Paul McClean, Architect/Owner
McClean Design
Orange, Calif.
Stephen Stubbs, President
Riviera Pools and Spas
Culver City, Calif.
Water may always seek the path of least resistance, but the same can’t be said for the best designers.
One could argue that the easiest design route on this property in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills would have been to mirror the home’s rectilinear architecture. However, that wouldn’t serve the site. Space was at a premium, and architect Paul McClean wanted to obscure the clearly aged roofs downslope.
So he used the site’s outlines to determine the pool’s shape and flow, pushing the vessel to the edges of the property. This preserved as much lawn and garden space as possible near the home, while managing the view below.
“[People] wouldn’t be able to get all the way out to the edge of the property and look down at the roofs below,” says McClean, the owner of Orange, Calif.-based McClean Design. “That really helps give you the feeling of being on your own private space.”
The effect is that of a moat, which directly intersects the home at one end and whose gentle curves contrast interestingly with the linear architecture.
In the initial conversations, the homeowners placed a firepit toward the top of their wishlist. But, given the proportion of yard space that the pool would take up, that would be a tough fit. So McClean widened the vessel at the corner and placed a sunken, generously seated firepit. It ended up being the showstopper. “It’s the Instagram moment,” McClean says. “Everybody wants to sit in that firepit and have their picture taken. We’ve had a proposal in the firepit, and we’ve had a wedding at the house where the [musicians] stood all around the edge of the firepit.”
A current generator transforms one leg of the pool into a lap lane, while a sunshelf makes room for lounging. A spa is built into the footprint of the pool itself, making it inconspicuous.
A tile 1-by6-inch tile help emphasize the length of the edge. “We did that specifically so it would follow the bends and the curvilinear nature of the pool shell, says builder Stephen Stubbs, president of Riviera Pools and Spas in Culver City, Calif. To perfect the flow over the 207-ft long spillway, Stubbs ensured the edge stood within 1 millimeter of absolutely level.
