Weekend read: Meet our trailblazing architect
Plus, tips for saving money when building and how to find a great architect.
Hi there! Quick housekeeping note: Thanks to everyone who weighed in on the pizza oven post with your own reviews. I’m learning a ton from your comments—keep ‘em coming! Also, I think “neck tattoo” in the title, which I thought was funny, turned people off. Open rates were down. Learning as I go here… Thanks for sticking with me. On that note, here’s a nice message from a reader. Have a great holiday weekend!
“I joined Food52 in its first year, and I have been a loyal and devoted follower of yours ever since. I believe in you and what you do. Your warmth, kindness, creativity, and intelligence shine through in your work. I will continue to be a loyal and devoted follower here and can't wait for what you create next!” - Abney Harper
The last time I wrote about our renovation, Tad and I had just bought our Ojai house knowing it would need work to suit the way we wanted to live. We had a few specific goals: a design that captured the quintessential indoor-outdoor California lifestyle and the simplicity of 1960s and 1970s layouts; an open living room and kitchen; studies for each of us to work in; and as many guest bedrooms as we could squeeze in.
While the house had the exterior affect of a Craftsman-style home, it was really just a ranch house. We’ve lived in a single-floor apartment for most of our adult lives, so ranch houses felt familiar. They were also practical: no stairs to climb as we age. For indoor-outdoor relaxed California design, there was no better architect than one of Rudolph Schindler’s acolytes, Barbara Bestor.
Barbara is known for both her commercial work—she designed the Beats by Dre headquarters and a Clare V. shop, among many other spaces—and residential work, which includes this surf shack, a canyon house, the revitalization of a John Lautner home, and this spectacular house, originally designed by Frank Lloyd Wright protegé Foster Rhodes Jackson. Her firm conceived of the LACMA 2022 show “Scandinavian Design and the United States, 1890–1980” and created the Blackbirds small-lot housing project in L.A.’s Echo Park. Barbara also wrote Bohemian Modern, which influenced a generation of L.A. designers. Bestor Architecture’s mission is that “everyone should experience strange beauty every day.”
When Barbara and I talked recently, she caught me up on a project she’s involved in called Case Study: Adapt, which was inspired by the original Case Study program and was created to rally leading architects to put forth “bold new ideas” for homes being rebuilt in the Palisades and Altadena.
In addition to her work, what I like most about Barbara is that she’s a trailblazer. At a time when there were very few women architects in L.A., Barbara busted out on her own and built her firm from nothing. The project that first won her attention was a renovation of her own unconventional house. She saw a gap. She took the leap. Go, Barbara, go!
Tad and I got an introduction to Barbara through friends. To our surprise, she showed up at our place the same day we saw it for the first time. Barbara was wearing Nili Lotan pants, a t-shirt, and sneakers—a great sign, in my view, as it signaled low-key approachability. After she walked through the house, she plunked down on one of the boulders outside and began sketching ideas for how to rearrange the place. The back patio roof would take some time to figure out, but the rest of the house was clear in her mind. She treated it like a twice-baked potato, scooping out the middle and re-filling it with something better.
At first, I was confused why she’d take on a project like ours. But the more I’ve gotten to know Barbara, the more I see that while she’s savvy about building the reputation of her firm through high-visibility commercial and residential projects, at heart, she gets excited by spaces and likes to build things, no matter the budget. As she noted to me, she builds $20 million homes—and yes, these are the ones you see in magazines that bring in other big projects—but she’s just as happy helping her daughter figure out design solutions for her first apartment, even if it means picking up a pre-built shower at Home Depot.
Here’s a capsule of our conversation, which covers everything from how people live differently in an age of social media to the value that good architects provide.
As an architect, when you become known for a particular look, is that limiting? Do you find that because clients want a “Bestor house” it can constrain you from further expanding your design language?