Haas Residence Renovation
Los Angeles, California. Completed in 2017.
The Haas residence was our second renovation of an A. Quincy Jones Model 111X in Crestwood Hills. Like our first 111X renovation, this house is a registered Historical-Cultural Monument built in 1950 and has had a previous addition built on. But the similarities end there, as this family had different priorities and a different relationship to their distinctive house.
The clients appreciated the patina of the old materials: linoleum flooring, the original electric cooktop and kitchen counters, the concrete floors that were covered for years by carpet but proved, upon cleaning and buffing, to look almost like slabs of granite. We wanted to respect this reverence, while providing what they needed most- efficient storage solutions designed specifically for them that respected the existing architecture and didn’t compete with it. We wanted the new additions to unify the house materially and spatially, as over time small modifications had conspired to create a lack of coherence.
Generally, we used Marine ply and painted wood that complimented the existing house materials, with special attention paid to details like custom solid fir cabinet pulls and the judicious use of colour. The aging white tiles in the bathrooms were replaced with beautiful ceramic tiles –golden greens in the bathroom that looks into the garden, cool blues in the soaring bathroom whose windows frame the sky- adding a richness and beauty in rooms that were very utilitarian in the original houses.
