QUIET LUXURY
It’s hard to give up one dream house and then top it, but that’s what Rick and Robyn Ross did by moving a few miles and hiring architect Carol Cozen. Their first house was a dramatic architectural statement by Ted Tokio Tanaka, poised above the surf at the tip of Malibu Cove Colony. Rick loved it, but agreed with his wife that the place was a bit stark and not really suitable for raising their young children. With tears in his eyes, he closed the door for the last time and moved his family to a larger modern residence in the hills. It had good bones, a distant view of the ocean and all the space they needed, but they wanted to put their stamp on it and warm it up.
Rick runs a family firm that develops industrial real estate, so he is used to thinking big, and Robyn organizes benefits for St. Joseph Center, a social service agency in Venice that helps the homeless and low-income families. They wanted a serene retreat from their busy lives, versatile spaces for the children and an indoor-outdoor feeling that the existing house lacked. Rick has a passion for astronomy, she’s a wine aficionada, and they both love to entertain. That gave them a program for new and remodeled spaces.
“We wanted to make the house our own, rather than someone else’s vision,” says Robyn. “So we went around to the stone yards and various suppliers to find out for ourselves what was available.”
This intensive research and Cozen’s inventive designs produced a house that is practical and quietly luxurious. As in an exotic motor car, you notice the beautiful materials, refined details and the original way in which the spaces come together.
About half of the old house was retained during rebuilding, including a concourse, lighted from a rounded Kalwall ceiling vault, which extends east and west from the entry, linking the bedrooms at the rear to the south-facing living areas at the front. A large fireplace that blocked ocean views from the living room was replaced with 11-foot-high glass sliders that open to the pool terrace. Concrete steps leading to the living room from the concourse are flanked by a wall of boldly grained wood that frames a bar. Rick wanted ebony, and Robyn looked for color. The Macassar ebony pleased them both.
“We must have used at least six woods [in the house],” says Rick, who once preferred “cold, hard materials,” but has been won over by a warmer version of modern. Cozen, who enjoys being playful, set a “runner” of Brazilian cherry into the living room’s concrete steps. In the foyer, she inset boards of the same rich wood into the polished concrete floor to animate the space and create a bridge between indoors and out. And a wave-form ceiling of Douglas fir arches over the master bedroom and continues outside to create shade.
The second-floor addition is Rick’s private domain. The bookshelves of curly ash extend out to frame a view of the ocean, there’s a deck with an outdoor fireplace, and--the big surprise--a metal-sheathed observatory that pushes in like an invading spaceship. “At age 11, I acquired a 4-inch reflecting telescope, and my parents even shipped it to summer camp in Arizona,” Rick recalls. “Robyn and Carol knew how much I wanted a place for a telescope, and they installed the dome as a surprise birthday present.” Every clear night he can be found here, gazing into the heavens.
“We’re so lucky to live this way--a simple life in an extraordinary space,” says Rick. “I feel like a kid when I look at the house, and our children love it.” Cozen is equally pleased. “They gave me the opportunity to create a total work of art,” she says.
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RESOURCE GUIDE
Cozen Architecture, Hermosa Beach, (310) 372-0399.
