The Model Home Will Arnett Turns to His Unofficial Intrigued by the “Smart, the Best of On-Site and Simple Things” Being Done Factory Construction
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dwellings TEXT BY PHOTOS BY Luke Hopping Miller Mobley The Model Home Will Arnett turns to his unofficial Intrigued by the “smart, the best of on-site and simple things” being done factory construction. The design guru when creating with modular housing, Will Arrested Development Arnett tapped architect and LEGO Movie actor’s a custom-prefab hideaway in the Suchi Reddy and prefab new home, completed in company LivingHomes to 2017, faces down a verdant hills above Los Angeles. design a house that merges canyon in Beverly Hills. 90 MAY / JUNE 2018 DWELL DWELL MAY/ JUNE 2018 91 dwellings Scrolling through Will Arnett’s IMDb Since the early 2000s, when his acting credits evokes the varied architectural career took off, Will has lived in multiple styles of Greater Los Angeles in rapid suc- houses on both coasts, with few constants. cession. There’s the Venice bungalow that One exception is architect Suchi Reddy, the belongs to his character Chip in the Netflix longtime collaborator whom he credits show Flaked; the terra-cotta-tiled model with refining his modernist instincts. “In home in Orange County that Gob Bluth a lot of ways, she educated me,” he says. commandeers in Arrested Development; Born in southeast India, Reddy pursued the art-filled oasis on a hill where BoJack architecture in Chennai and Detroit before Horseman, the anthropomorphic former establishing her practice, Reddymade TV dad in the animated series of the same Design, in New York in 2002. Soon after, name, looks out over the city. she met Will through a client at Saturday In real life, if Will’s home, slotted into a Night Live. While some might have been secluded dell in Beverly Hills, resembles intimidated at meeting a breakout sitcom any of his characters’, it’s BoJack’s, with its star, Reddy remembers being more similarly stacked volumes and a pool that impressed by Will’s raw understanding of backs up right to the edge of a dangerously architecture. “He’s the kind of person who steep slope. But there’s an important dis- knows how deep in the ground his piles tinction: The actor’s 3,975-square-foot are,” she says. For his part, Will shared steel-frame house, finished last year, is a Reddy’s absorption with clean design custom prefab, its stylistic origins trace- warmed by plush textures and flat-woven able back to his childhood in Canada. rugs. He soon asked her to remodel his “Growing up in Toronto, we had these apartment in Greenwich Village, followed Near the front door, great ravines, and there was one house in some years later by another project, charred oak treads float on a blackened steel stringer particular that was very modern, with a lot and then another. “You have to know your to the master suite and of glass,” he says. “I remember people say- subject,” Reddy stresses. “One of the on to the roof (below left ing, ‘That place looks weird.’ And I remem- things I like about Will is that he’s always and right). The String ber being like, it’s not weird, it’s rad.” interested in big ideas.” pendants are by Michael Anastassiades. Like the guest wing, the glass enclosure for the staircase was built on-site by VRB Construction. In the living area (above and oppo- site), Mori pendants by Rich Brilliant Willing hang above an Erased Heritage rug by Jan Kath. Porcelain panels by Neolith cover the cabinet. 92 MAY / JUNE 2018 DWELL DWELL MAY/ JUNE 2018 93 dwellings Maximizing enjoyment of who is opening an L.A. the view, a Sartoriale tub office later this year. by Carlo Colombo with “There, it has so much built-in shelving is placed blue in it. Here, it has against a floor-to-ceiling much more orange.” A window in the master bath vintage El Monte lamp (opposite). “The light is from Lawson-Fenning so different here from in is paired with an Eames New York,” says Reddy, lounge in Will’s room. 94 MAY / JUNE 2018 DWELL DWELL MAY/ JUNE 2018 95 dwellings “ I like that everything has Arnett Residence N MODULAR/PROJECT DESIGNER INTERIOR ARCHITECT LOCATION its place—the idea of form and function LivingHomes Reddymade Architecture Beverly Hills, & Design California coexisting.” Will Arnett, resident A Entrance F Powder Room K Play Area B Reflecting Pond G Utilities L Garage C Bedroom H Kitchen M Deck D Bathroom I Dining Area N Master Bedroom E Garden J Living Area O Master Closet P Master Bathroom Q Recording Booth R Guestroom/Library J K L I H M G F A E D The modules’ steel beams The appliances are by C Q R B are painted Folkstone 6005 Miele and the Cojo stools D by Sherwin-Williams, while are by Thomas Hayes. In the walls are Decorator’s the dining area (below), P D White by Benjamin Moore. Mantis chairs by Les M Vitsœ shelving by Dieter Ateliers Courbet and a N O C C Rams holds books and banquette upholstered in curios (opposite, left). The Holly Hunt fabric surround kitchen’s dark-stained oak a live-edge maple table by Lower Level Upper Level millwork (opposite, right) Camilla House. The custom and Corian-and-steel pendant is by Lambert & countertops (above) were Fils and the Pivot sconces made by Ernestomeda. are by Apparatus. In 2015, the big idea that had a hold on called LivingHomes. For her first ground- “When the company started out, we Will’s attention was prefab. “Through the up build with her longest-running client, thought we’d sell homes like iPhones,” years I’d seen it get better and better, espe- Reddy joined an ensemble cast that fea- recalls LivingHomes CEO Steve Glenn. But cially in Europe and South America,” he tured LivingHomes director of design Amy they soon realized that mishmash zoning says. Separated from his wife, actor and Sims and project manager Sean Hennigan, codes and clients’ particular tastes made a comedian Amy Poehler, he was preparing local landscape designer Michael Fiore, one-size-fits-all approach unrealistic. For to build a new home from scratch in Los and an army of contractors, specialists, Will, LivingHomes completely reimagined Angeles, envisioning a place where he and engineers. its RK2 model—a design originated by could spend time with their two boys and The L-shaped dwelling they created is legendary SCI-Arc cofounder Ray Kappe— recharge between long days on set and no catalog-order kit house. About a third downsizing the floor plan by 10 percent, far-flung press junkets. Going modular, he was built on-site, including a glass stair- among other changes. hoped, would help simplify the process. case tower and a guest wing (featuring a On installation day in September 2016, Reddy was in Cuba when she received recording booth where Will—the voice of Will took his kids out of school and invited the call of duty: Come to California and LEGO Batman and other characters—can his parents to town to watch as the imbue the project with their shared sensi- ply his trademark baritone). Even the pre- 12-foot-wide modules were craned into bility. Will had already picked both the fab section, consisting of six modules con- place. “These lots allow for eight- to ten- place, a three-quarter-acre lot on the side taining four bedrooms, two-and-a-half thousand-square-foot houses, but I didn’t of a lush hill, and the manufacturer, a bathrooms, a kitchen/dining area, and a want it to look ostentatious,” the actor high-end prefab company in Santa Monica living room, was heavily customized. explains. Nor did he want the structure 96 MAY / JUNE 2018 DWELL DWELL MAY/ JUNE 2018 97 dwellings Light streams into the master suite’s dressing to spoil the olive-and-eucalyptus-tree- constant presence. “The house itself just room through glass dotted site, which is why the cedar facade melts away,” Will says. “What you’re really panes by Western Window Systems. Clothes are has a black stain. “The dark exterior makes appreciating is the view and the light.” stored in cabinets by the green-blue tone of the landscape stand That indoor/outdoor fluidity—being able Molteni&C; a rustic out beautifully,” Reddy says. to watch his kids splash in the pool one antique bench from For the same reason, the interior is cov- minute and jet inside to the recording Amber Interiors offers a place to suit up. As in the ered in sumptuous yet subdued finishes. booth to log lines for a movie the next— rest of the house, the fir Pale fir flooring imported from Denmark may be what the busy actor enjoys most. flooring is by Dinesen. and a charcoal-colored Turkish runner From start to finish, the project took “Having worked with greet visitors in the foyer. A few steps more than two years, longer than an off- Will so much, I know he farther in, the double-height living area, the-rack prefab might have, but hardly an responds to a very calm and cool palette of beiges composed of two stacked modules, houses eternity considering the challenges. and grays,” says Reddy. a huge cabinet that’s plastered in thin Mixing on-site and factory building is no black porcelain panels. Around the corner, picnic, says Reddy: “You’re basically taking the walls in the sunken playroom are clad on two sets of problems and solving them in textured cast paper that looks like raked both.” Other factors, like site prep and concrete. Will’s girlfriend, Elizabeth Law, approvals, tacked on time, too, but not the who happens to be an interior designer, client.