Hill House

Hill House is a single-family residence designed by Johnston Marklee for a challenging hillside site in Pacific Palisades, California. The brief centered on two primary constraints: optimizing the allowable building volume within a restrictive zoning envelope and reducing the structural footprint to limit foundation work on the irregular and sloped terrain. The house's form directly records the shape of the zoning envelope, resulting in a volume that adapts closely to the gradient of the site and the local code. Design responses include a strategic window layout, where the number of openings is kept low to preserve privacy from neighboring properties, but their sizes are expanded in key areas to capture distant views and encourage natural cross-ventilation. The exterior cladding intentionally minimizes visual breaks between roof and wall surfaces, creating a continuous skin that emphasizes the volumetric geometry rather than traditional façades. Landscape design by Lush Life LA mediates the transition between the building and its hillside context, while lighting and structural engineering were coordinated to support the design intent. These choices together address both the technical challenges of building on a slope and the desire for interior spaces that are outward-focused and efficiently arranged within the code-defined outline.

Typical architect fee for a 4,950 sq ft new home here: $100,000 – $285,000Full services, California · BLS wage and Census construction data

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