Contemporary on the Riviera

The original house, along with most of its neighbors, was completely burned down in a large wildfire. Even with a good fire insurance policy, an extremely low budget became the driving force behind every aspect of the design. In fact, all the design consultants and the contractor made a pact that each would do whatever was necessary to meet the nearly impossible (by Santa Barbara standards) funding for a house on a hillside and all of its landscape and furnishings.

The house had to be very small with box-like forms and a flat roof and every dimension was carefully considered to eliminate waste. But what couldn’t be done with square-footage was countered as much as possible with relatively inexpensive, extra tall ceilings and vast amounts of glass to take advantage of stunning views and to bring the outside in, making all the rooms very light and apparently much bigger. Most of the aluminum windows would normally have had to be expensive steel to stand up to the wind, but a simple horizontal wood support, a 3×8 cut into the bowed shape of a wind load diagram, was added to every large opening, saving enormously on window cost and becoming one of the house’s most distinctive design elements.