Defending the Fort : Architect Offers Kids Some Pointers on Treehouse Design

Everyone knows successful developers need consultants.

So just days after a group of Westlake Island youngsters were ordered to tear down their treehouse because it does not meet the gated community’s aesthetic standards, an architect joined their cause, tutoring one of the fort’s builders on the fundamentals of function and form.

The idea, architect Martin Mervel said Thursday, is to formulate plans for a structurally sound treehouse that appeals to the kids as well as to the codified tastes of Westlake Island, an enclave of pricey homes surrounded by a man-made lake in Westlake Village.

Officials of the Westlake Island Property Owners Assn., who last week ordered the treehouse of discarded boards and mismatched plywood destroyed, said Thursday they might consider letting the kids present their case and their plans at a future meeting.

During an informal design session Thursday afternoon at Mervel’s Echo Park studio, Gary Jacobs, in whose back yard the fort is built, was asked exactly what he was looking for in a fort.

“Oh, I don’t know,” said Gary, 10, shrugging his shoulders.

“Well, what do you use it for now?” asked Mervel, searching for inspiration in his client.

“All we’ve done so far is build it,” Gary said. “Whenever I go up there it’s either to look at something or to build something.”

And so the creative process began.

Over the next few hours, Mervel and Gary used tiny pieces of balsa wood and a scale model of the back yard tree to find the right design. Mervel’s style leans toward the experimental, but he was decidedly conservative in designing the treehouse so as not to clash with the tastes of Westlake Island.

He and Gary eventually settled on a split-level fort with a crow’s-nest nestled between the upper branches.

Mervel donated his services and persuaded a couple of construction suppliers to provide materials after reading about Gary’s plight in Tuesday’s Times. “I thought this was taking away the creative expression of a child, and that’s unforgivable,” he said.

As the model neared completion, Mervel asked Gary: “So are you excited now?”

“I guess,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.

Gary’s mother, Mary Jacobs, said she planned to take the model to a meeting of the residents’ association.

Karyn Shaudis, chairwoman of the association’s architectural committee, said Mervel and the kids would be welcome to present their plans like any other builder at the next meeting of her committee.

“No one is trying to beat up on these kids,” Shaudis said. “But if you’re going to teach them, teach them properly.”