Architect Lorcan O’Herlihy Interview 4




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	Lorcan O’Herlihy

v5: You just finished up a project in Marina Del Rey, California.

LOH: Yes, I did a 2400 sq.ft. penthouse in an existing building. I was interested in the project because it reminded me of New York, an urban renovation of an existing building.

v5: I saw it a few weeks ago in the evening and it was wonderful to look out over the roof scape in Marina Del Rey and Venice, which incidentally is not something that happens in Los Angeles very often. Where you are four or five stories up and you get such a wonderful view.

LOH: It has these two incredible axes, one facing the ocean and one towards the city. That’s such a rare occasion in Los Angeles. The challenge for me was to create an interior, urban project within the context of Los Angeles, which is about the outdoors and the indoor. We created the library and an outdoor room in between. In a sense, that was part of the early modern movement.

The clients were amazing, and as ever, a good project depends on a good client. Dan and Marta had bought the unit, which had not been lived in for a number of years. When we started the project, we had to gut the whole place and tear out everything. There was a series of small rooms that were rather claustrophobic. The first challenge was the demolition, which was to strip it back to an open plan.

The solution, essentially, was to create two view axes, one towards the ocean and one facing the city. The two edge conditions became translucent, toward the existing building surfaces and transparent toward the views. A linear solution until you rise to the roof level.

When I first started the job, Marta became pregnant. Within a month, we found out she was going to have twins. So right after the initial design, they came to me and asked if I could design an office/library for Dan, since his office downstairs was now going to become the children’s bedroom.

v5: It’s a fortunate thing, because that addition to the project is one of the more wonderful spaces.

LOH: I totally agree! For me, architecturally, it was critical to the project. That whole back area, which would have been essentially, a back deck, is now an outdoor room because the library frames the space.

v5: It does that very nicely. What were some of the key client concerns?

LOH: The two issues were to create an open plan within the building and to extend the streescape to the roof.

We had a conventional program of two bedrooms, baths, living area, kitchen and an office, so one of the key issues was to create crafted materials as a way to enrichen the open space. Dan said he liked the idea of colored concrete and lighter woods such as maple and birch. So it was a combination of a functional program with a rich architectural palette of materials. My work tends to be like that.

The clients did want the master bedroom on the loft above and the concern about that was the existing loft was half the size of what I ended up doing. So I had to push out both the master bathroom and the stair to create a larger master bedroom loft.

v5: You talk about the ocean, a sort of Mediterranean quality, and a LeCorbusien vocabulary when you get to the upper roof area, the shapes. The double wall with the mezzanine relationship, the thrust and projection to it.

LOH: Yes, I stand guilty of loving Le Corbusier’s work (laughs). As ever, when you look at the projects, both in Marseilles and other places, there is always this issue of the double height space, and as you say, the kind of sculpted pieces on the deck. Light, space and form, his work is always a clear and important reference point for us.

v5: Thank you, Lorcan.

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