Local 10 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2008 A newspaper with issues Modern house the talk of local neighborhood
NOMA There’s a new kid on the block that has been the source of endless discussions at the neighborhood drugstore, multiple conversations starting with the likes of “have you seen that house?”
Modernistic in style and unique in comparison to its neighbors, the three-story creation on the corner of Seventh Street and San Vicente Boulevard is not the latest Frank Gehry brainchild but rather a dream come true for homeowner and architect Jennifer Wen.
On a street filled with multi-million dollar single-family residences, many of which have called the north of Montana Avenue neighborhood home for decades, the unconventional structure has been met with by mixed reactions.
“I don’t know if I like it yet,”Jeff Graf, who lives across the street from the Wen home, said on Friday.
The house has been a source of debate in the Graf household, the couple discussing whether the house fits in with the character of the neighborhood. While it may stand out on San Vicente, modern architecture is a trend that many new developments throughout the city have headed toward, Graf said.
“The structure is not so unusual, but the color is,” Graf said, referring to the sky blue exterior.
Graf pauses and points to two other houses on the same block — a bright yellow Spanish-style and a soft pink house.
“But it’s a colorful neighborhood.” The parcel on the northeast corner is a lot that was once nothing but a patch of grass when Wen purchased the property from next-door neighbor Barbara Cullom a few years ago. Wen, who is trying to sell her current home in Mar Vista and has yet to fully move into the new digs, wanted to pay homage to Santa Monica’s beach culture in designing her new home, shaping its lines to resemble the curves of the waves.
“It’s my tribute to the ocean,” Wen said on Friday. Her approach to architecture is to have a harmonious relationship between structure and nature and that perspective extends to the new house — built using eco-friendly materials, situating each window so that it serves as a picture frame to the outside, and using natural light as much as possible. On the front yard, Wen has already planted between 10-12 trees and expects that once the landscaping blossoms in a few years, it will lessen the visual impact of the home.
Wen’s architectural mindset continues inside where everything from the staircase to the furnishings is simplistic in nature. The house boasts its own wok room, specially made for the family of Chinese cuisine lovers, a music room in the basement designed with especially thick walls and an office studio on the third floor, complete with views of the Pacific Palisades and the ocean.
The architect said she has received varying reactions from neighbors and passersby, though the majority of comments have been positive. Some motorists stopped at the traffic signal in front of the house have rolled down their windows to praise Wen from their cars. At least one person has remarked that the house looks like the Walt Disney Concert Hall, which was designed by Gehry.
“I want to be a part of nature,” — Wen said
Wen, a nearly 26-year professional architect who has her own firm, Jennifer Wen Architecture, has also designed the New West Charter School in West Los Angeles and the Union Rescue Mission in Downtown Los Angeles. The Santa Monica home is expected to be featured in an architectural tour later this year.
Jordan Ruthven who recently moved a few doors down in the yellow Spanish-style home said he wasn’t shocked to see the Wen residence because of the proliferation of modern houses in his hometown of Melbourne, Australia.
“They would welcome it (in Melbourne),” Ruthven said. “I’m not sure how it would go here because of the old houses in the neighborhood.”
One neighbor, who chose to remain anonymous, was less than enthused.
“I don’t know how they ever allowed it to be built,” the neighbor said on Monday. “It is ugly and it’s certainly not in keeping with the neighborhood. It’s way over built and just doesn’t belong here.”
There are development standards for single-family residences in the north of Montana Avenue area and as long as they are met, permits can be awarded, according to city planner Jing Yeo.
“If the house meets those standards and they apply for a plan check, they get a building permit,” Yeo said.
The Architectural Review Board typically sees multi-family and commercial properties and the only single-family projects that go before the body are for developments that have a changing grade of more than 12.5 feet,Yeo said.Single-family projects almost never go before the Planning Commission unless it’s an appeal to a decision by the Zoning Administrator.
To Dell Burks, a neighbor who lives a few doors down, what is developed on the property is entirely up to its owner, as long as it falls within the guidelines.
The 40-year NOMA resident said several of the neighbors she has spoken to have commented in opposition to the design of the house, believing that it stands out because the neighborhood does not have another similar-style home. It’s a conversation starter at the local drug store, she added.
“It’s their property,”Burks said.“I have no objections to it.” Such is the sentiment expressed by Cullom, who said that while the house does look different, she believes it will look beautiful once the landscape flourishes.
“It’s very unusual but it’s not going to affect anybody else one way or the other,” Cullom said. “We’re just so thrilled we’re going to have such nice neighbors.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 5, 2008. Read the original PDF.