CH+D Awards/Hollywood Hills

A sculpture spelling out the title of the Smiths’ song “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” emblazons the entry corridor of the Oberfeld home, a con-temporary vision in white located on one of the ever-

coveted “Bird Streets” in the Hollywood Hills. Mauricio Oberfeld, the homeowner and—get this—the homebuilder, chose the artwork by Mexican artist Jonathan Hernandez to remind everyone who passes through the house ogling its modernist finery that heaven is still a superior place to be.

Or is it? Zoltan E. Pali, principal of Studio Pali Fekete Architects in Culver City, makes an argument for the home’s divinity by citing its architectural purity. “It started with the simplest of diagrams,” says Pali. The long arm of the L-shaped domicile houses a living room, dining room and kitchen on the ground floor, and a master suite and two kids’ bedrooms upstairs. The short tail of the configuration contains the laundry room and guest quarters. “It’s an elegant and per-fectly functional structure,” says Pali.

The open-concept floor plan and ample use of glass and rectilinear shapes speak to Oberfeld’s admiration of utilitarian dwell-ings designed by such midcentury architects as Mies van der Rohe and Pierre Koenig (whose famous Case Study House #22 is a Hollywood Hills neighbor). “I wanted a 21st-century revival of a midcentury house,” says

Zoltan E. PaliStudio Pali Fekete Architects, Culver CityOBERFELD RESIDENCE

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The L WordThe “architectural purity” of the Oberfeld residence starts with its clean diagram. “An L, pure and simple,” says architect Zoltan E. Pali of the home’s basic footprint. The main living areas are located on two floors of the configuration’s long spine, while a laundry room and guest quarters are housed around the (90 degree) corner.

2012 CH+D AWARD FOR

RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE(MORE THAN 3,000 SQ. FT.)

FEBRUARY | MARCH 2012 CALIFORNIAHOMEDE SIGN.COM 91CALIFORNIAHOMEDE SIGN.COM FEBRUARY | MARCH 201290

Oberfeld, principal of Bel Air–based Dugally Oberfeld Construction, whose portfo-lio of ornamental Italian palazzos and French chateaus belies his modernist heart.

Arguably, the virtuousness of the architecture is also owed to its narrow—by design—material palette. “The exterior is all one material cut for different pur-poses,” explains Pali. Rather than using stucco, which is susceptible to cracking and therefore not conducive to Oberfeld’s desire to live in a house that “looks as good today as it will 300 years from now,” Pali had the exterior clad in an Earth-friendly cement panelling by Swisspearl. The facing only appears to be true white; it is actually a very muted gray to avoid “a sparkling effect,” says the homeowner.

Given the home’s far-reaching stretches of glass, sparkling would have been unavoidable were it not for Pali’s idea to cut “fins” from the Swisspearl panels, arranging them at 90 degree angles to the plane of the glass and 14 inches apart. The setup is a triumph of form and function: Privacy? Affirmative. Cool visual tex-ture? Of course. Obstructed vistas? Not a chance in—well, you get the drift. Nary a glance toward the Getty Center in the distance or a glimpse of a cresting wave

Fairest of Them All Among the dining room’s

highlights are an original Ed Ruscha work, So, grandly

displayed in a custom niche, and a walnut table by Simon

Hamui with a built-in flower trough. FACING PAGE:

Pali describes the central staircase as “floating—it’s

connected only at the floors and does not touch the walls.”

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2012 CH+D AWARD FOR

RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE (MORE THAN 3,000 SQ. FT.)


on the Pacific Ocean was sacrificed in the name of these static louvers.

A retaining wall of architectural concrete—wood-molded to achieve the rustic texture of timber—extends from the outdoor lily pond through the entry corridor, offering a glimpse of the earthy luxury to come. After all, this kind of bridging—or, as Pali says, “the notion that the outdoors is united with the indoors”—is a textbook characteristic of contemporary architecture, a defrosting mechanism for sleek planes.

Nature makes a grand showing within the home as well. From the living room, the pond and its mini ecosystem of lily pads, papyrus and koi—which are just beyond a sheet of glass—seem close enough to touch. A high-dose infusion of world-famous Southern California sunlight streams through the fins, and the windows capture sweeping views of the vast ocean and the sprawling urban landscape known as the LA Basin— “wild” terrain in its own right.

The finishes throughout the home are also of a natural ilk: elegant beech floors, rich walls of wenge stone (named after the dark wood because of its likeness), chocolate-brown oak cabinetry in the kitchen and white oak on the bar. But despite these high-end details, make no mistake—the house is a no-marble zone. “We installed gold Halila limestone in places you would expect to find white marble in a house like this—in the bathrooms, for instance,” says Oberfeld. “Warmth was the goal; warmth all the way.”

This cardinal commandment puts an inviting spin on the modern architecture’s unapologetic, what-you-see-is-what-you-get style. Although Pali claims that the design “doesn’t have any secrets,” it does in fact contain a feel-good surprise: a full basement equipped with a wine cellar, spa and movie-screening room; an underbelly of small indulgences that challenges the writing on the (entry-corridor) wall. And because song titles are gospel here, perhaps a slightly less obscure lyric sung by the British postpunk band The Cure is better suited to define such a spectacle of modernism:

“Just Like Heaven.” —Leilani Marie Labong

Walk the PlanksThe entry-corridor wall, a backdrop for a typographical sculpture by Mexican artist Jonathan Hernandez, is made of board-formed concrete. In this technique, wooden planks are used to mold the concrete, which then takes on the timber’s knots and grain, bringing rusticity to the stark architecture.

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2012 CH+D AWARD FOR



Heart of Glass Between the flights of floating stairs, a glass wall extends from the basement to the second floor and contributes to the weightless effect (as do the open risers). A glass ceiling in the entry makes one feel both outside and inside at once.

Privacy? Affirmative. Cool visual texture? Of course. Obstructed vistas?

Not a chance in—well, you get the drift.

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Master Deck Views of the city and

ocean are unhindered from the master balcony,

thanks to its glass railings, although peering eyes

from the neighbors are somewhat averted with

the partial screen of cement-panel “fins.”

2012 CH+D AWARD FOR



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CH+D Awards/Hollywood Hills