It doesn’t take long to realize that the driving aesthetic behind this newly revamped 6,500-square-foot Beverly Hills residence is the dramatic views of the Santa Monica Mountains, which surround it. It’s clear outside, as one passes by a vintage silver Porsche Carrera, as well as inside, where floor-to-ceiling windows appear as frequently as head-turning works of art.
“The clients are passionate collectors of art and design objects…so we knew their collection needed to play a critical role,” David Lucas, creative director at Seattle-based interior architecture and design studio Lucas, says of his clients—a New York couple who moved to Los Angeles to be closer to their grandchildren.
“The goal from the beginning was to create a genuine warmth to the home’s size and scale,” adds Suzie Lucas, David’s sister, as well as the firm’s cofounder and principal designer. (Their other sister, Rachel Lucas, joined the family business later and now serves as operations director.) “That’s always a challenge with a space like this, but particularly when you have a client with such an abundant selection of artwork and furniture.”
The home is located in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Trousdale, a community of upscale dwellings perched at the highest point of Beverly Hills that is rich in midcentury-modernist history. The original development, known as Trousdale Estates, dates back to the 1950s when celebrities, including Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra, built custom homes there. —Troy J. McMullen
After they moved from New York to Los Angeles in 2019, it took a while for Laure Heriard Dubreuil and Aaron Young to find the sweeping midcentury modern home they now share with their children, Marcel and Marguerite, ages eight and three. The view “sealed the deal,” says Young, explaining how the couple’s three-year search halted on a dark winter night when they first viewed the property, situated on one of the verdant peaks above Beverly Hills, and encountered its magnificent vista. With Los Angeles twinkling below through the glass-walled great room, which now incorporates their dining, living, and lounge areas, they knew they had found the perfect dwelling for their family. “The entire city—from Long Beach to downtown—lights up for us every single night,” adds Young, a California-born artist who emerged in the New York art scene in the early 2000s.
Retracing their first steps across the herringbone-patterned redbrick floor, which flows indoors and out, the couple lead an expedition through the house, pausing poolside, still reveling in the breathtaking surroundings. “This move was all my fault!” Young says of the shift from East Coast to West. The idea was to put down roots and create a home base for the family. “I was born in San Francisco and grew up in Monterey and Carmel. After we had our second child, I said to Laure: ‘Let’s go to California and set a foundation for the children there.’”
For her home, Heriard Dubreuil’s goal was to configure a space for their own younger generation and also to seamlessly incorporate the contemporary art and midcentury furniture with which she and her husband have lived over the past 14 years, initially in a SoHo loft and then in an East Village town house (AD, September 2016). Their collection combines personal keepsakes with museum-worthy sculptures and paintings by Young and his circle, including Dan Colen and Nate Lowman (Marcel’s godfather). “The aim was to make the art feel as though it had always lived here,” she explains.