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FRANK O. GEHRY & ASSOCIATES

Norton House

Venice, California 1984

This three-story house is built on a typically narrow beachfront lot, bounded by a heavily- trafficked boardwalk to the west and an alley in the rear. The owners requested access to the ocean views without sacrificing privacy from passers-by and neighbors to the north and south.

A blue-tiled box structure forms the ground-floor base to the simple stacking of programmatic elements. It contains a studio in front, two bedrooms and a double car garage in the rear. Living and additional bedroom areas on the second and third levels are raised from the street and are set back from the beachfront walk to increase privacy and allow for terraces fronting the ocean view. The wide second level deck also acts as a visual buffer between the boardwalk and the living-kitchen-dining areas, and is continuous with these areas when the glass doors are open. The kitchen's deep skylight offers visual access to the third-floor bedrooms and opens up the long narrow living area. A stair leads from the western edge of the main deck to a freestanding study whose form echoes that of the nearby lifeguard stations and is a powerful compositional element, especially when viewed from the terrace of the third-floor master bedroom. Two terraces in the rear and easy access to the roof provide further privacy with panoramic views of the eclectic neighborhood.

Diverse exterior materials include concrete block, glazed tile, stucco and wood logs. Their varied texture and colors reflect the visual chaos of the building's complex urban context.