“We like to provide different ways to experience the environment,” says architect Alice Fung of her firm Fung + Blatt’s out-in approach to design. Such was the slow-but-steady evolution of him and his partner Michael Blatt a mountain property In San Marino, where a group of pavilions now dot the landscape.
While the property was sold as a teardown to Mary Blodgett and Carlton Kelvin, the couple saw its potential. Mary recalls, “It was falling apart, but very beautiful.” “I’m a conservationist when I can be.” In the living room of the main house, a sofa by Patricia Urquiola surrounds a Nathan Young coffee table, topped by a floor lamp by Achille Castiglioni.
At the center is the original 1954 house on a promontory, which was designed by Calvin Straub in the Japanese-influenced Midcentury style. Over a five-year period, the architects rebuilt the main house and added a ceramics studio, library, guesthouse, and pool house to suit the owners’ artistic inclinations and love of entertaining.
The ceramics studio was built with the posts and beams of a pergola left over from an old property.
The ceramic studio enclosure has a ceiling higher than the original rafters, and glazing is applied directly to the shelves that are suspended between the original columns.
Inspired by the rigid geometry and post-and-beam construction of the original house, but wanting to develop it into a more playful and open form, the architects designed the pavilions one by one to communicate with the site.
The approximately 1.5-acre property is filled with towering, old-growth oak trees. “People are surprised when they come here,” says Mary. “It’s so peaceful – it feels like an oasis of peace and quiet in the middle of L.A.”
The pool house takes several different approaches to the landscape, with one end perched on top of the trees and the other over the water. “We think of it as a boathouse, a tree house, and a cave,” says Fung.
From the glass-backed shelving that lines the walls of the ceramic studio to the massive sliding doors that transform the pool house into an open-air pavilion hovering over the water, the architects embraced the California mid-century spirit of indoor/outdoor living. “We’re always trying to connect with the site so that architecture is not just an object placed there,” says Fung. Blatt agrees: “Buildings are made to become landscapes.”
“The original house was about seeing nature from a distance,” says Alice Fung, architect of the 1954 structure, which is located on the highest point on the site. “New buildings are very connected to the ground and allow people to be outdoors at every level.”
Fung and Blatt worked slowly on the project for five years. But it was a rhythm that Mary and Carleton appreciated, because it allowed the design to emerge in close dialogue with the site.
“Alice and Michael designed one building at a time,” says Mary. “They were drawing just as fast as we were.”
“Alice and Michael designed one building at a time,” says Mary. “They were drawing just as fast as we were.”
Floor plan of San Marino House by Fung + Blatt Architects
Interior Designer: Fung + Blatt Architects
General Contractor: Westmont Construction
Structural engineer: Fung + Blatt Architects (remodeling of the main house, library, guest house, ceramic studio); Polon + Lewis (pool house)
