On October 18, 2025, Dwell magazine hosted its second annual Open House event in Los Angeles, providing 350 design enthusiasts with exclusive access to some of the city's most architecturally innovative residences. The day-long tour showcased how Southern California living uniquely embraces indoor-outdoor design through immersive gardens and thoughtful landscape integration.
The carefully curated tour featured four distinct properties, each demonstrating different approaches to engaging with Los Angeles' unique topography and climate. Participants had the opportunity to meet the architects, designers, landscape designers, and homeowners who created these exceptional spaces, with each residence highlighting how homes can thoughtfully respond to their specific site conditions.
The tour began at the iconic Hollyhock House, the crowning jewel of Barnsdall Art Park in East Hollywood. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, this UNESCO World Heritage Site served as Wright's first Los Angeles commission and remains as vibrant today as when it was completed. The house takes its name from client Aline Barnsdall's favorite flowers, which appear throughout the design—abstracted in furniture, windows, and ornamental friezes, and blooming naturally around the grounds.
A new native plant garden by landscape architecture firm Terremoto and an exhibition of photographer Janna Ireland's images of the property demonstrate how Wright's design continues to inspire. The temple-like structure, influenced by pre-Columbian architecture including Mayan and Aztec styles, exemplifies what Wright once described as a "California Romanza." Barnsdall generously donated the house and nearly 12 acres to the City of Los Angeles in 1927.
The second stop featured the Descanso House in Silver Lake, the home of Australian architect Richard Stampton. This property exemplifies the principle that architectural context is everything. Stampton discovered a modest 1920s house that had remained largely untouched since its construction and chose to retain the original footprint while executing a comprehensive down-to-the-studs renovation.
Stampton's approach whispered rather than shouted, using pink marble details in the kitchen and bathroom while painting the peaked ceilings in three shades of yellow to capture the colors of Southern California's dramatic sunrises and sunsets. The surrounding garden, designed by Terremoto, features fragrant native and drought-tolerant plants that blend seamlessly with existing orange, fig, and lemon trees. Motorized Warema sunshades in anodized aluminum help maintain comfortable interior temperatures.
The third residence, known as Lark House, represents a masterful collaboration between past and present. Located in Mount Washington, this project began when designer Kathryn McCullough and her husband Andrew Bulbrook discovered an 850-square-foot cabin originally designed by architect Kemper Nomland Jr. and built in 1955. Working closely with Taalman Architecture and Terremoto, the couple nearly doubled the home's size while adding a freestanding Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU), an outdoor living area, and a swimming pool.
The renovation seamlessly oscillates between indoor and outdoor spaces while respecting the original timber-frame, post-and-beam construction. A distinctive circular porthole window serves as a vestige of the original cabin, while new additions maintain the materiality and aesthetic of Nomland's design. "The idea," explains Andrew, "was to use the new to shine a light on the old."
The final stop showcased the San Marino House, where owners of a 1954 Calvin Straub home initially contacted Alice Fung and Michael Blatt of Fung + Blatt Architects to design a ceramics studio. However, over five years, the architects accomplished much more, sensitively updating the main house and designing additional pavilions across the 1.4-acre property that echo the home's Japanese-inspired lines.
The comprehensive development includes a pool house complex with an outdoor kitchen, a guesthouse, and an art studio/library. Fung explains that the goal was for all buildings to remain "deferential to the landscape." This philosophy was embraced by Elysian Landscapes, who joined the project later and contributed to several patios, green roofs, and much of the garden design. The pool house, featuring deep overhangs, opens to a generous deck with the lower level containing a spa and gymnasium.
The event was supported by sponsors including Benjamin Moore, Fabritec, Lumacast, and Voluspa, who provided exclusive items for attendee gift bags. Each participant received a commemorative event publication, the latest issue of Dwell magazine, and sponsor products, creating lasting memories of this architectural journey through Los Angeles' diverse residential landscape.
