Palm Springs Home, Los Angeles Luxury Residence, Joshua Tree National Park Home, Californian Building

Black Desert House, Yucca Valley

Yucca Valley House, New Californian Residence design by Oller & Pejic Architecture, USA

July 4, 2020

Black Desert House

Design: Oller & Pejic Architecture

Location: Yucca Valley, Palm Springs, Los Angeles, California, USA

Modern Californian Property

The Black Desert House project began with an e-mail and a meeting in fall of 2008 for a house in Yucca Valley, which is located near Palm Springs, east of Los Angeles in the high desert near the Joshua Tree National Park.

Oller & Pejic Architecture had completed two projects in Yucca Valley and occasionally received inquiries about projects in the desert. In the midst of the economic downturn typically these inquiring led nowhere.

The architects had just had our second child and things were looking rather uncertain. They decided to meet with Marc and Michele Atlan to see if their project was a reality. Even from the first communications, Marc’s enthusiasm was noticeable.

After the first meeting, Oller & Pejic Architecture found that they shared a common aesthetic and process and after seeing the property they knew this was a project like nothing else they had done, really almost a once in a lifetime opportunity. There was no looking back, they immediately began work on the house.

Beyond the technical and regulatory challenges of building on the site- several previous owners had tried and given up– there was the challenge of how to build appropriately on such a sublime and pristine site. It is akin to building a house in a natural cathedral.

Our client had given us a brief but compelling instruction at the start of the process- to build a house like a shadow. This had a very specific relevance to the desert area where the sunlight is often so bright that the eye’s only resting place is the shadows.

Unfortunately, the site had been graded in the 1960’s when the area was first subdivided for development. A small flat pad had been created by flattening several rock outcroppings and filing in a saddle between the outcroppings.

To try to reverse this scar would have been cost prohibitive and ultimately impossible. It would be a further challenge to try to address this in the design of the new house. The house would be located on a precipice with almost 360 degree views to the horizon and a large boulder blocking views back to the road.

A long process of research began with the clients showing us images of houses they found intriguing- mostly contemporary houses that showed a more aggressive formal and spatial language than the mid-century modern homes that have become the de-facto style of the desert southwest.

Oller & Pejic Architecture looked back at precedents for how architects have dealt with houses located in similar topography and found that generally they either sought to integrate the built work into the landscape, as in the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and later Rudolf Shindler or to hold the architecture aloof from the landscape as in the European modernist tradition of Mies van der Rohe.

While on a completely virgin site, the lightly treading minimalist approach would be preferred, here Oller & Pejic Architecture decided that the Western American tradition of Land Art would serve as a better starting point, marrying the two tendencies in a tense relationship with the house clawing the ground for purchase while maintaining its otherness.

The house would replace the missing mountain that was scraped away, but not as a mountain, but a shadow or negative of the rock; what was found once the rock was removed, a hard glinting obsidian shard.

Concept in place, Oller & Pejic Architecture began fleshing out the spaces and movement through the house. They wanted the experience of navigating the house to remind one of traversing the site outside. The rooms are arranged in a linear sequence from living room to bedrooms with the kitchen and dining in the middle, all wrapping around a inner courtyard which adds a crucial intermediate space in the entry sequence and a protected exterior space in the harsh climate.

The living room was summed up succinctly by Marc as a chic sleeping bag. The space, recessed into the hillside with a solid earthen wall to lean your back against as you survey the horizon is a literal campsite which finds its precedent in the native cliff dwellings of the Southwest.

The dark color of the house interior adds to the primordial cave-like feeling. During the day, the interior of the house recedes and the views are more pronounced. At night the house completely dematerializes and the muted lighting and stars outside blend to form an infinite backdrop for contemplation.

The project would never have come about without the continued efforts of the entire team. The design was a collaborative effort between Marc and Michele and the architects. The patience and dedication of the builder, Avian Rogers and her subcontractors was crucial to the success of the project. Everyone who worked on the project knew it was something out of the ordinary and put forth incredible effort to see it completed.

Oller & Pejic Architecture is a husband and wife architecture partnership located in Los Angeles, California.

Black Desert House in Los Angeles – Building Information

Architect: Oller & Pejic Architecture
Interiors / Design: Marc Atlan / Marc Atlan Design, Inc.
Owner: Marc & Michele Atlan
Contractor: Avian Rogers / Moderne Builders
Engineer: David Choi, Castillo Engineering

Project Data:
Areas: 1,567 SF (145.6m2) house living space
630 SF (58.5m2) courtyard
743 SF (69.0m2) kitchen patio
1,386 SF (128.8m2) pool patio
537 SF (49.9m2) carport & mechanical
2.5 Acre (10,235m2) parcel
Construction Timeline:
Design 2009-2010
Construction 2010-2012

Construction Type: Wood stud frame on concrete slab on grade and suspended concrete slab.
Structural frame: Engineered wood beams, wood bearing walls above grade,
concrete block below grade / retaining
Wall Construction: Exterior cement plaster with integrally colored elastomeric finish coat;
stained wood sheathing; plywood sheathing; 2×6 wood framing with sprayed
polyurethane foam insulation; interior gypsum board.
Roof Construction: Single-ply membrane (TPO) over wood sheathing and framing with 12 inches
(300mm) of sprayed polyurethane foam insulation.
Windows / Doors: Aluminum framed, thermally broken; Low-E dual glazing
Laminated Low-E single glazing- direct glazed (living room)
Mechanical: Split heat pump (19.0 SEER) with electric element supplementary heating, forced air distribution; solar water heating with electric supplement.
Finishes: Walls /ceilings: painted gypsum board
Floors: sealed colored concrete
Fixtures: Cabinetry: IKEA, customized
Bath fittings: Duravit (toilet); Grohe (interior); Cifal & California Faucets (exterior); IKEA (countertops/ cabinets)
Kitchen: IKEA, customized (cabinets), Ceasarstone (countertop); Bosch (cooktop/ oven); Samsung (refrigerator); Dacor (microwave); Blanco (sink & faucet)
Lighting: Elite Lighting, USA (recessed) 4 in (10cm) MR-16, PAR20 lamps Ingo Maurer (pendant)
Vista Professional (exterior)
Door Hardware: Linnea

Products:

Windows / Doors: Fleetwood / US Aluminum /CRL
Elastomeric coating: Omega
Concrete color: Davis Colors
Fireplace: Majestic
Paint: Pratt Lambert
Roofing: Firestone
Mechanical: Trane
Solar water heater: Solahart
Insulation: Icynene

Photography: Marc Angeles www.marcangeles.com