Belson Residence, Hollywood 1991

The existing house, on a woodsy Hollywood hilltop, was in a casual eclectic Ranch style, added on to incrementally over time. The charge to the architect was to continue this tradition, to modify, remold, and add pieces to the house and garden over the years.

The house represents a quintessential Los Angeles design problem: how to instill in a formless, chaotic setting a powerful new order which is is still energetic, loose, and free. Hadrian's Villa is the paradigm for such an approach: that of ordering a "found chaos."