Designed by Los Angeles architect William King, this extremely unique property is an LA architectural landmark. With sweeping city and mountain views on three dramatic levels, the structure is topped by a geodesic dome with a wrap-around deck and 1/4 acre of native and cultivated gardens. The house has been a critical part of the LA contemporary art scene since 2000.
Domestead exists in a slightly different dimension. Three levels of open spaces are connected by a spacious 6-foot diameter circular stair. You enter from the street into the dramatic earth-sheltered lower level, a poured concrete curvy space carved into the hill, illuminated by 15 skylights, including a partially-open newly-renovated full bath. Up a few steps, you land on a large upper stage-like level where a secret skylit sleeping chamber is accessed behind a round painting.
A few more rotations up the stairs leads you into the redwood timber-framed kitchen, an angular woody perch with a massive sliding wood table and 180-degree views of the San Gabriel Mountains. An adjacent bathroom leads to an outdoor shower and wood soaking tub overlooking the garden.
Photo by Aurelia D’Amore.
One last spiral up the stair puts you into the middle of a 24-foot diameter geodesic dome; a bright blue hemisphere. A triangular window faces the garden to the south. The city below and mountains beyond are framed by a large hexagonal window, and a blue dutch door takes you out to 180 degrees of wood decking surrounding the dome.
The house offers continuous free-flowing open space not confined by the conventions of boxy rooms with cut-out windows. The rooms are determined not by function but by feeling, with a diversity of spaces suited for different moods and times of day. Some are sunny and spacious, offering open communally-oriented environs, while others are cool, quiet and conducive to solitary retreat. Each floor is like an alternative realm, offering different ways of living, relating to others, and to the environment beyond.
Molly Kelly and Susan Irving of Nourmand & Associates currently hold the listing.
Photography by Jilbert Daniel unless otherwise noted.
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