Red Box

The house was designed like an observatory to stare out across the city to the famous Griffith Observatory high above the Hollywood hills. The second story sits on a steel frame that cantilevers over the steep front yard, avoiding the need for deep foundations on the slope.

Because the house faces South, the glazing of the second story is set back into a shaded porch that is cut out of the mass of the red box.

On the first floor, mobile wood shade screens that rolled across the front deck from a track hung off the steel structure that support the cantilever. Like the Red Box on the second level, the steel moment frame is painted red and exposed inside the house, where it becomes a modern archway between the dining room and the kitchen. 

From the street, the second level, Red Box, seems to float, because of the tall landscaping used on the hill below. All the plants are drought tolerant and native and fed by the occasional drink of recycled rain water captured in tanks.

Like the Red Box on the second level, the steel moment frame is painted red and exposed inside the house, where it becomes a modern archway between the dining room and the kitchen. The ceiling is recycled douglas fir. A small pocket couryard between rooms, allows for passive cooling using the stack effect to pull air through the house when the courtyard is open to the house.