On the Boards — Alpha26 Private Residence
Early Design Development on a single-family hillside residence in Southern California — cross-laminated timber, V-column perimeter framing, and an asymmetric roof that pushes back on LA's placeless stucco box.
We’re in early Design Development on a single-family residence on a 9,250 square foot through-lot in one of the dreamiest hillside settings in Southern California — old-growth oaks and sycamores, with the topography doing most of the talking.
The 4,000 square foot home is built in cross-laminated timber, with V-shaped perimeter columns that free up the interior plan and let the panelized system go up quickly on site. The structural logic produces a massing that feels carved rather than assembled — a calm, sustainable approach to building responsibly in a setting that asks a lot of any house placed in it.
Architecturally, the project pushes back on LA’s placeless stucco box. We’re pulling from the region’s long and ongoing conversation about how to live here: an asymmetric roof that opens the upper living level to light, breeze block walls that give the bedroom suites privacy and natural ventilation, and an overall massing that rewards the climb up the hill rather than flattening it.
Our process at Atlas Lantz Studio celebrates all tools on the table. Working through #claude and with the extension into #nanabanana, AI becomes an integral component of early project daydreaming through “over the shoulder” reviews and integrated co-working. This early visualization is not intended to be a replacement for final project visualizations, the exploration of craft and detailing or replacement of our own skills. It is a means to find efficiency in a design process that helps to fold clients in sooner through a more common and visceral form of collaboration.
More as the design develops.