It Took a Neighborhood to Build This Beachside Bungalow
Photo by Joe Fletcher
Mardi and Anton Watts’s house sits snugly between its neighbors on a sun-drenched, pedestrian-only street in Hermosa Beach, California. From the front deck, cooled by breezes from the Pacific, they can watch an easygoing procession of passersby clad in shorts and flip-flops.
The couple had moved into a 1950s bungalow on the property, a few blocks from the beach, when they bought it nine years ago. But after about five years of living there, they craved more space and contemporary amenities and turned to Ras-a Studio for help.
Lead principal Robert Sweet soon determined that a renovation wouldn’t be enough. Instead, the firm designed a new two-story home with a roof deck, an airy stack of wood-slatted boxes that complements both the area’s low-slung midcentury bungalows and its taller, more recent developments. The challenge became making the most of the tight lot while meeting the city’s car-conscious zoning requirements.
