What I like...

After: Wood beams and concrete walls emerge from cutaways in the drywall, revealing the building’s industrial skeleton. The custom steel-and-oak dining table is by Ohio Design.

When the Los Angeles–based firm Stayner Architects purchased Wave House in 2018 for $360,000 from the City of Palm Desert, little did they know what lay buried beneath. The house had remained vacant and in disrepair for years before father and son began the painstaking process to assess and upgrade the home’s infrastructure and efficiency.

After being buried under layers of haphazard renovations, a 1959 Seattle ranch finally reaches its maximum potential.

The home’s three low-lying rooflines subtly emerge from the landscape.

The living room includes a vintage George Nelson sling sofa and concrete stools by CB2.

The home sits lightly upon its heavily wooded site.

Large openings frame views of the tree line and the lake beyond. The heart of the living room is a stone tile fireplace, which references an element found in traditional cottages.

In the public spaces, large sliding glass doors provide a seamless connection for indoor/outdoor living.

"We really wanted to enhance natural lighting so the shower has a skylight in it to luminate the space during the day," Frank Lin says. The spa-like space includes concrete countertops, antique white oak cabinets, and limestone tile floors.

A Restoration Hardware sofa and vintage rug in the living room.

“From anywhere in the house, you have a sense of the outdoors,” says Melonie, “and yet it’s very private.” Ikegami agrees. “The building was really about the landscape—it can dissolve into the background,” he says. In the master bedroom, Japanese Tansu chests from the couple’s previous home flank a Duxiana bed. The full-height windows and swing door are from Western Window Systems.

The original building is set around an L-shaped courtyard. The main entrance is next to the carport on the street side, with a second entry toward the back of the house.

Located in the heart of Vista Las Palmas, this home was originally constructed by the acclaimed Alexander Construction Company, who built over 2,200 houses throughout California's Coachella Valley between 1955 and 1965. These homes, collectively called Alexanders, celebrated modernist style and innovative construction geared towards middle-class buyers. This 2,098 square foot home has been updated for modern sensibilities, like a punchy yellow exterior, eye-catching graphic wallpapers on the interiors, and an open kitchen with a generous island.

Nearly half of Fallingwater’s 5,330 square feet of space are the terraces. The home incorporates nature in every room through views, acoustics, colors, and textures.

Completed in 1938, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater is as relevant as ever—and a model of architectural conservancy. We tour the home and spend the night in his nearby Mäntylä to learn what you can’t experience through photos alone.

The active family had just returned from a three-year stint in Amsterdam and wanted a low-maintenance weekend retreat that would "give us energy and not take it away," explains Sara, who is the president of vintage-inspired home decor company Schoolhouse.

Oliver and Sara Fritsch’s Mount Hood getaway—not far from Mount Hood Meadows, one of the largest ski resorts in Oregon—is tall and skinny, reminiscent of the canal houses in Amsterdam, where the Fritsch family lived for three years. Also notable is the facade, painted in a custom shade of soft black. Inside, the house is arranged in a reverse layout, with the open living space located at the top.