Photo by Eric Staudenmaier

Nestled in the hillsides of North East Los Angeles, a new four-story home built by the architecture duo FreelandBuck is offering a lucky buyer a taste of quintessential California living. Designed as a series of volumes stacked on top one another to slightly varying orientations, the 2,207-square foot residence comes complete with a wide-open floor plan, seamless indoor-outdoor living spaces, far-reaching views of the San Gabriel Mountains, and an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) that can be rented out or used as office space.

In a time of high demand and limited inventory, spec houses are beginning to make a return and FreelandBuck’s newly completed Stack House revives the model for Los Angeles’ hot housing market. It also marks a new venture for the architecture firm, who acquired the plot of land and, teaming up with local developer Urbanite Homes, developed the architect-driven design. David Freeland—who says the project was born out of continuous conversations with developers on the feasibility of hillside construction—recently took Archinect on a tour to show off the new digs.

How was this project born? How did you become interested in developing your own projects?

Was Mt. Washington of specific interest to you? What were the site requirements?

Have you done a lot of work on hillside lots?

Can you talk about this specific site and the challenges that came along with it as well as the creative opportunities?

Do you want to talk about the exterior landscaping?

Speaking of the perspective of the developer, did you and your business partner do this entirely on your own or did you have to seek partnerships in creating this development?

So you decided to develop this project rather than selling the lot, designs, and intellectual property to another developer?

This is a house designed for a client that is not yet known—did you have a vision of the type of buyer in mind? And how did you design for that?

How were the unique forms of the house conceived?

What happens to these leftover spaces that happens with these curved walls; are they sacrificed?

Can you talk about the cladding?

Was the color envisioned from the beginning or was that a decision made later on?

Please talk about the ADU (accessory dwelling unit) part of the project.

From the owner’s perspective, is an ADU a positive thing in terms of sales price and desirability?

Going back to circulation and verticality of the project, I’ve noticed that you have really broken up the circulation. Can you talk about that?

This is a nontraditional front door for a single family home.

Are there any details of the house you are particularly passionate about?

This main floor, in particular, has a very interesting take on doorways, between the unique front door and the lack of doors between the rooms, yet, the spatial connection and separation provides both privacy and openness.

Let’s talk about the other lot that you own (nextdoor to the Stack House)‚ that you will be developing next. What is the different approach you will be taking based on the site, and based on the learning experiences from designing and building this house?

Do you know what the reason is for no longer being allowed to build ADUs in hillside areas?

Often there is a sort of wrestle between developers and architects about what the developer wants and what the architect wants to do. Filling in both those roles, were there times where what you wanted to do architecturally, you couldn’t because you also had to play the role of the developer?