Malibu Cove Colony-H-R, Malibu, CA.

I have always worked with my hands.  My undergraduate degree is in art, with an emphasis on fine woodworking, ceramics and environmental installations.  Just after opening up the office, we were approached to remodel an existing home on the beach in Malibu.  The clients challenge to me came in the form of a question:  What would a new home be like, in the year 2000, if it were to be designed and built with the same craft and care as one of the Greene and Greene homes of the previous century?  Given my background this was a delightful challenge.  We embarked on the design and construction of a very modern, crafted home, built to the highest standards of fine wood, metal and glasswork. The fine woodwork created for this home involved 20 of the finest woodworkers in the region.  The final design and detailing was often determined through tests and samples, some done by myself, in the field with the craftsmen. The owners of the home were quite conscious of the difficulties of living on the water, not just the technical difficulties of salt and moisture, but the psychological difficulties of living in the presence of a constant grey and blue world. It seems strange, all in all, that living on the oceans edge could be emotionally challenging, but it can be;  the endless vista across an abstract horizon, and the constant blueness of it all.  Strange really, but true.  We countered this blueness with a golden toned building, it’s complement.  The primary wood, American Southern Cypress, was selected both for its natural durability in this environment, and for its golden color. The home, looking across the water as completed, is a study in modern wood, stone and metal craft.