Avenue 49 ADU
Sycamore Grove, Los Angeles, CA
Residential / ADU
1,200 SF
Private
In Construction
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After outgrowing their 750 sf house, a family of four recognized that building a backyard ADU would be a financially feasible option to upsize.
At 1,200 sf, the Ave 49 ADU is the maximum allowable floor area. The necessity for more space in this scenario inverts the typical scalar relationship between a home and an ADU. As the program requirements coupled with the area constraints reduced many of the rooms to the smallest acceptable size, the goal was to make confined spaces feel larger.
The building’s height and position on higher grade allow for unobstructed views through the wide primary bedroom window and over the top of the front house.
The design maximizes the limited allowable floor area by calling attention to the leftover and in-between spaces that are generally hidden away. By conceptually expanding walls, revealing attics and chases, and inhabiting chimneys, domestic elements that are typically dormant become occupiable and experiential. These strategies extend the volumetric and perceptual space of the home.
The siting of the ADU takes advantage of the existing site terracing with a split-level ground floor. An outdoor patio is created beneath a cantilever at the rear corner of the ADU.
Notably, there are two “roofs” in the project: a lower roof and an upper roof. The upper roof is pitched, creating expansive vaulted ceilings over primary spaces, while the lower roof is flat to denote secondary spaces. The upper roof is cut which allows diffuse light to reach the center of the plan, and a skylight over the foyer provides a view into the space between the two roofs.
Many of the lots in Sycamore Grove include second flats to the rear. The neighborhood's relative density (compared to other R-1 neighborhoods) is established by building behind and between.
Further, carefully detailed wood framing is left exposed to conflate structure and interior finish treatments. In these ways, the design celebrates traditional construction methods while complicating typical notions of concealment.
View toward Mt. Washington from the framed primary bedroom window.
The upper roof, continuous over the low roof, distinguishes the bedrooms and master bathroom from the closets, circulation and children’s bathroom. The open attic space sends light toward the center of the plan.
This diagram highlights the unique elements that are experienced through highlighting leftover spaces like chimneys, chases, and exposed attics.
The particularities of the cuts in the pitched roof necessitate three ridge beams to facilitate the proper alignment of the exterior finishes.
On the interior, the core and the stairwell are clad in dimensional wood members that simultaneously suggest wainscotting and building framing. The materiality blurs the boundaries between the traditional wood construction and finish elements of a home.
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