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Venice architects bridge generations with two-home design

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The home of architects Julie Smith-Clementi and Frank Clementi slowly reveals itself along a walk street in Venice. A vine-covered traditional wrought-iron fence transitions to a rustic picket fence. The edible garden creates a verdant buffer between pedestrians and residents.   (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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The home’s new two-story addition -- accommodating a three-car garage downstairs and the master suite upstairs -- is clad in large structural timbers. The 4-by-12 Douglas fir planks create a playful pattern around the exterior, while also shading the indoors from sun.  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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Mary Lou Smith, Julie Smith-Clementi’s mother, lives in the adjacent 1920s-era cottage and shares a garden that connects both homes. She tends to the edible garden in raised beds that the family added in the sunniest place on their joined property.  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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The edible (but not tasty) fruit of the strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) provides ornamental color in the Clementi garden. Its evergreen foliage and beautiful cinnamon-colored bark are equally attractive and provide semitransparent screening from the walk street.  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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Borage, the Mediterranean herb that produces tiny, star-shaped blue flowers (which are edible), is a drought-tolerant choice for this Venice garden.  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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Because Mary Lou Smith’s cottage is sited toward the back of her property, there is plenty of space for a generous plaza beneath the magnolia tree. Linear concrete slabs are planted with bands of dymondia, a drought-tolerant groundcover. The flexible space accommodates entertaining, relaxation and play.  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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The garden has produced a bumper crop of artichokes this season, inspiring dishes for many family meals.  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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A raft-style wooden walkway connects the raised edible garden with the home’s front porch and expresses the rustic-contemporary theme of the recent renovations.  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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A Midcentury Modern-inspired butterfly roofline accommodates clerestory windows that open the home to natural light and ample views of the garden.  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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Glass walls face the outdoors, making the small interior feel larger. The home’s foyer flows into the living room and a small office, where Julie Smith-Clementi is seen working.  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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When standing in the entry living room, one can see through the breakfast area to the outdoors. The clerestory windows bring light into the staircase.  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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The family’s collections and artifacts are incorporated into the decor of each room, displayed on an extended shelf above the windows. The see-through quality of each seating area ensures year-round appreciation of the landscape.  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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Natural wood and plywood are used extensively, allowing family art and collections to add color and character. The living room features built-in and free-standing benches, comfortably upholstered. The glassed-in bay window extends into the garden and is illuminated after dark by a vintage Nelson Saucer Bubble Lamp.  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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The master bath features white cabinetry and a positive-negative faux bois tile (UonUon by 14 Ora Italiana), which gives a playful wink to the organic quality of natural wood used elsewhere.  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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The plywood storage wall is inset with red doorways leading into closets. Open shelves allow a clear view into the master bath, which may be closed off by a sliding door. Two Eames molded plastic chairs, from Herman Miller, create a seating area.  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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A large sliding-glass door opens to the generous garden plaza and nearly 80-year-old magnolia tree, where Frank Clementi and daughter Nina share a hug. Black concrete-tile flooring from Granada tile (www.granadatile.com) travels from outside through the first level.  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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The dining area overlooks an outdoor gravel garden that occupies the niche between the two wings of the house.   (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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The dining area connects to the open kitchen. Pillows on the built-in banquette are from notNeutral, the product design arm of Rios Clementi Hale Studios. Rattan Boja pendant lighting is from Ikea; Eames model plastic armchairs are from Herman Miller.   (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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The kitchen’s focal point is a butcher block island that opens to create a bonus workspace. The family affectionately calls it “the buffalo.” The piece was custom designed by Frank Clementi and fabricated by Hugh Fitzpatrick, www.hughfitzpatrickdesign.com.  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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The Clementis used plywood throughout their remodel, saying they admire the humble material for its organic and utilitarian qualities. The multipurpose bookcase and entertainment center serves as a wall that leads to the heavy timber staircase.  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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Cork flooring and area rugs warm the master suite, as does a sculptural fireplace from Fireorb (www.fireorb.net), an American manufacturer. Suspended from the ceiling, the fireplace swivels to direct heat either toward the room or toward the balcony.  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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Sliding and pocketing doors, trimmed in olive, allow the bedroom to extend outdoors to the private balcony. The vertical beams connote a tree house and correspond to the rustic attitude of the garden’s picket fencing.  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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Nina rests in an Adirondack chair on the front porch, which is finished in concrete tile that continues indoors. The poppy-orange hurricane lanterns from notNeutral echo the vivid blooms of a potted aloe.  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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The diagonal sightlines created by openings between the two houses is apparent here, where the plaza connects with the outdoor gravel garden tucked between the Clementis’ garage and main residence.  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
By Debra Prinzing
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Love of place more than space rooted Julie Smith-Clementi and Frank Clementi to their 600-square-foot, 1920s cottage and its sociable walk street in Venice.

The architect couple settled here in 1994 and two years later added a second floor, preserving the original footprint and situating the master bedroom to face west, toward the neighbor’s huge Southern magnolia, said by locals to be nearly 80 years old.

The Clementis, partners in the Los Angeles design firm Rios Clementi Hale Studios, watched anxiously over the years as experts assessed whether the tree next door could be removed to make room for a larger house. “They measured to see how much it would cost to get rid of,” Smith-Clementi said. “There was nothing we could do but hope it wouldn’t happen.”

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So when the magnolia (and the small home it generously shaded) went on the market in 2002, it was acquired by Mary Lou Smith, Smith-Clementi’s mother. She settled into “Grandma’s bungalow” a few years later, retiring as a florist in New York’s Westchester County.

This allowed the Clementis to create a two-family compound that served the needs of three generations. “We had an opportunity to rethink the whole setup,” Smith-Clementi said.

The two lots are now joined by a shared garden. Where a fence once stood, there are ornamental and edible plantings, in a landscape designed by Smith-Clementi and her mother, with help from colleagues at Rios Clementi Hale Studios.

Smith is the resident gardener, maintaining the edibles that grow in four long troughs along the walk street, the sunniest spot available. “We’ve been doing pretty well, especially with the artichokes,” she said. “We just finished a big crop of fava beans, and I’ve just planted the tomatoes and cucumbers.”

A large plaza of linear concrete slabs with grass and pebble banding spans the two residences. It serves as a gathering place for alfresco meals, such as a family feast on Christmas.

And after years of planning, the Clementis added a two-story wing to the back of their house. The addition, completed in 2012, gives them a three-car garage and a new master suite that links to the rest of the house via a “bridge.”

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The Clementis didn’t want their enlarged home to loom over the neighborhood. They clad the main residence in natural-hued lap siding, in keeping with Venice’s bungalow vibe.

The addition is taller but doesn’t feel imposing, thanks to the extensive use of glass. The two-story structure is wrapped with vertical raw-wood framing, an inside-out treatment that playfully suggests tree trunks in an old-growth forest, while also serving structural requirements.

When relaxing or reading in the master suite, the couple can view the magnolia’s verdant canopy through openings created by the oddly spaced and angled timbers. “We asked ourselves, ‘Could this room be like a tree house?’” Smith-Clementi said. When the sliding glass doors to a balcony are open to breezes and the sound of rustling leaves, it’s easy to think so.

The Clementis reconfigured other parts of their house at the same time. The second floor was redesigned to include two bedrooms and a shared bath for daughters Nina, 11, and Emilia, 18, and a combined family room, study and entertainment space.

Downstairs, the kitchen and breakfast room now adjoin an open-air dining terrace. A built-in banquette and table, simple white cabinetry, an antique stove and plywood-covered exhaust hood furnish the space. A butcher-block island in the center unfolds to a whimsical buffalo shape.

The home gained new indoor-outdoor spaces and more light with the addition of clerestory windows and glass doors. In the family’s living room area, a rolling glass door opens to the garden and the beloved magnolia. A floor-to-ceiling plywood book and entertainment center backs onto the heavy-timber wood staircase for a semiprivate transition between downstairs and upstairs.

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Much of the furniture inside and out of their home was hand-built using recycled and humble materials, such as plywood, in a collaboration between the Clementis and Hugh Fitzpatrick, a local craftsman. Many of the accessories, including pillows and rugs, are creations of notNeutral, the product design arm of Rios Clementi Hale Studios.

Clementi describes the two-home compound as “bungalow meets California Modern.” “The lucky thing is that these two properties are catty-corner,” he said. “Our house is very far forward, and Mary Lou’s is far to the back. So you can see diagonally through the two yards.”

Their shared outdoor area is screened by informal layers of shrubs, perennials and small trees, allowing all three generations — grandmother, parents and daughters — to feel connected to the vibrant fabric of Venice’s walk streets.

“The natural inclination is to create privacy, but I think that the density here is such that you get to know everybody in the neighborhood pretty quickly, and if you have put up a huge wall, you regret not being able to see them,” Clementi said.

The Venice Garden & Home Tour

What: A self-guided walking tour with 30 stops, including the Clementi home and the shared garden. This year’s tour features the secluded walk-street neighborhood east of Abbot Kinney Boulevard and adjacent to the Boardwalk.

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When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday

Where: Starting point is the Neighborhood Youth Assn., 1016 Pleasantview Ave. (between California Avenue and Broadway)

Tickets: $70. (Proceeds benefit the Neighborhood Youth Assn.’s Las Doradas Children’s Center.)

Information: (310) 821-1857, www.venicegardentour.org

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