Following last week’s visit to Boston-based Peter Rose + Partners, we are moving our Meet Your Next Employer series to Los Angeles this week, where we find Walker Workshop.

Founded in 2010, the firm has grown a rich portfolio of residential homes which the team describes as "warmly minimal with careful considerations of light, space, and the unique qualities of each project’s location." The firm also operates as a licensed General Contractor, allowing them to build some of the projects they design.

Over on Archinect Jobs, the firm is currently hiring for a Junior Level Design Professional. For candidates interested in applying for the position, or those interested in learning more about the firm’s work, we have rounded up five residential projects by Walker Workshop that reflect the studio's attention to craft and construction.

Rustic Canyon

Located between Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles, the single-story home at Rustic Canyon is composed of four simple rectilinear wings radiating from a central living room and kitchen. On the exterior, smooth stucco-finished walls interact with green planted areas in a modern interpretation of the classic hacienda style home that was common to the region a century ago.

Inside, the south-facing kitchen features a fifteen-foot-heigh ceiling and a plane of rhythmically framed glass, creating what the team call a “kitchen cathedral.” Other features include a walled courtyard created to offer a private play space for children, and a large skylight in the master bedroom looking up at the branches of an existing coastal live oak tree.

Venice House

As with the home at Rustic Canyon, Walker Workshop served as both architect and contractor for the Venice House, constructed for two young clients in Venice, California who gave the firm a clear and simple instruction: “don’t f*ck it up.” Walker Workshop responded with a two-story solid mass punctuated by “welcoming voids” that create walkways, terraces, and openings into key living spaces.

Inside, the staircase is tucked to the side to allow a long, uninterrupted, vaulted kitchen to run through the center of the house. Clad in cedar, the space connects the front and back yards while blurring the boundary between indoor and outdoor spaces.

Manhattan Beach House

Walker Workshop’s Manhattan Beach House in Los Angeles was shaped in response to local zoning codes and internal programmatic needs. Externally, the scheme is defined by rectilinear masses of cedar, cement plaster, and glass; a material palette that is carried inside to the central stair and circulation spaces.

The south wing of the 2,500 square foot home is rotated sixteen degrees towards the San Gabriel Mountains and Downtown Los Angeles to add a sense of dynamism to interior and exterior spaces, while the muted ceramic tones of the kitchen, living area, and bathroom are enriched with cedar cladding to fixtures and furniture.

Oak Pass Main House

Located on a ridge site in Beverly Hills with over 130 protected oak trees, The Oak Pass Main House was designed to avoid becoming the central visual focus of the landscape. The home’s massing was reduced by utilizing an “upside down” program where living spaces are located on the upper floor, and bedrooms are “buried” into the hill beneath a vegetated roof.

On the lower floor, a courtyard brings light and air to the buried bedroom level, while on the main level, a seventy five-foot-long lap pool bisects the house. By constructing the house primarily from structural concrete, the living areas feature long, column free spans lined with dark wood tones and floor-to-ceiling glazing.

Oak Pass Guesthouse

A “standalone statement” alongside the Oak Pass Main House, the Oak Pass Guesthouse sought to complement its counterpart in “subtle, dynamic, uniquely cohesive ways.” The two-story scheme also saw an existing barn rehabilitated to serve as both a living room and a concert venue for up to eighty guests.

Externally, the guesthouse is clad with wood to mimic the bark of nearby trees. Inside, bedrooms are located at opposite corners of a floating volume, “so the residents feel as though they are going from canopy view to canopy view,” while a central living space separate from the rehabilitated barn features walls of full-height glazing.

Meet Your Next Employer is one of a number of ongoing weekly series showcasing the opportunities available on our industry-leading job board. Our Job Highlights series looks at intriguing and topical employment opportunities currently available on Archinect Jobs, while our weekly roundups curate job opportunities by location, career level, and job description.