“Designed in 1940 by Modernist architect Harwell Hamilton Harris, the house was a wreck—and a source of inspiration—when Tichenor and Thorp purchased the property in 1997. With its simple, low-slung lines and see-through walls, it cried out for a landscape.”
“House and garden, both designed by Tichenor and Thorp Architects, are closely intertwined. For every indoor room, there’s an outdoor space washed in the corresponding green, yellow, purple or bronze, with red providing the antic spark, the note that draws you to the windows and out the doors.”
“‘With the pool right behind the house, there was nothing to walk to on the hill where the primary views are,’ says Brian Tichenor. They started by relocating the pool and exchanging its awkward pill shape for a clean rectangle with a rill at one end and the pavilion at the other.”
“'Previously,' says Tichenor, 'there was nowhere to sit. The outdoors wasn't articulated or defined, except as leftover space from the house. Our job was to create those specific, missing places.'”
“‘We wanted the garden to be part of our life,’ adds Hanns. ‘It's what living in Southern California is all about.’”
“Brian Tichenor softened the hardscape by creating pockets in it for vegetation, which pulled the greenery from the garden's edges to its center.”
