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BRILLIANT SIMPLICITY

LIKE A GEM, A CONTEMPORARY HOME DEMANDS FLAWLESS EXECUTION, YIELDS AN EXQUISITE REWARD.

BY JENNIFER J. BUSH
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARTIN KING

A child’s wide-eyed wonder flows from a natural need to discover the world.  This same drive to explore and discover characterizes the work of Mark Singer, a Laguna Beach architect fluent in the contemporary form for more than 30 years.

"We never lose the desire to explore spaces," Singer said.  And what an exploration it is to enter one of his homes, where surprises are slowly revealed as you make your way through the space.  From the street, the Corona del Mar home he designed for Scott and Tammy Connelly appears to be a single-story, flat-roof structure.  Mahogany garage doors, crafted in a geometric pattern, only hint at the contemporary masterpiece beyond.  Step inside the courtyard, and the space begins to unfold.  A 60-foot walkway covered by a glass and steel canopy leads to the entry of the multilevel 5,500-square-foot home.

Clear glass, pivot doors expose an atrium with lush vegetation and a stainless steel waterfall that spills into a black marble trough. Within a few steps into the residence, the plan turns where "a view of the marina explodes," Singer said.

From here, a series of long steps leads down toward a spacious great room with a wall of two-story, floor-to-ceiling windows that capture the unobstructed view.

"The windows seem to disappear," he said.

Singer placed architectural features at every turn, which motivates further discovery of the space.

"It’s still a restrained house," he said.

He doesn’t seem to mind that his designs have been described as Zen-like. "When you’re home, you want to feel the quiet," he said.

An important element is to create a private sanctuary, he said, so the placement of the master suite is important.  The upper level of the Connelly home contains the master suite and office, separated by a steel bridge.  Because the bedroom cantilevers out 4 feet from the basic form of the building, it adds to the sense of separation.  A guest suite sits at the back on the house on a lower level than the master suite for additional privacy.

Such architectural features add to the mystique of Singer’s plans, an artistic dynamic, at once both sophisticated and simple.

"Simplicity always celebrates the surprises of nature," he said. "In a simple space, sunlight has a place to play without conflict. The sun, wind and rain can all perform their magic."

To preserve the simple beauty of the architecture, the homeowners resisted filling the house with excessive furnishings.  Initially, the couple tried to work with a few selected interior designers, but found the advice they gave conflicted with their desire for a minimalist, open plan.

"We wanted the architecture and materials to be the decorative component of the house, so that the house itself was an artistic statement," said Scott Connelly.  He gestured toward the great room’s freestanding fireplace: 18 feet high, 13 feet wide, crafted of unfilled Durango travertine.

"This is artwork."

Contemporary homes are often thought of as "cold and stark," said Tammy Connelly. But careful selection, such as the colors of the exotic woods used throughout, help make their home warm and inviting, she said.  The couple – both successful entrepreneurs – chose the materials and finishes for their home.  "We knew what we wanted and could make decisions easily," Tammy Connelly said.  In making the many decisions, they followed the advice of the architect to choose only four or five materials and repeat them throughout the house.  That gave their home continuity, she said.

"Too many materials tend to look like a showroom; there’s no focus," Singer said.  The couple made modifications to the original plan during construction as they came across features they liked.  They found a tubular steel staircase in a magazine. Placing it off the great room added the feel of a New York-style loft.  While contemporary homes can be works of art, visually compelling, they are challenging to design, to make warm and homelike, and they are also challenging for another reason.

"Contemporary homes are much harder to build," said Robert McCarthy, builder of the Connelly residence.  Why?

"They have to be built to extreme precision, because of the simplicity of the design," McCarthy said.  Lines and shapes are dramatic, so flaws are more easily noticed.  As a result they take longer to complete and can cost almost twice as much as a traditional-style home, he said.  On the Connelly house, before any construction could begin, the site had be excavated 12 feet.  This was necessary for the series of levels in the home and also to abide by a height restriction for single-story residences.  To support the structure, 75 steel caissons extend 25 to 55 feet into the soil.  It took about six months to complete the concrete work at the Connelly house.  In most jobs, the concrete work takes about a month, McCarthy said.  Once the concrete work was completed, it took about 16 months to build the home.  Exterior materials such as the Durango travertine and mahogany were brought inside for design continuity.  The openness of the plan and extensive windows further blur the separation between the inside and out.  Singer describes his creation as "a house for today; it represents the time we live in."

RESOURCES
Architect – Mark Singer Architects, Laguna Beach (949) 499-6244
Builder – RDM Robert D. McCarthy General Contractors, Costa Mesa (714) 546-1130 Photographer – Martin King, Costa Mesa (949) 294-0554

SPACE EXPLORATION: This contemporary Corona del Mar home, designed by architect Mark Singer, celebrates form, shape and space.