The houses that Studio Pali Fekete Architects have created over the past decade focus on basics: flowing spaces, abundant natural light, and generous proportions. For this Los Angeles firm, modernism is not a matter of style or ideology, but rather a commonsense approach to contemporary living. Their goal is to create a composite portrait of each client and their own response to the site and the benign climate of southern California. A few materials, impeccably crafted, provide a serene backdrop for living and entertaining. Photographs, plans, and sketches illustrate ten exemplary houses in great detail, and the text illuminates the creative process and the ways in which it has enriched the lives of fortunate owners.
AUTHOR: Michael Webb is the author of 26 books on architecture and design, including Modernist Paradise: Niemeyer House, Boyd Collection, Venice, CA: Art + Architecture in a Maverick Community, Art Invention House, Adventurous Wine Architecture, and Modernism Reborn: Mid-century American Houses. He has contributed introductory essays to a score of monographs, and writes regularly for The Architectural Review, Mark, Frame, The Plan and Contract. He worked in London as an editor at The Times and Country Life, before relocating to Washington DC to become program director of the American Film Institute, and later curating Hollywood: Legend and Reality, a Smithsonian exhibition that toured the US and Japan. Michael moved to Los Angeles to resume his writing career, and he lives in a classic Richard Neutra apartment that was home to Charles and Ray Eames in the 1940s. He was named Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his services to French culture, and Hon. AIA by the LA Chapter.
Zoltan E. Pali, FAIA, is the creative energy and driving force behind the SPF:a’s award-winning designs. In 1978, Mr. Pali began his architectural career, and 17 years later in 1995 he founded SPF:a. He has a degree in design from the University of California Los Angeles, and much experience in the construction industry. Before the founding of SPF:a, Pali worked for VCA, and Solberg and Lowe Architects, as well as collaborating in the case study Maestro, and was a protege of Craig Ellwood and Jerrold E. Lomax. In 1990 Pali joined up with partner Judith Meda Fekete, and five years later formed what is now SPF:a. Their award-winning firm has been featured as Architecture Magazine’s Home of the Year Award (2003) and was given the AlA National Honor Award [2005] for the design of the Somis Hay Barn. Projects range in size and scope from 5,500-square-foot private homes to the 300,000-square-foot Getty Villa Museum, and include education, preservation, residential, institutional, commercial, and health-care facilities. 230 photographs