Why a Top Architect Chooses to Live in West Hollywood

Around 1999, before the U.S. economy took a dive amid the collapse of the dotcom bubble, Los Angeles-based architect Clive Wilkinson and his wife were in the throes of planning their personal castle in the sky—an assertively modern house with the requisite infinity pool and 180-degree city views from a Hollywood Hills perch.

But their marriage fell apart, and with it, the home plans. Suddenly single, Wilkinson retreated to a small 1920s cottage in the flats of West Hollywood to lick his wounds.

Just then, Google came along. Wilkinson’s company, Clive Wilkinson Architects, was commissioned to renovate Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, CA—a $15-million job at the time that was the architect’s first major assignment as well as the backdrop for a great social experiment.

In designing Google’s headquarters, Wilkinson put into action many progressive ideas about what a workplace could be. Google workrooms got yurt-like tented fabric roofs and beanbag chairs for brainstorming. It wasn’t long before other high-profile commissions—Nokia and BBC, among them—crystallized Wilkinson’s reputation for creating office settings in which creativity blossoms.

So is it any wonder then that when it came time for Wilkinson, a native South African, to build his own house, he launched into another great social experiment: Constructing a space that would inspire as much lively interaction as possible—this time on a more intimate level.

Walking into Wilkinson’s 3,300-square-foot, three-bedroom home on Norwich Drive, just south of Melrose Avenue, it’s impossible not to instantly sense the easy, human flow of the house.

Two intersecting “barns” surround a pool and courtyard, and a third barn works as a master bedroom suite. A generously scaled glass front door welcomes guests with a view through the entire house—a design trick that enlarges the narrow lot. The living room leads into a double-height kitchen and dining space, at the side of which stands a stairway leading to guest quarters and an office.

Wilkinson’s guiding spirit of playfulness and innovation asserts itself throughout the stucco house. He clearly delights in aggressively subverting the expected, turning design standards upside down—sometimes literally.

He planned the master bedroom for the ground floor, facing a private courtyard. “Upstairs you’re more aware of neighbors and passing cars,” he explains. He lined ceilings with plank wood, connecting the interiors with the outdoors, and covered floors and the staircase in surprising white rubber—a fusion of the natural with the high-tech. Wilkinson’s office desk, also done up in plank wood, is suspended from the ceiling.

Why Weho?

The easy indoor/outdoor flow of homes in Los Angeles is one of the reasons Wilkinson moved to the city in the first place. And he chose West Hollywood to settle down because, in his opinion, it’s the most diverse and urban part of Los Angeles.

“I liked the fact that I could walk to literally 40 restaurants from my house, and in addition, could walk to work,” he says, referring to his two former offices of 16 years on South Robertson Boulevard, which consolidated and relocated last year to a building that Wilkinson built in Culver City. “It is like having a bit of fine-grained Europe in a city with the most perfect weather on earth.”

Wilkinson admires West Hollywood’s efforts to preserve its architectural history, thereby giving the neighborhood an authentic sense of place. Not surprisingly, he likes several buildings in Weho, all for different reasons.

“I love the original Schindler House on Kings Road, which I would rank in the top 10 all-time great houses of the world,” says Wilkinson, adding: “I also like its very new neighbor—the condominiums by my friend Lorcan O’Herlihy.”

Wilkinson enjoys spending time at the new Weho Library on San Vicente. “It’s a fine building and a great resource for the city,” he says. “My fiancé and our kids go hang out there.”

The grand old Chateau Marmont, probably more impregnated with showbiz than any other hotel in L.A., and the Sunset Tower buildings, are also Wilkinson’s favorites. “Both of these predate World War II and certainly conceal stories about past Hollywood glamour and intrigues,” he says.

Some places are “barely buildings,” as Wilkinson puts it, but are still admirable. “I like Dan Tana’s dive restaurant on Santa Monica, and Soho House, which is really a penthouse, but a great social condenser on Sunset,” he says.

Finally, there are “those introverted buildings like Maxfield on Melrose,” says Wilkinson. He likes them, too, because they “turn their backs on the mundane in favor of creating their own fantasies within.”