In Santa Monica, architect Jesse Bornstein builds a split-level home for modern living.

CONSIDER ALL the potential architectural solutions for modern living, and the split-level house hardly seems an obvious candidate -- not to the average person who summons the image of some postwar dwelling that appears half-sunken in quicksand, its tiny basement windows barely poking aboveground, the front door opening to dual sets of stairs and the immediate puzzle: Do I go up? Or do I go down?

By Craig Nakano

May 29, 2008