Montalba Architects Completes Two Southern Californian Homes

Manhattan Beach House © Kevin ScottCanyon Terrace House © Kevin Scott

Los Angeles, September 6, 2022 – Montalba Architects recently completed two new residential homes in Southern California with each elegantly showcasing Montalba’s mastery of natural light and integrated landscape. Founded in 2004 by Swiss-American architect David Montalba, the firm is known for a duality in their approach to design that integrates Californian openness and Swiss rigor. Both Canyon Terrace House and Manhattan Beach House demonstrate this refined style while seamlessly blending with their respective natural landscapes. 

“Each of these homes presented different challenges as responses to unique conditions of the site and objectives of the Clients,” says David Montalba. “The two are somewhat contrasting, but at the same time integrate indoor outdoor spaces and vertical organization to adjust to their sites while weaving private landscape throughout.”

Canyon Terrace House is a comfortable family home integrated within the natural landscape of Southern California’s Santa Monica Canyon. Designed to create a dialogue between the indoor and outdoor spaces while respecting and reflecting the stunning landscape, glass is utilized throughout to allow for greenery to sweep in. Full height glass doors create seamless indoor to outdoor transitions within family gathering areas. From here the home encircles the skylight wood staircase that tethers together the two levels, split level and basement. Crafted by carefully selected materials, the house features an abundance of wood alongside a through-line of limestone woven from the entryway to the living room fireplace and onto the pool terrace. 

In a Southern California beachside neighborhood, where three-story houses are densely packed, Manhattan Beach House provides a spacious, peaceful feeling, and a connection to internalized landscape throughout the varied levels The home features many of the firm’s design values, including circulation within the home derived from tall connecting spaces, an interior courtyard that is visible throughout the house and an abundance of natural light. The third floor living spaces adjoin a lap pool and vertical garden open to the sky. From the farthest, highest part of the house, at the end of the pool, one can look across the water, through the living room, to the ocean beyond.

Based in Santa Monica, California, David Montalba’s history includes over 26 years of professional practice with architectural firms in the United States and Europe before founding his eponymous studio in 2004. The firm has won awards for residential, retail, commercial, hospitality and urban design on a global scale. Most recently they were awarded Architizer A+Awards People’s Choice for Best Architecture Firm in North America. On August 30, Artifice Press will publish a new book entitled Place and Space that showcases Montalba Architects’ scale and breadth of work since its foundation. 

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About Montalba Architects

Founding Principal David Montalba, FAIA, SIA, started Montalba Architects in 2004 and is the driving force of leadership and design within the firm. Montalba Architects is a diverse architecture and design studio of more than 60 designers based in Santa Monica, CA and Lausanne, Switzerland. The award-winning practice is engaged in retail, residential, hospitality, and other select commercial projects in the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Believing that architecture and one’s environment can truly improve quality of life, Montalba's approach is humanistic in nature, which often leads to solutions that are discrete, contextual, yet conceptual in their intent, effect, and appeal. Montalba Architects’ original Santa Monica studio is located within Bergamot Station, a creative hub and arts district at 2525 Michigan Ave., Bldg. T4, Santa Monica, CA. Montalba Architects, Sàrl is located at Rue Centrale 6, 4 eme stage, Lausanne, CH-1003, Switzerland.