A hillside property in San Marino has been transformed from a deteriorating 1954 midcentury home into a stunning creative retreat featuring multiple pavilions scattered throughout the landscape. Fung + Blatt Architects worked with homeowners Mary Blodgett and Carlton Calvin over five years to evolve the original Calvin Straub-designed house into a collection of buildings that embrace California's indoor-outdoor living philosophy.
The project began when the property was initially marketed as a teardown, but Blodgett and Calvin recognized its potential despite its poor condition. "It was falling apart, but gorgeous," recalls Mary Blodgett. "I'm a preservationist when I can be." The original 1954 house, designed by Calvin Straub in a Japanese-influenced midcentury style, sits prominently at the center of the roughly 1.5-acre property dotted with giant, old-growth oak trees.
Architects Alice Fung and Michael Blatt of Fung + Blatt Architects approached the renovation with their signature "outside-in" design philosophy. "We like to provide different ways of experiencing the environment," explains Fung. Rather than simply renovating the main house, they embarked on a slow-but-steady development that would eventually include a ceramics studio, library, guesthouse, and pool house to align with the owners' artistic inclinations and love of entertaining.
The ceramics studio showcases the architects' innovative approach to adaptive reuse. Built using the posts and beams of an abandoned pergola from the old estate, the studio's enclosure consists of a roof elevated off the original rafters and glazing applied directly to shelves suspended between the original columns. This creative solution demonstrates how existing materials can be repurposed into functional artistic spaces.
Inspired by the rigorous geometry and post-and-beam construction of the original home, the architects designed each pavilion individually to maintain dialogue with the site while evolving the architecture into something more playful and open. The pool house exemplifies this approach, taking multiple attitudes toward the landscape with one end nestled in the treetops and the other cantilevering over the water. "We think of it as a boathouse, a tree house, and a cave," says Fung.
The architects fully embraced the California midcentury spirit of indoor-outdoor living throughout the project. From glass-backed shelving forming the walls of the ceramics studio to massive sliding doors that transform the pool house into an open-air pavilion hovering over the water, each structure connects intimately with its natural surroundings. "We're always trying to relate to the site so the architecture isn't just an object propped there," explains Fung. Blatt adds: "The buildings are made to become the landscape."
The five-year timeline allowed for an organic design process that both the architects and homeowners appreciated. "Alice and Michael designed one building at a time," says Mary. "They were drawing as fast as we were building." This methodical approach enabled the design to emerge through close dialogue with the site, ensuring each new structure complemented both the existing architecture and the natural landscape.
The contrast between old and new approaches to nature becomes evident when comparing the structures. "The original house was more about viewing nature from afar," notes architect Alice Fung of the 1954 structure perched at the highest point on the site. "The new buildings are very connected to the land and allow people to go outdoors at every level."
The completed project creates what Mary describes as an extraordinary sense of peace and tranquility. "When people come here, they're astounded," she says. "It's very peaceful—it feels like an oasis of calm and tranquility in the middle of L.A." The interior spaces feature carefully selected furnishings, including a Patricia Urquiola sofa surrounding a Nathan Young coffee table in the main house's living room, topped with an Achille Castiglioni floor lamp.
The transformation demonstrates how thoughtful architectural intervention can honor midcentury design principles while adapting them for contemporary living. By creating a constellation of pavilions that dot the landscape, Fung + Blatt Architects have shown how preservation and innovation can work together to create spaces that truly converse with nature.
