A Boxy Los Angeles Bungalow Conceals a Secret Garden
A single window and door along the concrete facade are all that hint to what’s in store.
A single window and door along the concrete facade are all that hint to what’s in store.
Mark Motonaga and Guy Clouse’s home might be smack dab in the middle of Los Angeles’ vibrant East Side, but it feels like a secret hideaway. Steps from a street lined with apartment buildings, modest older homes, and commercial warehouses, the house, with just a single window on the front facade, looks inward, becoming more open as you move through it to the surprisingly lush backyard.
Guy (holding Pickles the cat) and Mark transformed the backyard, adding a pool and planting sycamore trees and native grasses. A custom dining table by Angel City Lumber is paired with vintage chairs from Amsterdam Modern.
Photo by Hunter Kerhart
The 5,400-square-foot property, on the edge of the Atwater Village neighborhood, was in foreclosure when Mark, the creative director of L.A.’s RCH Studios, and Guy, an artist, first saw it. After living in a Hollywood Hills apartment for more than a decade, they wanted something on one level, but with an industrial, loft-like feel. They also longed for a garden.
"A conglomeration of boxes around a bit of a pitched roof" is how Mark describes his transformation of the 1920s Los Angeles bungalow. Inverting the traditional layout, he set the private rooms in the front and a large, open living area in the rear.
Photo by Hunter Kerhart
The couple considered replacing the run-down 1920s-era bungalow on the site, but then Mark—part of the team that transformed the L.A. Terminal Market and surrounding area into ROW DTLA—came up with a plan to fold it into a new design. They stripped down the house to the studs and added boxy volumes at the front and the back, in a way that suggested additions built over the years. The renovation brought the square footage to its current total of 1,500.
The black front door opens to reveal a courtyard that leads to the backyard pool. With an eye to sustainability, the couple replaced the existing concrete walkway with gravel.
Photo by Hunter Kerhart
See the full story on Dwell.com: A Boxy Los Angeles Bungalow Conceals a Secret Garden
