From the Ground Up

"By the time we climbed to the top of the hillside lot and turned to see the city at our feet, we were pretty well hooked. The lot was a good price, but we should have asked ourselves why no one had built on it before. We discovered that whether you're on solid rock or landfill, you still have to sink caissons into underlying bedrock and build a retaining wall to hold up the hillside."

"I have a reductive approach to architecture. I like to pare down to very simple forms and focus on materiality and light. More than a third of our costs were spent just getting out of the ground."

Documentary producer Lauren Lexton and television director Kevin MacCarthy sought more space than their 600-square-foot bungalow offered. Rising home costs in Silver Lake made purchasing prohibitive, so they decided to build. They discovered an appealing hillside property in the Moreno Highlands neighborhood. Initial excavation revealed the lot required significant foundation work: a 58-by-14-foot concrete retaining wall supported by twelve caissons sunk 26 feet into bedrock. Foundation and site preparation costs exceeded one-third of their total budget. They hired architect Lorcan O'Herlihy, known for refined design and minimalist approach, to create a two-story home suited to the complex terrain.

Read at Los Angeles Times