“L.A. very much embraces modern lifestyles that accept the open nature of living experiences. The social climate is very communal. And, of course, the climate allows us to literally live outdoors all year round.” western-cedar roof overhangs frame an outdoor dining area outfitted with a grill and fireplace. The flow between the spaces in the home, which carries into the expansive garden, is conducive to mingling both indoors and out. “L.A. very much embraces modern lifestyles that accept the open nature of living experiences,” says Marmol. “The social climate is very communal. And, of course, the climate allows us to literally live outdoors all year round.” In 2007, the firm restored May’s 1952 Experimental Ranch House, also in Brentwood, with dark-stained Douglas-fir ceilings, board-and-batten wood siding and a new skylight. “It’s really a beautiful, small home,” Radziner says of the 2,360-square-foot building surrounded by sycamore trees in Sullivan Canyon. “It had been altered, and, although we didn’t go back to the original plan, we very much went close to the original plan and opened the house up again. [May’s] point was to really make it a large open space with just a few walls to separate off three bedrooms.” For the transformation, they updated plumbing and replaced the existing Saltillo tile floor and carpet with terrazzo flooring. “When we do projects like this, whether it’s [a home by] Cliff May or [Richard] Neutra, I think our goal, really, is to try to make it the best interpretation of their architecture, but it’s really not to put our imprint on it,” Radziner says. “We’ve done it right when it’s finished if someone can walk in the house and feel like this could have been what it was always like.” Marmol adds: “We restore historic modern buildings so that we can be influenced by those ideas … ideas of the strong connection between the interior and the exterior, the importance of the flow of the interior spaces and [of] materials [being] allowed to express their inherent nature.”
In addition to residential and commercial projects, the firm has introduced a line of sculptural jewelry, a collection of furniture at Jean de Merry in the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood and a collection of furniture for McGuire set to be released this year. The new 24-piece line, entitled the Canyon Collection (as a nod to L.A.’s canyons), includes a range of 12 fabrics, solid-oak serving bowls and platters and a blackenedsteel and white-bronze mirror. “We’re architects, but we’re also builders. I think how it all really started was we would build a home for a client, and they would say, ‘Hey, could you design us a dining-room table or a bed?’ We would design it in our metal- or woodshop, and sometimes those projects would be published, and then a furniture showroom might call us. It all happened very organically,” Radziner explains. Nearly 30 years since the inception of their firm, Radziner and Marmol are still inspired by local architecture and design. “Really, I think this city has the best residential architecture from 1900 to the present,” Radziner says. “It’s always been a place, for better or worse, where we value time and space in the home. Architects and clients seem to be interested in experimenting with that language, and we continue to do [just] that.”
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