Located on Santa Barbara's scenic Riviera, this property features a newly renovated traditional Spanish style home with exceptional views. After the home had been restored in early 2006, the owner quickly realized that the remaining elements of this hillside lot would need to be brought up to the same high design and functional standards that had recently been brought to the house. The owner of this property approached AB design studio to complete the renovation process by adding a new swimming pool, pool cabana and two car garage within a determined budget.

This project offered us an opportunity to solve a set of interesting design problems created by a fairly tricky site condition. The house is located at the uphill end of this hillside lot; all access to the property begins at the bottom of the downhill side of the property. The matter we faced was how to add a swimming pool, cabana and garage program within a newly created landscape and hardscape design on a difficult site. All of these new elements had to be stacked directly in front of the existing house without interrupting the views. Our design had to provide functionality to all these converging programmatic elements that would need to be staged in a fairly tight and steep area. The solution is a design that creates a stepped and terraced pathway that allows one to ascend from the lower garage and driveway level through a series of spaces, interactions and views that ultimately deliver one up to a newly created pool-side entry terrace. This design eliminates the tedium of the change in elevation required to reach the front door by creating a dramatic entry procession experience. Along the path to the front door a clever series of steps, pauses and patios weave a pathway through and around a unique L-shaped pool and tiled waterfall design. In addition to providing a creative and dramatic circulation throughout, the new design also captures and provides new usable outdoor space that essentially doubles the usable area of the property.