The rustic country villas and farmhouses of Tuscany and Umbria were adapted to the modern lifestyle of a prominent Hollywood television producer. Perched on a hillside, like its Italian counterparts, the house overlooks the Los Angeles basin, and each room has a panoramic view from downtown to Santa Monica. A cobblestone motorcourt leads up to an octagonal two-story entry—a nod to the tower lookouts of old Europe—that forms the dining room with a dramatic master loggia above. Thick plaster walls, distressed stone, terra cotta tile, antique wood beams and handmade brick recall the simple forms and rustic materials of Italian country homes.
This warm family home combines the best of classical Italian design, from Palladian villas to rustic farmhouses and contemporary versions of Mediterranean estates. With its blend of stone, travertine and terra-cotta tile, the estate celebrates hand-crafted period details such as ironwork, moldings and friezes. Centered around a courtyard, the classic nine-square plan includes loggias and galleries.
Originally designed in 1928 by leading Los Angeles architects Wallace Neff and John Byers, El Mirasol is an elegant Spanish Colonial Revival house with a storied history of Hollywood ownership, from Orson Welles to Peter Bogdanovich, Richard Brooks to Diane Keaton (her design iteration was published in Architectural Digest in April 2005). Our extensive remodel and expansion of the main house includes a reworked motorcourt and entry garden, new landscaping and fountains, and revised interiors that bridge the historical with the contemporary. Also planned is a new poolhouse with a rooftop terrace inspired by Moroccan pavilions.
Located in a gated community on a private island development in the UAE, this streamlined home evokes the spirit of a Mediterranean-inspired resort infused with subtle Arabic cultural influences. The front façade relates to the formality of the street front while the more casual and dramatic rear façade responds to the space of the great lawn, private beach and picturesque views of the adjacent waterways and nearby islands.
This Italianate villa at Rose Garden Villas in Shanghai is a modern-day interpretation of the great Mediterranean Revival houses of Addison Mizner, Maurice Fatio and Marion Sims Wyeth in Palm Beach.