Los Angeles-based architecture firm SPF:architects has renovated the Taylor Beach House, a 1977 home originally designed by noted California modernist Jerrold E. Lomax, FAIA (1927-2014). 

The house, located along the Malibu, California coast, is well appointed with 5,000 square feet (465-square-metre) of modern living space, 50 feet (15,24 meter) of beach frontage, and unobstructed ocean views from each floor.

SPF:a’s work focused on using advances in material technology to enhance the original modernist expressions laid out by Lomax that sought to maximize daylighting within.

"Our involvement with the home began in 2013 when the residence changed hands, sold by its first (and only) owner to real estate developer, architecture savant, and long-time Lomax admirer, Lawrence Taylor and his wife Christine Taylor," said the office.

"A seemingly middling exchange, the sale would come to be a very personal transaction for SPF:a principal, Zoltan E. Pali, FAIA, given his relationship with Lomax."

"It was important to me that the renovation not compromise the ideals Jerry imbued; those being minimalism, functionalism, efficiency, and innovation,” added Pali. 

"The resulting transformation is certainly tangible, but this is still very much a Lomax house."

Thinner window frames were installed, as were high-performance glazing and glass floors. Similarly, a modest roof aperture was replaced with an operable skylight that stretches along the central axis to thoroughly illuminate the core of the residence. 

Ocean views, too, are afforded through the front-to-rear span of the floors thanks to judiciously positioned transparent walls and partitions and a reinvigorated plan.

Other significant modifications included the peeling back of plaster column covers to expose the steel structure within, and more notably, the installation of an architectural metal staircase with glass steps extending from the first floor to the third. 

An unlikely centerpiece, the brusque aluminum construction brings the home a combination of strength and delicacy, solidity and transparency.

Although the two-year renovation would see the home stripped down to its studs—every facet brought up to code, upgraded and modernized—the residence presents itself as a more lustrous, streamlined version of its former self.

"It was important to me that the renovation not compromise the ideals Jerry imbued; those being minimalism, functionalism, efficiency, and innovation," said Zoltan E. Pali, FAIA, Design Principal at SPF:a. 

"The resulting transformation is certainly tangible, but this is still very much a Lomax house."

Jerrold E. Lomax, FAIA, was a California modernist architect and original LA12. A U.S. veteran, he enlisted in 1945 and was part of the naval occupying force in Japan. 

Although he was just 17 years old at the time, his stay, like many of the modernist totems that preceded him, informed his future design inclinations.

Indeed, Lomax found himself captivated by the simplicity, functionality and honest use of materials characteristic of Japanese design. Following the end of his service, he enrolled at the University of Houston, earning an architecture degree in 1951. 

He would shortly thereafter return to his hometown of Los Angeles, lured by the prospect of working for famed Case Study architect Craig Ellwood. 

Living room level plan

Master bedroom and garage level plan

Long section

Project facts

Project Name: Taylor Residence

Location: Malibu, California, USA 

Size: 5,000 square feet

Architect: SPF:architects, Jerrold Lomax, FAIA

All images © Matthew Momberger

All drawings © SPF:a

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