DIGS is the premiere luxury real estate lifestyle magazine serving the most affluent neighborhoods in the South Bay and Westside of Los Angeles, California.
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42 DIGS.NET | 12.6.2019 over a free-flowing pond, leading the way to the living room, dining room and deck beyond. e result of the partnership between the architects and the landscape/garden designers is an organic, hand-in-glove feel not just between the home and its gardens—but also between home and the site's natural surroundings—a hallmark of a Buff & Hensman residence. On the ground floor is a spacious living room, surrounded by glass and with a ceiling that soars two floors. is space operates as the creative and meeting hub of the home—a place that feels as natural for casual, everyday use as it does for formal entertaining, and showcases the immaculate built- ins designated by Buff & Hensman during the home's construction. Adjacent to this voluminous space is an entertainment deck, doubling as a starlit living room during the rest of the time. e living room is an apt transition space that takes one from the home's exterior—with its grand scale and larger-than-life views—into the interior, which includes a sunny dining room and a white, minimalist kitchen with glass walls that open directly onto another of the home's decks. is is a versatile, open space where one can welcome the day peacefully over coffee or enjoy rollicking dinner parties at night. By contrast, a tucked-away patio along the wooded side of the home is ideal for solitary relaxation and reading. e second floor of the three-bedroom home is dedicated to the master suite: e relaxed, open spaces here nonetheless have a private feel and include dual walk-in closets and an exercise room, along with an airy office and a neutral-tone master bathroom where one can soak in the tub over a verdant California scene. "ere's a sense of being in an estate-like setting," says Phillips of the property. Whether one is inside the home or wandering about on the decks or in the gardens, one is not privy, or even aware of neighboring homes. Instead views are of nature or far-away vistas of mountain, canyon and city. Far from being architecture that blends in with the trees, the home's bold profile and stark- white color makes no apologies for being there. "is house has a real solidity," Phillips states. "It feels monumental." By the late 1980s the home was complete. So well did the house exemplify Buff & Hensman's new design chapter that it served as a showcase for viewing by prospective clients. (Unfortunately, Conrad Buff passed away in 1989, soon after the home was complete.) e Haptors, however, have lived in their dream home to this day. For its creators, the Haptor Residence stands as a bold sample of the design premise that Buff & Hensman adhered to through their long partnership—flat roofs, an abundance of glass, open floor plans, and insistence on functionality and a connection to the outdoors. ough the look of their homes evolved from the earliest days of their partnership to later works, such as this one, the architects' portfolio stands as living testimony to the idea that good design, in this case, Modernist architecture, lives on forever. 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