Westside DIGS | Digital Edition Online

40 DIGS.NET | 12.6.2019 M A R K E T C onrad Buff and Donald Hensman were still undergraduates at the University of Southern California School of Architecture when they started designing tract homes during the post- war housing boom of the late 1940s. e duo soon teamed up with USC architect professor Calvin Straub to establish the firm Buff, Straub & Hensman, which would go on to leave an indelible mark on Southern California architecture, and whose body of work includes Case Study House #20, also known as Bass House, completed in 1958 and notable for being constructed from wood rather than steel. Fast forward to the mid-1980s: Penny and Stanley Haptor, after searching for several years, had finally found the perfect setting for their dream home. Its location—secluded, rustic and positioned at the end of tree-lined Alomar Drive, on a wooded hillside north of Mulholland Drive and west of Coldwater Canyon Avenue— is home to uplifting views of the Santa Monica Mountains, surrounding canyons and at night, a twinkling map of city lights. Next was to design and build the home, a task the Haptors assigned to Buff & Hensman. "ere's always a collaboration between client and architect, but it was very strong in this case," points out architectural real estate agent Michael D. Phillips. "e Haptors had some very specific ideas in mind, and they wanted to push the architects towards a brighter and more white look, which was something they really did resist." Post-and-beam residences, constructed in wood and featuring textured, earthy palettes were Buff & Hensman's signatures for decades. e nature of creative evolution, along with changes in building codes, had resulted in a new epoch of design, with the white, cubistic Haptor Residence a striking example. "ere were a few other of their houses that were contemporary," says Phillips of Buff & Hensman's work at the time. "It was a direction they were taking about the same time they were engaged with the Haptors." e front entrance of the home is accessed by traveling along a lengthy driveway and into a spacious motor court. (Of note is the high-privacy element here, as one can't see into the house from sidewalk or driveway.) Also, the owners, who entertained often, wanted ample space for guest parking, which this grand space supplies. At night, the home, its roofline glowing from a careful lighting design, is hard for guests to miss. One passes through a door that leads into a peaceful garden and is immersed in the feeling that a private world has been entered—only to discover it's true. e walled-in courtyard is the well thought out, spartan work of landscape designer Christopher Cox and garden designer Howard Oshiyama, both longtime Buff & Hensman collaborators that produced these exterior spaces in tandem with the production of the home. Green shrubs and native trees mingle with sculptural boulders and soft pebbles; a quarry tile walkway passes A R C H I T E C T U R E | D E S I G N | B U I L D S W E E T D I G S | 3 7 2 1 A LO M A R D R I V E One passes through a door that leads into a peaceful garden and is immersed in the feeling that a private world has been entered—only to discover it's true.

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