Building up, but not on, a house on a hill

2015-07-13T13:15:00-04:00

Todd Conversano never thought he'd be able to enlarge the 1950s ranch-style home he and his wife bought a decade ago. Two previous geological reports on the property north of Beverly Hills suggested that it would cause drainage problems or, worse, destabilize the steep slope above the lot. Instead, he came up with a smarter, cheaper and less intrusive solution. [...] "I figured out how to do it without touching the building,"

Using a "moment frame" as the platform, Conversano was able to lift the new addition to sit just above the existing house without adding any additional load to it. The new master suite was then connected to the rest of the house by a staircase, bridging the two structure's interiors. Conversano's intervention has been common in commercial projects, but residential projects rarely get this "bypass" treatment.

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Building up, but not on, a house on a hill