SILVER LAKE HOUSE RENOVATION AND GALLEY GARDEN Los Angeles, circa 2008 (completed 2013).   The architectural T.I. is part of a wide renovation at this property that includes a  master bath and an office addition, and landscape design.  As an extension of the renovation OCD seeks to connect the house more integrally with the rear garden.  The existing house, typical of most pre-war hillside houses in LA, sits like a box against the lower portion of its property, with no inviting or practical access.  The circulation model shows the enriched spatial.  An existing laundry room was removed at the base of the interior stair to make room for a library that will serve as the gateway to the exterior spaces, which is facilitated by a wall-size plate glass window and door.

The most striking existing condition on the rear property was a retaining wall that split the rear yard in two, thus leaving narrow upper and lower terraces—which only further alienated the inhabitants from their rear garden.  The design demolishes a section of the retaining wall and inserts a terrace in between the lower and upper reaches of the garden, thus opening a line of circulation throughout the property.  Thereby, for the first time, the inhabitants can maximize the full use and value of their expensive hillside property.