Torrey Pine Entryway

A couple that live in the Anaheim Hills called me about designing and building an entryway for their home in Leucadia, CA. They were in the process of building and asked if I would come over and have a look.

The setting is magnificent, sitting on the bluff with nothing between them and the ocean except a 100-foot drop to the beach below. The architecture is modern but the clear-heart redwood siding makes it feel in sync with nature and not at all out of place. More than 50% of the front of the house, surrounding the double doors to either side and above, would be glass. They like Japanese art so we decided on a natural scene of a grouping of heavily carved Torrey pine trees across the solid mahogany doors and glass surrounding the paneling. I drew a design which they approved and we got started.

As part of the scope of the project I was to supply all the glass, 1/2" clear tempered, enclose all the structural framing around the doors and glass out of the same mahogany we were using on the doors, carve the glass and wood, and then put on the finish and install everything. The entryway has glass panels on the same planes that turn 90 degrees outward and again 90 degrees back. At the 90 degree turns there is no framework and, because my design was to be continuous, the normal butt joints wouldn't look good. So I chose to 45 degree mitre the 1/2" glass. I have never seen it done before and I haven't seen it done since. It requires extremely tight measurements and most wood and glass workers are not willing to work to tolerances that demanding, but for me it was well worth it. The glass carving is very deep, up to 1/4", giving realism to the trees.

After completing the entry we went on to build their kitchen, bath cabinets, office, and various millwork, but that's for another blog. The couple told me they have bus loads of people stop at the house on a regular basis, which you can see from the street, to take pictures of the entryway.