A Camera-Ready Remodel in Los Angeles Asks $789K

After a multiphase update and an appearance on HGTV, this Montecito Heights midcentury seeks a new owner.

Set on a hillside, surrounded by greenery, 3877 Latrobe Street was built in 1964, as part of The Cliffs, a modernist development in the Montecito Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Designed by architect John Lawrence Pugsley, best known for his midcentury commissions in nearby Pasadena, 3877 Latrobe Street was built in 1964 as part of The Cliffs, a modernist development in Montecito Heights, Los Angeles.

Tucked into the hillside and surrounded by greenery, the 1,426-square-foot residence features three bedrooms and two bathrooms in an open floor plan; multiple skylights and well-placed windows bathe the interior with natural light, and balconies on both levels form an outdoor connection.

Set on a hillside, surrounded by greenery, 3877 Latrobe Street was built in 1964, as part of The Cliffs, a modernist development in the Montecito Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Set on a hillside and surrounded by greenery, 3877 Latrobe Street was built in 1964 as part of The Cliffs, a modernist development in the Montecito Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. 

Photo by Charmaine David

It wasn’t, however, always like this. “The house, when we bought it, was so dark and gloomy,” say current homeowners Jeffrey Kleeger, an architectural designer, and Elisa Read, a landscape designer and horticulture specialist. They took on several phases of renovation starting in 2008, when the home received a new roof and skylights. They also opened up the kitchen to create an open-plan great room. 

After the windows were updated in 2010, the recession stalled further renovation. Then, in 2011, the couple and the house were chosen to appear on an episode of HGTV’s Room Crashers, allowing them to finally “complete their dream” with architect Don Dimster. 

A skylight over the entrance is particularly welcoming.

A skylight over the entrance sets the tone for a breezy interior.

Photo by Charmaine David

The home boasts an open floor plan that is bright and filled with lots of natural light thanks to multiple skylights, windows, and sliding glass doors that lead to a balcony.

The open floor plan benefits from lots of natural light thanks to multiple skylights, windows, and sliding glass doors that lead to a balcony. 

Photo by Charmaine David

See the full story on Dwell.com: A Camera-Ready Remodel in Los Angeles Asks $789K

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  • VITR

    This renovation project originates from the intervention of a pre-existent building located in the western area of Mexico City; reshaping it into a studio-house project, with clear conditions and an eye set into the pre-existing circumstances. Our design solution takes on a residential structure from the 20th century and recycles it into a project that integrates itself with its immediate natural environment, shattering the hegemony of the high walls behind which the neighboring houses hide, in order to establish a dialogue that transcends the physical limitations of the project. The variations in the depths of different planes, offer the environment a living façade, where the interior activities are guessed from the visual filters that concede intimacy to the interior spaces. The interior-exterior duality brakes its context’s routine, offering a canvas of textures where the concrete and granite give away to the mildness of the metal and the lightness of plastic fabrics. To the exterior, the housing peeks out without invading; whilst opening in the interior, subtlety exposing itself, balancing the volumes that are inserted in the site. An interplay of planes occurs inside allowing the versatility of spaces by the movement of long-distance sliding screens and wainscots formed by timber that contrast in warmth and complexity with the sobriety of the stone coatings and apparent concrete of the enclosures. A new stairway, based on steel strips, reactivates the space where the old one stood, which gave an opportunity to re-signify the ambiance of the circulations as an experience of sculptural character. The front yard of the house marks the limits of the construction and together with the water mirrors and vegetation orient the route beneath a suspended long cover. The architectural program revolves around the home in the ground floor, leaving the studio in a privileged condition towards the garden. The living spaces in the first level have terraces and views to the exterior between and through a green façade woven of plastic cables (recovering the Acapulco chair technique) that sieve and melt together the thick vegetation of the existing trees. The terraces and windows allows an optimal ventilation, illumination and contextualization between the outside and inside. In the top level, the project offers a view above itself and the wooden horizon from a roof garden that elevates to a higher plane the user’s introspection, belonging and pertinence of itself.