The site is a rural 5 acre property in Rolling Hills Estates, the structure was sited on the edge of a small canyon in the property overlooking the ocean. The entire property was previously master planned by this office including the observatory.
The owner wanted a small private observatory to house a Celestron Computer C-14 telescope and he wanted it to be a unique one of a kind piece of art.
The City of Rolling Hills building requirements would not allow a standard metal observatory dome and the City codes also only allowed white painted exterior finishes and low pitch shingle roofs. Exterior white paint and transparent white stains were used which was a big concession by the City
The design solution utilizes standard garage door opening hardware to horizontally slide a pyramid roof off and onto a receiver trellis when the telescope is in use. This is a very unique roof solution for an observatory. The structure sits on 6 25’ deep caissons and the telescope is on an isolated 40’ deep caisson to eliminate vibration.
Complete design and construction services including building and site improvements, observation platform, lens tray and star chart easel were designed by this office. The cost of construction was $249,000.00.
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