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

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," — latimes.com