Going with the Flow

Before Culver City architect Steven Ehrlich could design a house for his Taiwanese clients in Diamond Bar, they had one condition: that he be willing to collaborate with their feng shui master. Over the next three years, guided by the ancient Chinese principles for creating a harmonious environment and his own aesthetic, Ehrlich built a 7,000-square-foot model of East-West synergism. “I was looking to fuse my clients’ Asian heritage with California modernism,” he says. “This house does the same thing as wonderful chefs who fuse California and Asian cuisine.”

To achieve that fusion, he took inspiration from elegant centuries-old temples he had seen in China and from local landmark homes designed by Greene and Greene, Frank Lloyd Wright and Rudolph Schindler. Details were translated, updated and blended. Outside, polished concrete blocks replace the stone base typical in China; burnished sandstone-colored plaster covers the canted walls. The massive sheltering roof and generous eaves, common to Chinese shrines and California bungalows alike, are made of green slate and Douglas fir, respectively. And corner casement windows provide an unabashedly modernist touch.

Inside, the columned entry gives way to a central hall with a 32-foot exposed-truss ceiling. “I wanted this space to have a grand sense of scale and capture the spirit of a temple,” Ehrlich says, noting the use of graceful corbeled beams with steel straps. The hall and its handsome cherry and steel staircase link two wings, each divided into a grid of rooms derived from the tenets of feng shui to ensure that chi, or positive energy, flows throughout the house as fluidly as the bamboo flooring. The living and dining rooms are downstairs with the kitchen and a workout room with an indoor lap pool; bedrooms for the owners and their two young children are upstairs, as is a meditation room.

Furnishings selected by Beverly Hills interior designer Luis Ortega reflect the same seamless marriage of cultures as the structure. An antique Chinese opium bed and Ortega’s sleek leather ottoman share space in the living room; an antique Chinese altar table stands beside Donghia chairs and Ortega’s contemporary dining table, outfitted with a Lazy Susan for family-style Chinese dining. “I love the simplicity of the Asian furniture,” Ortega says. “It mixes beautifully with the clean contemporary pieces.”

Of course, Ehrlich and the feng shui master were not entirely without their differences. Before ground was broken, they had to decide how to site the house. American homes commonly face the street (west in this case), but the feng shui master advised that having the house face south, toward two distant hills, would be more propitious. Ehrlich was open to the change, but he resisted placing the house at such an extreme angle on the lot. “Much of the house would have looked into the back hillside rather than out to the yard,” Ehrlich explains, so he angled the front doors, rather than the whole building, to directly face the hills.

Other conflicts were easily resolved by realigning doors and windows, though one design problem called for more drastic measures. While Ehrlich envisioned the swimming pool in a far corner of the yard, the feng shui master wanted it nearby to improve chi. “We collectively decided to eliminate the pool and install the small koi pond there instead,” Ehrlich recalls with a smile. “I have no problem working with a higher authority.”