In Association withMICHAEL B. MACLAREN A.I.A. ArchitectConnecting People to the Art of Living
Areas We Serve
Custom homes, multifamily and hospitality from Malibu to the Orange County coast, for clients who live here and for clients who do not.
The region
Southern California is not one place to build in. A hillside lot in the Santa Monica Mountains, a beachfront parcel in Malibu, a flat lot between two apartment buildings in West Hollywood and a house inside a historic district in Hancock Park are four different problems, governed by four different sets of rules, often by four different agencies. The studio works across all of them, which is why the pages below are specific rather than general: what matters in one is irrelevant in the next.
Architectural services are performed in association with Michael B. Maclaren, AIA. Licensed construction is provided by Creative New Dimensions Inc, CA General Building Contractor, Class B, CSLB #1056632, in conjunction with Apel Design for Design-Build.
Working from abroad
A good number of the people who build here live somewhere else: New York, London, Zurich, Hong Kong, Shanghai. The distance matters less than the number of parties involved. What makes a remote project difficult is a design team, a contractor, a civil engineer and a permit expediter all reporting separately to somebody eight time zones away. This studio is organised the other way: architecture, interiors, site engineering, approvals and construction delivery sit together, so there is one account of where the project stands rather than five.
For owners who cannot be here, the studio also acts as the client's representative on the ground, which is the part that usually decides whether a distance project goes well. Someone attends the site, sits in the meetings with the city, reviews what has been built against what was drawn, and reports back. Decisions that genuinely need the owner are put in front of them properly, with the options and the consequences, rather than as a question at the end of an email.
The approvals are the other half. California permitting is slow and local, and an owner abroad has no practical way to run it. Zoning, design review, hillside and coastal rules, historic districts and utility connections are handled here as part of the design rather than handed over as a separate task.
Southern California
City and regional pages are designed as useful starting points, not substitutes for a property-specific feasibility and permitting review.
Areas the studio works in that do not yet have a dedicated page. Ask about current and recent work nearby.
Beyond Los Angeles County
Not every project sits inside the areas above. The studio has built in Bradbury and South Pasadena, and works on the Orange County coast. Those projects appear in the project library rather than under an area page.
See the project library ↗Questions
Yes, and a good share of the studio's work is for owners who are not in California. The practical difference is that architecture, interiors, engineering coordination, approvals and construction delivery sit with one team, so there is a single account of the project rather than several.
No. The studio can act as the client's representative on site, attending meetings, reviewing what is built against what was drawn, and reporting back. Decisions that genuinely need you are put to you with the options and the consequences.
The studio does, as part of the design. Zoning, design review, hillside and coastal rules and historic districts are local and slow, and they are not something an owner abroad can practically run.
Yes. A feasibility study before purchase is usually cheaper than discovering after the fact what a parcel will not allow. What a site permits is the first question, not the last.