Guest House featuring custom Built In Bunk Beds, whilst keeping the original frame structure in tact. Was previously the Main House, moved aside to maintain authenticity while providing a separate private Guest Quarters.

Despite an extremely steep, almost undevelopable, wooded site, the Overlook Guest House strategically creates a new fully accessible indoor/outdoor dwelling unit that allows an aging family member to remain close by and at home. Photo by Matthew Millman

Chad Melon

Twin pool houses, one for the pool works, the other for storage anchor the patio and a central pergola provides needed shade and seating.

Guest house remodel Los Feliz, CA Photographer: Casey Hale

Grey Crawford

A beautiful tiny cottage is built as an ancillary unit to the main house, for our clients mother. Into just 33m2 a complete cottage has been built, it has a bathroom, kitchen, living room and bedroom. This has allowed our clients mother to live close to her. The Weaver family also preferred the traditional cottage look, so our white rendered exterior with brick quoins edging the corners of the Granny Annexe was a perfect match to their tastes.

This site 30’ above the Connecticut River offers 180 degree panoramic views. The client wanted a modern house & landscape that would take advantage of this amazing locale, blurring the lines between inside and outside. The project sites a main house, guest house / boat storage building, multiple terraces, pool, outdoor shower, putting green and fire pit. A long concrete seat wall guides visitors to the front entry accentuated by a tall ornamental grass backdrop. Local boulders, rivers stone and River Birch where also incorporated into the entry landscape, borrowing from the materiality of the Connecticut River below. The concrete facades of the house transition into concrete site walls extending the architecture into the landscape. A flush Ipe Wood deck surrounds 2 sides of the pool opposite an architectural water fall. Concrete paving slabs disperse into lawn as it extends towards the river. A series of free-standing concrete screen walls further extends the architecture out while screening the pool area from the neighboring property. Planting was selected based upon the architectural qualities of the plants and the desire for it to be low-maintenance. A fire pit extends the pool season well into the shoulder seasons and provides a good viewing point for the river. Photo Credit: Westphalen Photography

We developed this landscape over several years in close study with the Architects and Clients, who were committed to artisan-quality construction in every detail of the home and landscape. Each level of the house and terraced landscape boasts magnificent views to San Francisco. The steep site and the clients’ love of rustic stone lead us to create a series of luxurious serpentine stone walls to chisel the hillside. On each terrace of the garden, the same walls frame and hug unique spaces for play, entertaining, relaxing and contemplation. Each room of the house opens to a distinct, related garden room: a BBQ terrace with an outdoor kitchen and pizza oven; a quiet terrace with aquatic plants, Japanese maples, and a mermaid sculpture; a lap pool and outdoor fireplace; and a guest house with a vegetable garden. The resulting landscape burgeons into a true feast for the senses. Visitors are greeted at the street by stone columns supporting a tailored entry gate with Oak branch detailing. The gently sculpted driveway is flanked by Coast Live Oaks and California native plantings. At the top of the driveway, visitors are beckoned up to the main entry terrace by a grand sweeping staircase of Montana Cody stone steps. Before entering the main door of the house, one can rest on the stone seat-wall under a reclaimed redwood trellis and enjoy the calming waters of the custom limestone birdbath fountain. From the Grand Lawn off the rear terrace of the house, the view to the city is framed by romantic gas lanterns set on bold stone columns. Although the site grades required guardrails on this main terrace, the view was maintained through minimal planting and the use of an infinity pond and hand crafted metal railings to contain the space. The retaining walls of the Grand Lawn became a canvas for us to design unique water features. We hired a local stone sculptor, a local metal sculptor and a top-notch pool company to help us create a boulder water wall and artistic bronze fountainheads that thunder down into the pool: both playful and grandiose in one gesture. Architect: Graff Architects General Contractor: Young & Burton Treve Johnson Photography