Feature: House Proud: House of Simple Pleasures

M.G. Lord

03/01/2004

In 1993, when CurtCo Robb Media Creative Director Robert Ross purchased his house in Southern California, it was not the exquisite, art-filled castle on manicured grounds that it is today. Rather, he recalls, it was a “poured-in-place concrete atrocity,” one of several mushroom-shaped silos that a developer had built on spec in the Woodland Hills neighborhood in the 1980s. Weeds covered the property, which had belonged to a former platinum record–earning rock musician who had allowed it to go into foreclosure rather than relinquish his most cherished possession: a Lamborghini.

The round house.  (Click image to enlarge)
Los Angeles architect Craig Townsend had expected Ross to buy empty land and build his dream house, so he was startled when he saw the structure Ross expected him to adapt. “I thought he was out of his mind,” Townsend says. After getting over his initial shock, however, Townsend began to see the structure’s potential. In a city like Los Angeles, where fantasy architecture abounds—Norman castles next to modernist jewels next to scale models of Versailles—living in a mushroom is not that bizarre. Townsend rose to the challenge, preparing sketches and beginning the transformation.

A Josef Hoffmann rug defines the open-plan second floor. The kitchen is concealed behind a monolithic cabinet. (Click image to enlarge)

The first step was to gut the entire interior. The home’s 1,400 square feet had been carved into small, undistinguished rooms, like slices of a pie. The ceilings were covered with acoustical cottage cheese, which was immediately scraped off. But there were only so many changes Townsend could make. Because the plumbing was embedded in concrete, it could not easily be altered. Townsend had to work with existing outlets. The windows were also poured in place, so he could not conveniently whittle out new ones. He could, however, obstruct some, which he did to create the library Ross required for his extensive collection of art and architecture books. Appropriately, the library contains lush wood cabinets modeled on designs by early-20th-century Viennese architect Josef Hoffmann, whose work emphasized rich materials and craftsmanship as a reaction against shoddy, mass-produced objects. 

Study off the main room.  (Click image to enlarge)

Townsend’s other mandate was to accommodate Ross’ taste and eccentricities, or as Ross puts it, to “create a pleasant and contemplative space for sleeping, reading and listening to music.” This did not include plans for an extensive cooking area. With an under-the-counter refrigerator and touch-latch cabinets that form a seamless paneled wall, the kitchen blends into the living area around it. “I’ve cooked in the kitchen once since I’ve lived in the house,” Ross says. “One of my only pleasures is going out to eat.”


Minimal kitchen keeps things simple, as cooking at home is not a priority. Appliances are invisible from the living area. (Click image to enlarge)

Townsend knew Ross’ quirks well. The two met in the 1980s, when Ross was a project manager in the facilities division at the University of California at Los Angeles and Townsend was commissioned to revamp several campus buildings that date from the 1920s and ’30s. Ross, who had studied painting in college, had no intention of managing construction projects indefinitely. In addition to his responsibilities at UCLA, he was working long hours to build a freelance graphic design business. Success only increased the hours he put in, first in that business, and now in his present job. “I work like an animal during the day,” he says wryly, “then go straight to bed with a book or some prints.”

Upstairs bath off the study.  (Click image to enlarge)

The bedroom, which Townsend situated in the center of the first floor, is a round spare cocoon furnished with a sleek Italian bed and the “prints”—a wall of treasures from his collection of 15th-century Northern European engravings—with which Ross likes to retire. His taste in graphic art is elevated and arcane. He prefers the likes of Hans Baldung and Martin Schongauer, for example, to Albrecht Dürer, dismissing the relative availability of Dürer prints as “thick on the ground.” Because his collection is too large to exhibit in its entirety, he rotates the pieces on display. And he devotes much of his spare time to its “care and feeding,” going so far as to cut the mats for the prints himself. To create the bedroom’s tranquil, museumlike feeling, the walls and bedspread are free of dramatic color, as peacefully monochromatic as a black-and-white engraving.

Downstairs library is for reading and relaxation. Furniture and rug are an eclectic mix of Hoffmann designs. Framed prints are frequently rotated to prevent light damage. (Click image to enlarge)

Next to the bedroom is the library, where shelves with locking glass doors protect Ross’ books from dust. What had been a window-filled wall is now a fireplace, which adds coziness to the room and reduces the exposure of his books to the ravages of sunlight.


Townsend placed Ross’ main living area in the spacious dome above the structure’s circular core. At the center of the dome is an oculus through which light pours in. The second floor features the stealth kitchen, a wall of windows, a sitting area with chrome-and-leather furniture, and a haven for reading that contains an iconic Le Corbusier chaise longue. A narrow deck runs along its perimeter, overlooking the grounds, which are designed to be low maintenance. “Bob would rather contemplate the garden than go out in it,” Townsend says.

Assumption of the Virgin by Martin Schongauer typifies late-15th-century German engraving.  (Click image to enlarge)

In Townsend’s view, the project is successful to the degree that it reflects Ross. “A lot of architects develop a certain style or character and people feel comfortable buying that, the way they would a Chevy or a Ford or a Monet or a Picasso,” he explains. But when Townsend works with clients, he puts their needs first, presenting them not with a canned look but with the “opportunity to do something unique to them.” Ross, because of his well-defined taste, was in an ideal position to take advantage of this philosophy.

The thick walls of the downstairs round bedroom support the entire structure. B&B Italia bed is centered in the space amid 15th-century engravings and woodcuts. (Click image to enlarge)

Yet Ross says it was Townsend’s creativity, as much as his own, that made the transformation work. “I would not do to him what my own nightmare clients did to me,” Ross says. “My role was to give him a completely free hand.”

St. Michael Slaying the Dragon, circa 1480, by the Netherlandish engraver known only as Master FvB.  (Click image to enlarge) 

Years of residence have implanted Robert Ross’ stamp firmly on the house. One recent addition, however, seems finally to complete it. Just as in the days before its former owner allowed the house to go into foreclosure, the garage once again contains a Lamborghini, which Ross has meticulously restored. 
 
Craig Townsend
818.344.4195