{"id":261,"date":"2013-07-31T03:24:05","date_gmt":"2013-07-31T03:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/designlinkup.com\/?p=261"},"modified":"2013-09-01T03:16:27","modified_gmt":"2013-09-01T03:16:27","slug":"silverlake-residence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/designlinkup.com\/?p=261","title":{"rendered":"Silver Lake Residence"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u00a0Project Type: Residential Renovation – Small Project
\nLocation: Los Angeles, California\u00a0<\/address>\n

Existing Conditions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tucked away in the hills over Los Angeles in the community of Silver Lake, the owner of this 1930’s era home is looking to renovate the living area to include the kitchen, dining and living rooms.\u00a0 Since these rooms are clustered on the north side of the house, they tend to be dark.\u00a0 Also, the three rooms are disconnected from each other, small and not suitable for hosting social events.\u00a0 Lastly, the owner would like to increase the ceiling height in the living room to give the room a greater sense of volume.\u00a0 The design challenge is to address all of these conditions.<\/p>\n

\"Los<\/a>
Click on Image to Expand<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

\"los-angeles_35-initial-image\"
Existing Living Room. Windows on north and east side of room.\u00a0 Afternoon light bounces off the exterior fence and into the Living Room as seen in this image.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"los-angeles_36-initial-image\"
Existing Kitchen, with Dining Room through doorway.\u00a0 The refrigerator is just to the left, out of the image.\u00a0 The open window seen on the left side of the image (west side of the house) allows in afternoon light.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"los-angeles_37-initial-image\"
Existing Dining Room facing North.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"los-angeles_38-initial-image\"
Existing Living Room-Entry on right side of image. Dining Room through doorway.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Proposed Design<\/strong><\/p>\n

This project exemplifies why it is appropriate for each design challenge to be addressed individually – DESIGNlinkup and owner went through nine different concepts adjusting different parameters and variables until we got it right.\u00a0 We will show you three process concepts followed by the final concept.<\/p>\n

Concept 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"los-angeles_03_opt-01-diagram_02\"Above is the first idea we looked at.\u00a0 The wall separating the kitchen and dining area from the living room has been removed.\u00a0 The position of the utilities in the kitchen has been rearranged.\u00a0 Notice that in order to make the kitchen larger, the area previously used for the full bath has been converted to kitchen space.\u00a0 DESIGNlinkup proposed using closet space in bedroom 2 as a possible power room to replace the bathroom.<\/p>\n

The upsides to this option are:<\/p>\n

1) The kitchen and dining space became much larger, and there is now a clear connection between the kitchen, living, and dining room.<\/p>\n

2) In the kitchen, a triangular relationship between sink, range, and refrigerator is established that works for food preparation flow.<\/p>\n

3) The refrigerator is removed off of the exterior wall which previously was in front of a window.<\/p>\n

4) There is room for 8 people to comfortably sit at the dining table.<\/p>\n

5) There is also room for three people to sit at the bar.<\/p>\n

6) The range faces the dining and living rooms, to allow the owner to be cooking and still part of the activity in the dining and living rooms during social events.<\/p>\n

All these features are great, however this was just a start.<\/p>\n

The downsides to this options are:<\/p>\n

1) The kitchen and dining space have an awkward ratio of width to length.\u00a0 The space feels cavernous\u00a0 because the length to width ratio is so far away from the golden mean (1:1.618)<\/p>\n

\"los-angeles_40-golden-mean\"<\/p>\n

2) Loss of the bathroom discussed above.<\/p>\n

3)\u00a0 The relationship between rooms is unresolved.\u00a0 There are no implied boundaries between rooms.\u00a0\u00a0 Thus the space would feel like one big room.\u00a0 Although the owner seeks more open and larger volumes, spatial definition and boundaries should be sought.<\/p>\n

4) Due to structural restrictions, large beams would be required to span the clearances.\u00a0 There is not enough room in the attic to accomplish the depth of beam required to accomplish these spans.\u00a0 A post would be required. Further concepts incorporate this requirement.<\/p>\n

5) The ceiling is shown as one plane (with skylights to bring light into the living room) contributing to the #3 above.<\/p>\n

Here are some images of the imagined space:<\/p>\n

\"los-angeles_20_opt-01-sketchup\"
View from Living Room toward Kitchen and Dining Room.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"los-angeles_21_opt-01-sketchup\"
View from Entry toward Kitchen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"los-angeles_23_opt-01-sketchup\"
View from Kitchen toward Dining Room and Entry.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"los-angeles_22_opt-01-sketchup\"
View from Dining Room toward Living Room and Kitchen. Storage lines the hallway. Skylights over Living Room feed natural daylight into the north-facing room.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Concept 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

Similar to concept 1 however\u00a0here we rotate the bar parallel to the hallway and provide a secondary access point into the kitchen.<\/p>\n

\"los-angeles_05_opt-03-diagram_02\"The upsides of this concept are:<\/p>\n

1) Better flow through the kitchen with the addition of the second access point into kitchen off the hallway.<\/p>\n

2) The rotated bar helps separate the kitchen\/dining area from kitchen but at the same time maintains a visual connection between the two areas.<\/p>\n

3) The proximity between refrigerator, sink and range is good.\u00a0 There is a lot of surrounding counter space.<\/p>\n

The downsides of this concept are:<\/p>\n

1) As seen in the images below, the placement of the range now makes it a focal point from the entry.<\/p>\n

2) The kitchen\/dining area are still very long.<\/p>\n

Here are some views of the imagined space:<\/p>\n

\"los-angeles_28_opt-03-sketchup\"
View from the Living Room toward Kitchen and Dining Room.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"los-angeles_01\"
Rendering of concept 2 from Dining Room. Afternoon daylight.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"los-angeles_31_opt-03-sketchup\"
View from SW corner of the Kitchen looking back toward Dining Room.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"los-angeles_29_opt-03-sketchup\"
View from Entry.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Concept 3<\/strong><\/p>\n

The next concept we investigated left that Bathroom space intact.\u00a0 The differences between this and concepts 1 and 2 are significant.<\/p>\n

\"los-angeles_04_opt-02-diagram_02\"The upsides to this option are:<\/p>\n

1) Compared to the existing condition, there is more visual connection between the kitchen\/dining areas and the living room.\u00a0 There is definitely more of a connection between the kitchen and dining area -it’s essentially the same room.<\/p>\n

2) A laundry room is created where the bathroom was to suit the owner’s needs.<\/p>\n

3) Compared to concepts 1 and 2, structural loads are addressed.<\/p>\n

4) Living room volume expands vertically with a ceiling that is 12″ higher than existing condition.\u00a0 This begins to give the Living Room an implied sense of unique space.<\/p>\n

The downsides of this option are:<\/p>\n

1) The dining room space is smaller than options 1 and 2.\u00a0 Still manageable though.<\/p>\n

2) Even though the kitchen\/dining area are more connected to the living room than existing conditions (which are mere doorways), there’s still opportunity to connect the spaces more.\u00a0 The spaces should have their own identity, but yet feel connected and interwoven.\u00a0 This relationship does not exist yet.<\/p>\n

3) The “activity” nodes of the kitchen are oriented towards the corner of the kitchen farthest away from the social rooms.<\/p>\n

4) The kitchen is not efficient.\u00a0 The passageway to the hallway is wide and wasted space in this small house.\u00a0 The kitchen should be more compact and in scale with the rest of the living space.<\/p>\n

Here are some images of the imagined space:<\/p>\n

\"los-angeles_24_opt-02-sketchup\"
View toward Kitchen and Dining Room. Compared to existing wall plane, this concept presents a much more permeable barrier with visual connections between spaces. Afternoon light can not enter Living Room through larger openings.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"los-angeles_25_opt-02-sketchup\"
View from Entry.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"los-angeles_26_opt-02-sketchup\"
View from Dining Room. Note beams in ceiling allow for a greater sense of volume.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"los-angeles_27_opt-02-sketchup\"
View from SW corner of Kitchen back to Dining and Living Rooms.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Final Concept<\/strong><\/p>\n

The final concept fuses several of the high points from previous concepts with some new ideas.\u00a0 In the plan diagram below, the dark hatch refers to new walls.\u00a0 Here’s what we did:<\/p>\n

1) We eliminate the need for a full laundry room as tested in concept 3 and place a stack washer and dryer in the kitchen, but out of sight.\u00a0 It is just off the hallway corridor.\u00a0 A bathroom is built into the closet space of bedroom 2.<\/p>\n

2) Let’s take a look at the new kitchen, moving clockwise from the washer and dryer.\u00a0 Direct access from the hallway and master bedroom.\u00a0 This allows daylight into the hallway that comes in through the kitchen windows.\u00a0 On the side side of the kitchen is room for a large pantry or lower and upper cabinetry.\u00a0 A large viewing window is placed above the new sink on the west wall.\u00a0 The dishwasher is next to the sink.\u00a0 The range is positioned next to the dishwasher.\u00a0 On the north side, a counter faces the dining room providing an implied separation and more counter space to work with.\u00a0 On the east side, the refrigerator sits next to the washer and dryer but facing the kitchen space of course.\u00a0\u00a0 The walls around the refrigerator are important because they contain an important structural post.\u00a0 Also, north wall surrounding the refrigerator is significant because it is in line with the plane of the adjacent living room.\u00a0 This gives the impression of the wall plane of the living room passing into the kitchen giving the sense of the two spaces being interwoven.\u00a0 This alleviates the challenge of the spaces seeming to be simple volumes placed next to each other, rather introduces a sense of complexity and interdependence.<\/p>\n

3) In the living room, the ceiling height was raised and lined with beams.\u00a0 This gives the room a greater sense of volume and helps preserve its identity even though the western wall of the room was eliminated.<\/p>\n

\"los-angeles_18_final-plan_02\"<\/p>\n

\"los-angeles_19_final-section\"Below are images of the imagined space.\u00a0 The final drawings reconfigured the windows along the west wall.\u00a0 The images below show two windows in the kitchen.\u00a0 The final drawings reflect one window in the kitchen over the kitchen sink.\u00a0 Two windows are placed on the dining room west wall (not seen in images below).\u00a0 The images below also show the washer\/dryer accessed off the hallway.\u00a0 The final drawings place the stack w\/d unit rotated 90 degrees.<\/p>\n

\"los-angeles_17_final-config-sketchup\"
Diagram shows how gravity loads will be transferred to the foundation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"los-angeles_06_final-config-sketchup\"
View from Living Room<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"los-angeles_07_final-config-sketchup\"
View from the Entry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"los-angeles_08_final-config-sketchup\"
View from the Dining Room<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"los-angeles_15_final-config-sketchup\"
View from hallway<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"los-angeles_10_final-config-sketchup\"
View from south side of Kitchen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"los-angeles_09_final-config-sketchup\"
\nConstruction photos…<\/p>\n

\"Construction02\"<\/a>
View towards Dining Room and Entry. Note the existing window blocked in with three new windows.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Construction01\"<\/a>
Raising the ceiling in the Living Room.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finally.. we see the space after construction is finished.\u00a0 What a transformation!\u00a0 The house feels so much larger and has wonderful flow.<\/p>\n

\"Remodel08\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Remodel01\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Remodel02\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Remodel03\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Remodel06\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Remodel05\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Note: The production of construction documents for this project was part of a fee-based package.\u00a0 The owner worked with a Structural Engineer and\u00a0Interior Designer to specify the details for this project.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Project Type: Residential Renovation – Small Project Location: Los Angeles, California\u00a0 Existing Conditions Tucked away in the hills over Los Angeles in the community of Silver Lake, the owner of this 1930’s era home is looking to renovate the living area to include the kitchen, dining and living rooms.\u00a0 Since these rooms are clustered on … <\/p>\n

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