(This article was published in California Homes magazine) >When Joe Ambrose began to count the number of times he had “imposed” on former clients-asking if he could show this or that house to prospective buyers-he realized it was time to build his own place.< “People always said ‘yes’ but I hated to ask so many times,” says Ambrose, of Ambrose Associates, Inc., an architecture, land planning and landscape architecture firm in Beverly Hills. But having made up his mind, the slim, dark-haired designer (at 46 he looks 36) wasted no time. A coilspring of energy once a project has been identified, Ambrose gets moving fast and stays on track. Thus in October, 1990, just one year after construction began on the hilly, five-acre lot near the end of Coldwater Canyon in Beverly Hills, the house was ready, including furnishings. An elegant but simple two-story Mediterranean house with a white stucco exterior and tile roof, the 6,600-square-foot home has three bedrooms and baths, a formal living room, formal dining room, informal living room and dining area, large kitchen, hall, powder room, maid’s quarters, laundry and service area and a large garage. Cost to build the house, which contains polished marble, buff-finish limestone floors, cherry and burled elm paneling and woodwork, trompe l’oeil details, oversized windows, polished granite counters, custom cabinetry and hardware, and eleven to thirteen-foot ceilings: a reasonable $175 per square foot. “It’s a great house to live in,” says Ambrose. “And great as a sales tool, too, because I can show people through on a moment’s notice.” Though Ambrose owns a home in Laguna Beach and spends weekends there, he insists that the Coldwater Canyon house is not a “built-on-speculation” house and that like the Laguna Beach house, he’ll never sell it. Here in Coldwater Canyon, Ambrose is close to Beverly Park, a posh development in the hills above the Beverly Hills Hotel where one-acre “estates” begin at $5 million. Since 1981, he has been Beverly Park’s land planner and landscape architect as well as architect and/or interior designer for a majority of the sixteen homes in Phase I. Phase II is now underway, with a dozen homes finished and a total of sixty-four planned, starting at $11 million. When prospective buyers, who find Ambrose mostly by referral, first glimpse the Coldwater Canyon house from the road below, they’re surprised to see a conservative facade with a modest front door, a small, windowed tower and garage doors. But from the south or back side, where a private tree-shaded yard and the pool and patio are sited, the house is a broad, classically proportioned building with thick symmetrical columns and deep portico reminiscent of a Palladian villa. Inside, the traditional design is softened with contemporary elements that Californians like-big windows, sliding glass doors, an easy flow of light and space between rooms, cozy furniture groupings and state-of-the-art lighting technology. Visitors enter a formal entry hall, which introduces the color scheme found throughout-gold, beige and green-and the covered forms echoed in doorways, passageways and woodwork. Across from the stairs is the formal living room, a place designed for the more thoughtful side of California living: reading, listening to music or playing chess. The walls are paneled with cherry wood finished in a soft tan, with insets of Carpathian elm. The fireplace is framed in polished green marble, repeated in the green marble coffee-table top. Two paintings by Bernhard Gutmann and a portrait of a young man by Joseph Kleitsch hangs on the walls; the paintings are formal in both feel and color, as befits this room. A number of beautiful and rare deco glass pieces are displayed here. A formal dining room adjoins the living room (not pictured here). And the rear of the house contains the informal living room, intended for visiting, entertaining and watching television. Here over-stuffed furniture, upholstered in light, casual fabrics and leather is arranged in intimate groups, as if waiting for sunbathers to come in from the pool area The big kitchen is designed for entertaining, with long polished granite counters, a center island and lots of cupboards. Appliance doors are paneled with stained white oak, to match the woodwork and cupboards. In the front hall a formal staircase with matching curved cherry wood banisters rises to the second floor where a small hall has an upholstered bench seat. The stairwell is illuminated by daylight from tall windows in the tower; at night a huge chandelier on a chain lights the stairs. Each bedroom has a different mood, yet all employ similar design elements. The master bedroom, at the rear looking over the garden and pool, is decorated with art deco designs and accessories, some originals and some reproductions. The second bedroom has a Santa Fe feel; Ambrose is currently using it as a home office. The guest bedroom, over the garage, has the feel of a Caribbean beach house, with shuttered windows and light colors. If the overall mood of the house is casual, it may be because Ambrose’s roots are in Laguna Beach, where he lived for fourteen years before building this house. “Laguna Beach is my spiritual home,” he admits. “That’s certainly where I began to get interested in paintings.” In fact, though the house is first and foremost a home to be lived in, it was designed with Ambrose’s growing art collection in mind. In recent years, he has developed a passion for American Impressionist painters, whose work he pursues with the same energy he applies to architecture. To date Ambrose has amassed sixty paintings by American Impressionist artists, Bernhard Gutmann and Joseph Kleitsch being the best well known. Ambrose has also discovered antique French art deco glass, picking up rare finds in flea markets and antique stores both in Los Angeles and abroad. “I’m fascinated by light and color,” he says, pointing out that the interplay of the two elements characterizes both handmade glass and impressionist work. Both collections have attracted the admiration of art scholars. This April the Los Angeles County Art Museum has included his Coldwater Canyon house on its annual six-home Art & Architecture tour. For those on tour, however, it’s certain Ambrose’s house which he also interior designed in conjunction with Michael Feddersen, interior design director at Ambrose Associates, will get as much attention as his art. Publications : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8