The linear site has large commercial neighbors and small residential ones, fronting on Arcadia’s north/south artery, Santa Anita Boulevard, across from a public golf course.

The narrowness of the site precluded significant setbacks, hence the building ‘borrows’ landscape from its context, and relies on the character of the street-facing elevation for the richness, light, and shade that landscape otherwise provides.  This Santa Anita frontage counterpoints cadence and white space in pursuit of a civic stateliness. Principal materials are smooth-finish cement plaster, limestone cladding, copper clad canopies and lookouts - quiet references to the ladder baskets of fire engines.

Floors and the engine room are spatially interpenetrated to maximize camaraderie, in addition to an indoor-outdoor flow between the kitchen and dining room, and the barbecue deck.