This isn't the only Hill House out there," says architect Robin Donaldson. He's right: Historic homes with that title dot the map from Scotland to Arizona; novelist Shirley Jackson famously borrowed the name for her 1959 Gothic classic, The Haunting of Hill House. Like its spooky fictional counterpart, the 10,720-square-foot concrete structure that Southern California-based Donaldson + Partners created for art collectors Bruce Heavin and Lynda Weinman in Montecito, California, is big, a little odd, and full of curious secrets that slowly reveal themselves over time.
Fortunately, this Hill House is a lot cheerier than Jackson's.
"People are always surprised by how comfortable it is," Weinman says. After selling their online education business eight years ago, the couple decided it was time for a major lifestyle upgrade. Donaldson, a close friend and collaborator who had designed the couple's former office, was the natural choice and spent two years working up a scheme only for his clients to change course: Ditching the initial site, they acquired another closer to the sea, straddling a slender ridge. There, Heavin says he wanted to build a house that would "explore the emotional and the irrational." With that as a mandate, Donaldson and his collaborators went all in on a design that pushes toward the sublime with structural invention and a deft feel for the landscape.
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Denne historien er fra March 2024-utgaven av Elle Decor US.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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And How! - Decorator Nick Olsen transforms a Sag Harbor home into a Hamptons retreat with an irreverent humor.
If you must go to the Hamptons, however-because it is devilishly good fun, after all-you may notice an apparently modest, low-slung cottage on Sag Harbor's Main Street and think, with a comfortable sort of feeling, Now that is how a house should look. Nestled amid the Botox bars, helipads, and club-staurants, it could almost set the sordid world aright both a rebuke and a solution to the chaos that surrounds it. A real home.
You Stay Here
At a Martha's Vineyard compound, Steven Gambrel and Tom Kligerman have made a guest retreat so good, visitors may never want to leave.
WHAT'S IN THE MIX?
Rayman Boozer brings his mastery of color and pattern to the renovation of a Harlem duplex for a young family.
THE EMPIRE
A 19th-century gem in Cambridge, Massachusetts, gets a tour-de-force restoration thanks to Frances Merrill of Reath Design.
Now You See It
A modernist beach house's discreet profile hides killer views and knockout interiors by Rafael de Cárdenas.
CIRCLE D'AMOUR
For an object lesson on how to design a Paris love nest, look to Pierre Yovanovitch.
PARK AND RECREATIONS
With the rise of electric vehicles and a fresh focus on design, the once overlooked garage is becoming a future-forward source of joy and energy at home.
Just Like That, But Cheaper
One writer tried to replicate a classic ELLE DECOR interior in his apartment. Could he do it for $500?
But This is My Home - One writer discovers that living in an architectural icon can be a blessing and a curse.
One writer discovers that living in an architectural icon can be a blessing and a curse. My husband and I moved into the Kallis House in Los Angeles six years ago. It was designed in 1946 by the modernist architect Rudolph Schindler, and it's believed by many, including Frank Gehry, to be among Schindler's best. The house is eccentric, perched on the lip of a hill, with a butterfly roof and a shaggy exterior made of grape stakes. The interior is an unfolding series of surprising angles, with a wonderful wide view of the San Fernando Valley.
A SISTER STORY
Jewelry designer Brent Neale Winston and her decorator sibling, Ramsey Lyons, recast a historic Long Island home.
