Silvertop

In 2015, Terrain was engaged to act as project manager and technical consultant for the renovation and historic reconstruction of Silvertop, one of Los Angeles’s most iconic modernist residences.

Designed and constructed in 1963 by John Lautner, the project was never fully completed and today suffered from decades of deferred maintenance. Remarkable not just for its architectural design but also it’s early use of novel building automation features. The project included the reconstruction and rehabilitation of a series of enormously complicated devices: masonry walls that open to reveal a bar setting; an 188″ wide glass wall that disappears into the floor, motorized cypress shutters and a sophisticated lighting control system. Each of these elements were restored through consultation with specialty fabricators and consultants, resulting in a project that not only looked fully restored, but after 50 years, was finally able to achieve its original design intent.

At the project start Terrain quickly administered a multi-disciplinary value engineering exercise to bring the restoration within financial parameters and reconstructed an expedited client approved project schedule. We also devised a multi-phase permitting strategy to speed construction while minimizing uncertainties related to discretionary approvals from cultural resource bodies.