Hill House in Pacific Palisades, California by Johnston Marklee & Associates

The Hill House was designed under challenging conditions generated by modern problems of building on a hillside. Located in Pacific Palisades, California, while the site for the house offers panoramic views from Rustic and Sullivan Canyons to Santa Monica Bay, the irregularly shaped lot is situated on an uneven, downhill slope.

The Hill House sets a new precedent for hillside building by liberating itself from these restraints – not through evasion – but by strategically transforming these stringent criteria into a sculptural and efficient design solution, that seamlessly engages with the surrounding site.

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To express the continuity of the building skin and minimize the conventional distinctions between roof and wall planes, an elastomeric, cementitious exterior coating material was used requiring no control joints. The embedded lavender color of the coating was sampled from the pigment of eucalyptus bark, prevalent at the site, re-enforcing the house's connection to the site from which its form is derived.

The material's iridescent quality results in dramatic color variations with changing light conditions throughout the day. Similar to the monolithic exterior coating, the interior materials are detailed to suggest spatial continuity.

Materials in varying shades of white, including polished Carrara marble, smooth Corian countertops, lacquered wood, and enameled steel seamlessly meet throughout occasionally accented by darkly stained walnut flooring and cabinets.

Architects: Johnston Marklee & Associates
Project Architects: Mark Lee, Sharon Johnston AIA, Jeff Adams, Mark Rea Baker
Project team: Diego Arraigada, Brennan Buck, Michelle Cintron, Daveed Kapoor, Anne Rosenberg, Anton Schneider
Client: Chan Luu
Photographs: Eric Staudenmaier