Monthly Archives: December 2011

I love great architecture.  There is something amazing about exploring a home that has been beautifully designed and not just built.  Even if you are not particularly crazy about the style or decor of the home, you can still feel great design:  The structure has Life.  In Manhattan Beach, and the surrounding Beach Cities, it can be difficult to create original design that fits on our tiny lots.  A Sand Section home is typically 30′ x 90′ with only 6′ between you and your neighbors on each side; each home struggling to get in 3+ garage spaces, at least 3 bedrooms and 3 baths, a great kitchen, open family room and, of course, working in windows and/or decks anywhere you can get a glimpse of the ocean.  Fitting all of this into three stories with a stairwell and possibly an elevator and constrained by Code requirements seems to defy creativity.  However, it can be done with the vision of an amazing architect– to my mind they are artists – engineers – social ecologist all rolled into one.   The attached article caught my attention today as we near the end of 2011.  I look forward to what is in store for 2012 and what beautiful designs lay ahead. I look back at 2011 to several homes that sold this past year that have Life.

See the Wall Street Journal article on Local Architects and a few examples of our South Bay architecture below