Located near the famed Hollywood sign in the Los Angeles’s Beachwood Canyon neighborhood is a condensed glass cube structure spanning less than 102 square feet. Designed by the architecture and design firm Charlap Hyman & Herrero, Beachwood Studio nods to Mies van der Rohe’s well-respected Seagram Building—but in a smaller package.
The Beachwood Studio is located next to a historic 1920s stucco residence that belongs to a retired dentist, making the studio a small retreat from his home. The glass building encases a singular room with a large black, steel desk built into a bookcase that stretches the entirety of the back wall. The dense bookshelf is complemented by antique cane chairs and two chunky wooden side chairs on the opposite side of the room. All of these components come together on a custom terrazzo floor created by Ficus Interfaith.
The Brooklyn-based terrazzo artists (and friends of the architects) devised an angel-inspired design with a medallion configuration against the black and white speckled floor. The work was made from aggregate that the artisans often salvage themselves and reflects their drawings through the use of colored cement or epoxy sluice poured between metal strips. Over the course of the project, the collaborators began referring to the angel-like figure as Icarus.
In addition to the flooring, the exposed structure of the glass box is its crown jewel: the bold steel mullions and floor-to-ceiling amber doors. The structure opens up on each side with the exception of the wall with the bookcase. The structure overall is simple in nature, but it easily transforms into an illuminating glass box at night through a flick of a light switch.
The unique contrast of delicate glass with the sturdy steel frame ties to Charlap Hyman & Herrero’s biggest influence for this project: the Seagram Building. Designed in 1958 in Manhattan, the renowned building provided a new take on skyscrapers through its use of floor-to-ceiling amber glass panels and the use of extruded bronze as part of the facade.
The Beachwood Studio is a small but mighty take on the project—and it leaves a lasting impression. Charlap Hyman & Herrero designed the studio—one of the firm’s first ground-up projects—with an eye toward craftsmanship. Mies van der Rohe would have been proud, as it easily slides off his mantra, “less is more.”