MODERN MARVEL

KAA creates a one-of-a-kind design on the Strand in Manhattan Beach, California.

-  NANCY A. RUHLING

ON THE BOARD WALK in Manhattan Beach, California, there’s a new house that stands out amid its neighbors.

The three-story board-formed concrete and cedar modernist structure, a breathtaking fusion of art and architecture, appears to be floating placidly, like a boat, above the whitesand beach of The Strand, the most exclusive of the city’s communities.

“The site is coveted—it’s like having a front-row seat, and the architecture is singularly unique,” says Grant Kirkpatrick, a founding partner of Los Angeles–based KAA Design, which designed it and some three dozen others on The Strand. “A two-foot-high band of windows between the upper and lower floors creates that floating illusion. At night, it glows like a lantern.”

The owners, a couple with an experienced eye for design, commissioned Kirkpatrick and his team, which included project manager Meghan Beckmann and landscape architect Michael McGowen, to build a place that would serve as their primary residence and as a gathering spot for family and friends.

They asked Los Angeles–based interior designer Alana Homesley who had done other projects on The Strand, to create warm, welcoming spaces.

The couple had been renting a house near the property for years, and when it came on the market, they snapped it up.

The lot is small—it’s only 33 feet by 100 feet—but that didn’t deter the couple from asking KAA to design a 7,400-square-foot house packed with amenities.

“Manhattan Beach is urban beach living,” Kirkpatrick says. “There’s only about six feet between each house—not a lot of elbow room.”

The owners had a couple of considerations that also influenced the design: They wanted to showcase their extensive collection of large-scale contemporary art, and they wanted an open floor plan that would invite the outdoors in.