Perched below the Griffith Observatory and overlooking Hollywood is a lush lot crowned with four towering olive trees and a 1965 home designed by modernist architect Craig Ellwood. When a young couple purchased the home in 2018, it needed substantial work. For a historic restoration, they called on Woods + Dangaran, a local firm fluent in modernist history. The team completed a meticulous restoration of the home while keeping original components like the linear shape, open plan, and expansive windows. One of the most striking features is the original koi pond (a feature deemed so essential that its preservation was a condition of escrow) that is now crossed via a bridge that leads to a new lap pool—perhaps the biggest intervention on the property.
Maximizing a 280-square-foot plot, House Tokyo by Unemori Architects makes clever use of ceiling heights and half levels.
Amanda Gunawan of OWIU Design turns a cookie-cutter space into an Asian-inflected haven with an industrial edge.
"It looks like an ordinary home, but there are decisions here that are out of the ordinary,