When famous San Diego architects Homer Delawie and Lloyd Ruocco designed a mid-century duplex within the coronary heart of La Jolla Shores in 1960, they adopted the modernist precepts of simplicity and performance. Each models, mirror photos of one another, have been 1,140 sq. ft with two bedrooms within the again and the dwelling areas on the entrance.
This was advantageous for the younger single man who bought the property in early 1998. He lived in one of many models and saved the second as a rental. When he moved to New York in 2002, he rented out his unit as properly.
After marrying in 2016, nevertheless, he and his spouse — preferring to stay nameless — determined to relocate to San Diego and rework the property to make their unit a lot bigger, with a second- and third-story addition. The plan additionally included updating the rental unit however retaining its format.
“Early on, we discovered the constructing was seemingly a historic property due to its clear mid-century design and its provenance as a creation of not one however two ‘grasp architects’ designated by San Diego’s historic evaluation board,” the spouse mentioned.
“We preferred the aesthetic of the home and we determined to embrace the mid-century vibe,” she mentioned. “However ‘behind the scenes’ — and on the second- and third-floor additions — the aim was for a up to date, minimalist and Scandinavian-but-beachy informal really feel.”
Ione Stiegler, principal architect of IS Structure and an previous buddy of the householders, took on the venture, together with managing the La Jolla Shores Deliberate District normal evaluation course of and the Metropolis of San Diego’s coastal course of. She additionally labored with the town’s Historic Sources employees on a historic designation for the street-facing exterior of the constructing.
The property’s entrance facade, low-slung roof and entry courtyard — in addition to the way in which the sliding doorways within the entrance rooms open into the courtyard — have been character-defining options to be protected, Stiegler mentioned.
The design course of began in 2018, and building with Beth and Parker Piner of West Coast Normal Constructing Contractors launched a 12 months later. The householders managed the venture from throughout the nation till they relocated to San Diego in April 2020, dwelling briefly in North Park. Their renovated home, with the proprietor’s unit now 2,500 sq. ft, was accomplished in December 2020.
The peak from the vertical addition offers them a virtually 180-degree view that features Mount Soledad and the Pacific Ocean. Stiegler’s design protects each the entry courtyard’s integrity and the couple’s privateness by setting again the second and third flooring.
“To stick to the historic necessities, we would have liked to have the second story be subservient to the entrance character-defining options on this home,” Stiegler mentioned.
“We honored the way in which it was so symmetrical,” she mentioned. “Once you look straight on to the addition, it appears prefer it’s symmetrical. It’s not till you have a look at the home from different angles that you simply see that the second story is asymmetrical. It’s form of a bit of visible sport.”
The couple’s precedence was to construct a completely practical house with no wasted rooms or options. “We wished a contemporary, clear aesthetic, however we additionally wished to be snug in our furnishings and never be too treasured,” the spouse mentioned.
“We have been constructing the house for 2 folks and will make all of it practical house for adults and for artwork, hobbies and enjoyable, with a number of pods inside the home,” her husband added. “We wished a health club, too. So, the second ground has our bed room, a den and a health club. The third ground is a deck.”
The couple employed inside designer Lynn Siemer, director of design at Blythe Interiors, to assist choose each the gentle furnishings and the inside and exterior paint. (Stiegler oversaw the design of the exhausting finishes, together with flooring and cabinetry.)
The entry door for one unit was painted blue and the door for the opposite was painted purple. The outside went from its unique beige to Sherwin Williams’ Iron Ore with Grizzle Gray accents.
“We weren’t given any restrictions by the Historic Sources employees, however we knew we wished the outside to be darkish,” Siemer recalled. “We wished to have a mid-century really feel greater than a beachy bungalow.”
The primary ground was wholly re-imagined from the unique format. On the entrance is what the couple name their mud room. You’ll be able to see vestiges of the unique home with a concrete block wall that continues from the skin wall separating the 2 models and the low-slung wooden ceiling, painted white.
With no storage on the property. the couple’s two surfboards are saved there, as are their bikes. There are Shinnoki cupboards for extra storage. The husband mentioned the house was beforehand the breakfast nook. The kitchen was close by, the place the staircase is now. To the precise of the entry is the place the previous front room was. It’s now an workplace/visitor room, with a murphy mattress and built-in shelving and sofa from Lawrence Furnishings, and a visitor rest room that sports activities a Bain Extremely Origami Slim bathtub. It’s this house that results in the entrance courtyard.
A hallway runs to the primary dwelling house, the place the 2 bedrooms initially had been. Off the hallway, Stiegler created a dramatic black powder room and a galley laundry room.
The first dwelling house is an ethereal nice room holding the kitchen, front room and eating room. Fleetwood multi-sliding doorways measuring 15 ft large open to the patio.
Stiegler put in extra Shinnoki cabinetry all through the kitchen. The 7-foot island is topped by Taj Diamond Quartzite from Distinctive Stone Imports and features a Miele cooktop.
As a result of the ceiling-mounted Finest Cirrus exhaust hood above the cooktop required house that didn’t exist for the mechanicals, Stiegler added what she calls a “gentle cloud,” a skinny platform just under the ceiling that added the mandatory house and have become an architectural assertion that includes a hoop of sunshine across the perimeter.
Additionally above the island are two Finnish Secto pendants made with skinny birch slats. Three TA counter stools from TOOU add island seating. On the perimeter counter is London Gray quartz, additionally from Distinctive Stone Imports. The dishwasher in addition to steam and velocity ovens are also Miele. The fridge is a Subzero and the wine fridge, in a distinct segment by the eating desk, is by Marvel.
All through the downstairs is 24-inch-by-48-inch Metallic Gentle porcelain tile flooring from Distinctive Stone Imports. Anchoring the lounge space is an additional deep 101-inch Linger couch in Della Blue from Room & Board and an space rug from West Elm.
Behind the couch is the eating space. The country Panta eating desk from Arhaus is flanked by six Midori-green veneer-and gold metallic Kettle Chairs from Business West.
The patio options some of the putting facets of Stiegler’s design. The three-story wall between the patio and the brand new staircase inside consists of 23-foot-high channel glass by Bendheim Wall Programs and panels of white cedar. 4 vertical home windows sit inside the precise aspect of the panels.
The patio itself has a round stone fountain by the glass wall, together with a small spherical marble desk from Room & Board. There are additionally two purple Mesh chairs, two purple Mesh lounge chairs and a small purple Mesh aspect desk, all from Blu Dot.
Panorama architect Christopher Brown, principal of C.M. Brown Panorama Architect, mentioned he wished to honor the house’s mid-century historical past by deciding on supplies per the architectural type. He used burnished, low-profile concrete masonry unit block in a stacked bond sample for the planter partitions and organized the paving as a collection of modular concrete pads, infilled with river pebbles.
“I selected Cordyline ‘Torbay Dazzler’ to face tall in entrance of the three-story glass wall, they usually’re buffered by a extra delicate plant palette, combined with diverse foliage textures,” he mentioned. “Fluffy Acacia ‘Couin Itt’ is combined with the gentle and clean textures of Fox Tail agaves and Sunburst aeoniums.”
Stiegler designed laminated wooden risers for the steps. The primary touchdown is illuminated by a shocking modern Flindt LED Wall Lamp by Christian Flindt for Louis Poulsen.
On the second ground, the couple have their dream arrange. As a result of they wished straightforward, low-maintenance flooring, Stiegler selected luxurious vinyl wood-look planks — and had them put in on the diagonal all through the second ground.
To the far proper of the touchdown is a spacious household room dominated by a fake leather-based, saddle-colored Harris sectional with a reminiscence foam queen mattress from West Elm. Subsequent to the sofa by the home windows searching towards Mount Soledad is a modest, grey Stash desk from Blu Dot accompanied by a brilliant purple Eames molded plastic aspect chair from Design Inside Attain.
Siemer stuffed the partitions over the sectional with row upon row of framed images of the couple’s travels. And there’s a piece of wall earlier than the entry, throughout from the small health club between the household room and the stair touchdown, stuffed with ribbons and medals from the duo’s triathlons and different competitions.
On the opposite aspect of the touchdown is the first bed room. It’s spacious, sunlit and easy, with a canary yellow Hartley California King mattress from Room & Board, flanked by 4 Palms Sydney Nightstands created from pure mango and woven cane, all sitting on a big grey space rug from West Elm.
By the expansive entrance window, with a view of what looks like a forest of palm bushes in entrance of the ocean, are a pair of West Elm “Cozy” swivel chairs in Frost Grey Chunky Melange, together with a Julian Small Pouf in Dusty Rose velvet from Castlery. Siemer additionally introduced in a compact Hex aspect desk and Hudson Drink Desk set, additionally from West Elm.
Stiegler created a spacious walk-in closet with built-in blue storage cabinetry, together with a rest room that includes a separate water closet and a dramatic walk-in steam bathe with a Grey Onyx slab in opposition to the again wall and the hooked up bench.
The second ground showcases one other panorama aspect. A balcony reaches throughout the width of the household room and health club, and a roof backyard located in a nook between the health club and the bed room wall extends exterior to the balcony. The couple can exit the bed room’s sliding door and step via the backyard on paving stones to achieve chairs on the balcony.
“This little roof backyard is a key point of interest as you ascend the steps to the second degree, and can also be viewable from the primary bed room,” Brown mentioned. “We wished this to have a Zen-like really feel and likewise function an herb backyard because the spouse actually wished to search out locations to develop edible vegetation the place possible.”
Drifts of grasses and sedges, like Blonde Ambition Blue Grama Grass and Area Sedge, can deal with the fluctuating warmth and shade circumstances, particularly adjoining to the big home windows. Blended in are perennial and annual herbs.
For construction, Brown added ‘Roman Magnificence’ rosemary and Spanish lavender in addition to beds of culinary herbs alongside the flagstone path that she will be able to simply harvest. Brown additionally included pots so she will be able to extra simply flip over annual herbs and greens all year long.
The third-floor roof deck has a bit of bar counter hooked up to the low wall with two Sizzling Mesh yellow counter stools from Blu Dot, giving the couple a spot to benefit from the sundown over the Pacific. There’s additionally a wooden bench alongside one wall, with a mid-century trendy Solfire Hex turquoise fuel fireplace pit from Modfire close by.
The couple mentioned they’ve hosted one small social gathering thus far and have been pleased as a result of their visitors have been in a position to unfold all through the home as a substitute of simply hanging across the kitchen.
“The multilevel method to entertain was cool,” mentioned the husband. “That’s what’s going to be our signature. The home actually got here collectively as we envisioned it. And that in itself is a shock.”
Caron Golden is a contract author.
