wall provides a flat building pad nestled into the hillside. The flat topography slopes down to the street as it climbs the canyon and curves around the property’s front edge.

A Hillside Ordinance and collection of zoning regulations form a complex overlay of setbacks, step-backs, rights of way, building height limits, floor area ratio, retaining wall heights, and relative grade elevations that affect the possible building massing.

As part of the Mulholland Scenic Corridor, the design also must meet city architectural review requirements for buildings in the natural setting. The harmonious relationship of building to landscape is promoted through a correspondence of existing and proposed native plant materials with building colors and material finishes.
Despite the typically bucolic setting, the canyon is also considered a Very High Fire Hazard Zone, so any development must meet strict requirements to remain resilient in case of fast-moving hillside fires.

As a secondary residence, the house is intended for multiple uses, such as a guest house, a family gym, a home office, or a potential retirement house for the client couple when the children are grown. While the family is living up the hill, the new house preserves their privacy by hosting outward, public-facing functions, such as recitals, receptions, salons, classes, retreats and parties. The indoor/outdoor functionality of spaces allows for larger groups than the original house could accommodate.

The house’s simple form conceals the complex building envelope that constrains it. The design aims to sit comfortably within the natural setting without revealing the regulatory complexity that shaped it. The main building volume is long and narrow, parallel with the hillside retaining wall, and provides a complementary counterpoint to the natural topography and curves of the site.

Distinct, generous openings provide views to the surrounding gardens and verdant canyon setting. Large sliding glass panels take advantage of and provide access to the intimacy and richness of the gardens. Deep trellises shade these big glass apertures to meet stringent energy code requirements.

The 4,500 square feet building is organized into three stories.

A basement below a portion of the house has a garage that is accessed from the street at its lowest elevation relative to the main site level. The basement has a recreation room and a secure space for shelter in case of emergencies. The main floor includes a large bathroom/spa, kitchen, dining, living, office, guest bath, and entry foyer with main stair connecting all levels.

An entry gate and fence curve with the front shape of the site and sweep into the building at an entry landing. The front garden is stepped down from the finished floor of the house, while the rear yard is at the floor level, with an outdoor thermal pool and a long decorative pool against the planted retaining wall.

A small second-floor interior houses a bedroom/bath that can also serve as a home office among the trees. The interior opens to a large roof garden with its composition of raised beds and colorful plantings visible from the house up the hill. Elliptical skylight cutouts through the roof provide framed views up to the tree canopy from within the interior.

The building structure is made with non-combustible concrete and steel. To further address the Very High Fire Hazard Zone requirements, the exterior is covered with Corten steel panels. The rusted patina of the steel also meets the Specific Plan requirements for an architectural material palette that integrates with the plant and bark colors of the natural landscape.