Fung + Blatt Architects evolves a San Marino midcentury into a creative retreat that converses with nature.
“We like to provide different ways of experiencing the environment,” says architect Alice Fung of her firm Fung + Blatt’s outside-in approach to design. Such was the case for her and partner Michael Blatt’s slow-but-steady development of a hillside property in San Marino, where a constellation of pavilions now dot the landscape.
In San Marino, Fung + Blatt Architects updated a property with a midcentury home originally designed by Calvin Straub. Besides renovating the main house, pictured here, the designers added a series of pavilions to the landscape.
Photo: Mark Mahaney
While the property was sold to Mary Blodgett and Carlton Calvin as a teardown, the couple saw its potential. “It was falling apart, but gorgeous,” recalls Mary. “I’m a preservationist when I can be.” In the living room of the main house, a sofa by Patricia Urquiola surrounds a Nathan Young coffee table, capped with a floor lamp by Achille Castiglioni.
Photo: Mark Mahaney
On a promontory at the center sits the original 1954 house, designed by Calvin Straub in a Japanese-influenced midcentury style. Over a period of five years, the architects remade the main house and added a ceramics studio, library, guesthouse, and pool house to align with the owners’ artistic inclinations and love of entertaining.
The ceramics studio was built with the posts and beams of an abandoned pergola from the old estate.
Photo: Mark Mahaney
See the full story on Dwell.com: A 1954 Los Angeles Home Moves Into the Future With a Collection of Pavilions in the Landscape
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