Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

A Los Angeles Screenwriter’s Enchanting Backyard Gets a WFH Studio to Match

A Los Angeles Screenwriter’s Enchanting Backyard Gets a WFH Studio to Match

With an arch motif, cozy interiors, and parapets resembling perfectly coiffed egg whites, the ADU by designer Ben Warwas and architect Chris Skeens turns an Echo Park garden into a whimsical retreat for a writer.

When screenwriter and author Jane Rosenthal acquired her circa-1905 house in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, it came with a backyard created by a Hollywood set designer that included a simple outbuilding set into a fanciful garden. Jane immediately transformed the structure into a writing studio, but it wasn’t long before the problems began. "Between drainage issues and a resident skunk, we simply had to replace it," she says.



Designer Ben Warwas chats with his family on the roof deck. The decking is Mangaris hardwood.

After an initial meeting with an architecture firm failed to produce a solution-"our visions didn’t mesh," Jane says-an artist friend suggested she look up Chris Skeens, who had recently cofounded Byben and Skeens with Ben Warwas. A former architect with Frank Gehry, Skeens worked with Warwas to create a replacement studio that would strike a balance between the necessities of the structure and what Jane refers to as the "kind of Shakespearean magic" of the existing site.



The terraces include a new amphitheater-like space for Jane’s work, inspired by an Instagram picture of her rehearsing a piece with actor friends; a fragment of the original garden design is incorporated into the new construction.

"She was asking for a hut," Skeens says. "So Ben and I came over with a bunch of books on African and Indonesian traditional architecture to show her what was possible." For Jane, the presence of the books was a deciding factor. "As a writer, the tactility of books is very important to me-I knew then the relationship was going to be right," she explains.

Not that there weren’t challenges aplenty: The foundations required caissons, and the closed-off site meant that the backyard property had to be accessed through a sympathetic neighbor’s yard. But the most mercurial aspect of the process was the design itself, which continued to evolve as the architects and client explored finishes and uses that drew inspiration spanning from Luis Barragan’s interiors to the Greek home of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.



Interiors feature white oak composite flooring. The skylight well above "really transforms the space into something magical," Skeens observes.



A shaft of light illuminates the interior. "A friend of mine compared the visual elements to Jodorowsky," Jane said. "Very cinematic."

"Jane was planning for smooth stucco, but I was pushing for a stucco with a heavy dash, something that would show a lot of relief and gradient of color," Warwas says. "We met somewhere in the middle."

"When we did the scratch coat of the stucco, she fell in love with it," Skeens adds. "Because the form of the building itself has such a crispness to it, the texture gives it a materiality that grounds it. That was really important for her and for us too."



The rounded doors by JT Windows and supplied by Taylor Brothers replaced an original plan for all-glass doors. "The result is much more domestic," Warwas notes.

"The biggest surprise for me is just how light and airy the finished building is," Jane says. "I had in mind something sort of cocoon-like and sequestering, and this has a spiritual openness that really grew out of the process." Skeens agrees, remembering that some of the contractors "thought [they] were working on a chapel."

This is due in part to the gracefully proportioned interior, where the ceiling curves upward at the east wall into a skylight well that Warwas cites as a key component: "We wanted to make the skylight completely part of the building as opposed to just punching a hole in the roof."



A series of retaining walls and deck spaces were designed by the architects to surround the studio. A property wall was constructed out of concrete with a new fence and lower deck made of Mangaris hardwood.



The house is accessed from both the north and south facades, and is surrounded by staircases.

The roof itself became a deck accessed by an exterior staircase. "We realized we had a roof deck opportunity due to the slope of the site," Warwas says. "It just made sense." Jane agrees: "It ties into everything else and is a beautiful feature-the view of Echo Park Lake, the space."



"The parapet makes the building look quite a bit bigger than it is and it creates an idea of mystery—or discovery," says Warwas.

The deck is framed by a fantastic parapet of scalloped "waves" that give the house its name, Stiff Peaks. "It’s a confectionary term, whipping egg whites to make an airy meringue," Skeens says, noting that the result is as light and deceptively simple in appearance as the desserts themselves. Warwas points out that the forms also serve as a balustrade for the roof deck staircase. "They were designed to be oceanic," he says. "They don’t line up—they aren’t symmetrical." Small windows puncture the parapet, including an upside-down arch that Warwas calls "a joke we wanted to make obvious without being labored-something that anyone could immediately read as humor."



The scalloped parapet gives the building its playful name, Stiff Peaks.



"This project is the beginning of ‘Fluff Menage’ architecture," quips Warwas.

Jane appreciates the punchline: "I loved working with them [and] melding the whimsical and the practical." Skeens adds, "There was a lot of laughter. We had a lot of fun."

AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
Wave of Complaints Against Apple Over iPhone 17 Pro’s Scratch Sensitivity
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Trump Says Ukraine Can Fully Restore Borders with NATO Backing
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Germany Weighs Excluding France from Key European Fighter Jet Programme
Cyberattack Disrupts Check-in and Boarding Systems at Major European Airports
Björn Borg Breaks Silence: Memoir Reveals Addiction, Shame and Cancer Battle
When Extremism Hijacks Idealism: How the Baader-Meinhof Gang Emerged and Fell
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
Trump Orders $100,000 Fee on H-1B Visas and Launches ‘Gold Card’ Immigration Pathway
France’s Looming Budget Crisis and Political Fracture Raise Fears of Becoming Europe’s “Sick Man”
Three Russian MiG-31 Jets Breach Estonian Airspace in ‘Unprecedentedly Brazen’ NATO Incident
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
The New Life of Novak Djokovic
German police raid AfD lawmaker’s offices in inquiry over Chinese payments
Volkswagen launches aggressive strategy to fend off Chinese challenge in Europe’s EV market
France Erupts in Mass ‘Block Everything’ Protests on New PM’s First Day
×