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McElroy Residence
(# 378)
Images Description Credits
Completion 2 / 2013
Square Footage 7,500 square feet
Budget Withheld
Specific Use of Building Single Family Residence
Project Location Laguna Beach, California
The design of this 7,500 square foot house responds to two main contingencies of the site: panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean and an 11-ft. height limit. When the clients, a retired entrepreneurial couple with two grown children, purchased the half-acre wedge-shaped lot overlooking the sea, they were bound by the height restrictions which protect views of the entire gated community. They asked the architects for an informal yet gracious contemporary compound for indoor-outdoor living and entertaining.  As ardent beachgoers who swim or surf daily, they also wanted a strong orientation to the water.

To maximize enjoyment of the dramatic views, the architects' first decision was to locate the three-car garage, gym, mechanical and storage spaces underground, freeing up the ground plane for living. The owners ascend from the garage to the main floor via a custom stainless steel and oak floating stair. Visitors approach the compound along a walkway of broad, marble-slab steps flanked by a fifty-ft. teak wall, which affords the house privacy from the street.

The design composition is a series of volumes underneath a giant, flat floating roof, supported on stone masses, wood walls and slender steel columns. The generous roof overhangs reinforce the house's strong horizontal lines while amply shading the interiors and terraces. Massive sliding glass doors frame views, and can pocket completely away to dissolve the physical boundaries between exterior and interior, creating an uninterrupted flow from the rear of the house through the main living space to the pool area.

Three guest/children's bedrooms open onto the protected central courtyard on one side, while an art studio and the kitchen open to its opposite side. The master suite commands a layered view over the swimming pool with its sculptural plantings, to the compound wall and beyond to the ocean. The master bath opens onto its own private meditative garden, nestled between the house and the hill behind.

The extension of the marble floor to the outside, along with a consistent palette of materials including pale cleft limestone, trowelled stucco, and teak, further blurs the demarcations between in- and outdoors. Cross-ventilation provides natural cooling, while south-facing roof overhangs protect from the fierce summer sun while admitting warming rays in winter. Low-maintenance, natural finishes are used throughout. Low-water usage plants were used for landscaping and the bright green lawn is artificial.

The house's clean lines, grand scale and rich materials are augmented by luxe details. Koi swim in a marble pond in the interior courtyard, a 1,000-gallon exotic fish tank is built into the dining room wall, and a covered pool pavilion with limestone fireplace functions as an al fresco living room for watching the sunset or taking in the stars at night.

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