Travis Roderick working with Sky-Frame

Das Getty Center in Los Angeles, eine leuchtende Akropolis aus hellen, mit Travertin verkleideten Gebäuden, die auf einem elegant gestalteten Hügel in Brentwood thront, ist eine der prächtigsten Sehenswürdigkeiten der Stadt. Südlich des Getty Centers befindet sich ein Hügel, dessen ungehinderte Ausrichtung ihm wohl einen noch besseren Panoramablick bietet als seinem weltberühmten Nachbarn. Der Möbelmagnat Evan Cole kaufte das Grundstück im Jahr 2004 und war 2019 bereit, hier ein neues Haus zu bauen, inspiriert von der exquisiten Kunstfertigkeit des Getty Centers und unter voller Ausnutzung der einzigartigen Lage.

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Coleoles Architekt Thomas Juul-Hansen entwarf das Design und schuf mit raffinierter Handwerkskunst, eleganten Materialien und anmutiger räumlicher Gestaltung eine architektonische Symphonie. Aber es war der Bauunternehmer Travis Roderick, der als Dirigent fungierte. Über vier Jahre hinweg leitete er täglich die ausserordentlich komplexen Bauarbeiten auf dem Hügel. Er übernachtete zwar nicht vor Ort, lebte aber mehr oder weniger dort. „Es gab so viele bewegliche Teile“, bemerkt Roderick, ein Branchenveteran, der das 1.400 Quadratmeter grosse Haus als sein bisher anspruchsvollstes Projekt bezeichnet. Zu seinen Aufgaben gehörte es, unzählige winzige Details und Verbindungen zu überwachen, mehrere Tonnen schwere Bauteile an ihren Platz zu heben, die Lieferungen von Werkzeugen und Materialien zu koordinieren, deren Beschaffung durch die Pandemie stark eingeschränkt war, die sehr steile Auffahrt zum Haus zu bewältigen und bis spät in die Nacht aufzubleiben, um den Plan für jeden Tag auszuarbeiten.

„Jeden Tag musste ich mir überlegen, wie ich diesen Container mit Steinen hier hochbekomme. Wie schaffe ich den Beton hierher? Und den Stahl? Wie sollte ich den Schutt hier wegschaffen? Es war definitiv eine Herausforderung … Es war nicht so einfach, alles zusammenzusetzen. Das Ergebnis, sagt er, steht dem Getty in nichts nach. „Es ist nicht nur die Kunst im Getty, alles dort ist wunderschön. Ich habe das Gefühl, dass es hier genauso ist.“ Das dreistöckige Gebäude schwebt über einem soliden Sockel und öffnet sich bemerkenswert zur Stadt hin. Das höhlenartige Wohnzimmer ist das Herzstück des Hauses, mit zwei Seiten, jeweils mit 6 Meter hohen motorisierten Sky-Frame-Glasschiebetüren, die die Grenze zwischen Innen und Außen deutlich verwischen und den Blick auf die faszinierende Umgebung lenken. („Sie werden nie etwas sehen, das so klar ist wie dieses Glas“, sagt Roderick.)

The windows, which can disappear to open the space completely, weigh more than 1,500 pounds. They were installed via crane. “We had a crane sitting in what is now the living room. The glass would come in horizontally, and we would flip it to set it in place,” Roderick notes. The living space now opens without interruption onto a layered, 5,000 square-foot deck and cantilevered, kidney-shaped pool. “If you aren’t in awe here, then you don’t have awe in you,” says Roderick, who calls the Sky-Frame centrepiece “a great, polished piece of art.” “You just feel like you’re floating on the clouds,” Roderick notes that this heightened sensation is softened via a profound sense of peace, particularly in the magic hour, when the hilltops and the home’s surfaces glow in the warm light.

“The sun's a little bit more calm .. it’s more tranquil, peaceful. Everybody’s out there on the freeway. You're only a mile from the 405. But I feel like I'm a mile away. It's like, that's in hell, this is bliss.” He describes the home as having a “zen vibe.” “It’s calming here,” he notes. “It’s not loud. It’s not flashy. It’s all very well thought out. The colours are warm, very inviting.”

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The home’s tactile surfaces are clothed in European stone and warm wood from head to toe. Roderick calls every piece a museum quality. Bush hammered Alabastrino Travertine, which wraps the entire exterior (including the glazed south façade, which resembles a hovering painting frame), was sourced from the same Italian quarry that serviced The Getty itself. Decks are clad in vein-cut marble. Silver travertine block covers most walls—including a three-story expanse in the home’s centre—while soft sandstone lines the floors, and warm French Oak lines other surfaces. These noble materials also alternate to clad doors, ceilings, floating stairs, kitchen counters, and bathroom walls and floors. Other spaces in the 15,000 square foot house—virtually every room overlooks the city, often via multiple angles— unfold from the public area: kitchen, dining room, six bedrooms, ten bathrooms, mother-in-law suite, screening room, library, gym and spa, large terraces and an expansive roof deck.

Unlike the Getty, though, Roderick thinks that the surfaces in the home might be better without art. “I would have a hard time drilling a hole and hanging a painting on this wall,” he says, sitting in the living room, the waning light edging across the expanse of the city below. “I’m just starting to enjoy it,” he notes, of the house. “I haven’t been able to, but I’m getting there. He adds: “I'll be excited to come back and revisit it. But I’m ready to disappear from here for a while.” Roderick admits his relationship with the residence hasn’t always been smooth. “Sometimes it got ugly. We needed to go to counselling,” he jokes. The work was so demanding that he missed out on vital moments in his life, including a chance to properly say goodbye to his father-in-law, who died in the midst of construction. “I was at a point where I couldn’t leave … I wish I could have given him a little bit more time. And I couldn't because this was dragging me down,” he says. “That’s what this job can do. I've had vacations that I spent years to book, and I've had to bail on them because that's my industry.”

“I'm hoping that when I'm done with this, I’ll be able to take some time off, walk away, and get refreshed. Replenish,” he says. “I’m going to be ok with letting this one go.” Still, he notes, “There's nothing else I would do. I will be doing this till the day I die. I never see myself retiring because I couldn't imagine just staying home. This is what I do.” The results, he adds, speak for themselves. “The stone is beautiful, the finishes are beautiful. It’s a piece of art.” Much, he notes, is thanks to his team, who regards both as passionate craftsmen and as family. “Yes, it becomes your family. You're here together for four years.”

He thinks of the house, meanwhile, as his baby. “I call it my baby, and it’s still my baby until it’s completely done,” he says. “I really have found some peace here. Definitely. Definitely. It's been very hard to get there. But I’m almost there… “Sometimes I wish I would have maybe not stayed as late a couple of times. You know, shoulda woulda coulda. But I’m glad with the end result. I’m so proud of it. It’s very rewarding to get to this point.”

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About Travis Roderick

Travis Roderick is the President and Founder of Roderick Builders. He operates as a General Contractor and has been trusted by his clients as a premier custom home builder in California for the past 20 years. He specializes in contemporary and cutting-edge design builds, particularly steel and concrete building techniques, to create open and fluid living spaces. Working alongside world-renowned architects, he focuses mainly on steep slope building, creating unique homes on challenging topographies. His responsibilities include general contracting, design and management.

Architecture: Thomas Juul-Hansen
Film: Borís Noir
Text: Sam Lubel