An architectural attempt to put the clock back some hundred years to showcase how beautiful a project would look — that was what Los Angeles-based studio Shimizu and Coggeshall Architects did. They remodeled and extended the25th StreetResidence, a 1920’s house that was in need of improvements and redesign. The 2,785 square foot contemporary residence is located in Santa Monica, an upscale beachfront city in westernLos Angeles County,California. The designers’ aim was to insert a 21st century addition into a 1920’s structure in a way that would contrast and complement. They had a strategy of reconfiguring small unused spaces, expanding space to handle a multiplicity of programs.

Then they set up connections and scenarios with the exterior, where every space has a unique relationship with the outside. The sustainable issues for this project were a mixture of past and contemporary technologies such as hydronic radiators that are fed by solar pre-heated water, rainwater harvesting, edible landscapes, cool roof, LED floods, phase changing drywall, and photovoltaics. Simultaneously, there was a material agenda that not only contrasted new from old, but also lined existing spaces in order to define separate programs. Materials were re-used on site: beams became benches + counters became fountains. Salvaged walnut slabs became a counter and framing harvested from a demolished factory inVernonbecame the living room floor.