Home of the Week: Iconic Los Angeles Home of Architect Ray Kappe
Ray sits at the central hearth on the north end of the comfortable sunken living area. From this perspective, you can see how the interior spaces flow into one another, passing one half-level up into the breakfast nook and kitchen and out from there onto the overgrown hillside. The various built-in furnishings have all been there since the house's construction.
A new episode of NOWNESS's In Residence series, which tours the private homes of celebrated designers, architects, and artists, takes a look inside architect Ray Kappe's iconic Los Angeles home, featured in the September 2008 issue of Dwell.
Kappe describes his home in the video: "I take [visitors] through a progression of coming in low, coming up, and then exploding. That’s fairly typical of Frank Lloyd Wright—you don’t just walk in and the whole thing is there in one fell swoop, immediately." Kappe built his home in 1967 for his family, and it's a light-filled masterpiece of glass, wood, and concrete. The unusual home contains 4,000 square feet distributed over seven levels, a layout designed to leave the surrounding hillside and its creek undisturbed.
"It can be private, it can work for two people, it can work for a family, and it can work for large parties," Kappe says in the video. "It’s probably my most public/private space."
Ray Kappe relaxes in the central living space, which offers views onto other shared family zones. Behind him is a view down into his office. Half a level up, Shelly Kappe stands at the entrance to the upper family room.
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