OLD SOULS

Avid midcentury- modern enthusiasts, architects Brett Woods and Joseph Dangaran pay homage to Los Angeles’ architectural heritage through OLD their extensive renovation work. By Aileen Kwun Photographed by Francis Dreis and Joe Fletcher SOULS

Los Angeles–based architects Joseph Dangaran and Brett Woods, founders of Woods + Dangaran.

Originally designed by architect Rex Lotery in 1960, this Beverly Hills residence underwent a modernizing project by Woods + Dangaran that maintained the midcentury aesthetic of the house while updating finishes and opening the layout. New clerestory windows bring natural light into the entry and main living spaces.

los Angeles–based architects Brett Woods and Joseph Dangaran, founders of the firm Woods + Dangaran, may just be hitting their midcareer strides, but they are a pair of old souls who know “good bones” when they see them. The close friends and business partners met more than 20 years ago as classmates at the University of Southern California, where they both developed a fondness for midcentury-modern design—and were lucky to be among the last students taught by some of that era’s great design minds, including Pierre Koenig.

The midcentury design ethos and scale of architecture has continued to shape the pair’s work in residential design. After spending their 20s working separate, formative stints—Woods headed to Brussels, where he worked with Altoon Partners on designs for the Beijing Olympics, while Dangaran cut his teeth at the celebrated design-build firm Marmol Radziner—the longtime pals struck out together and launched their firm in 2010.

In just over a decade, Woods + Dangaran has earned a solid reputation for creating high-end, new-build residences that embody the midcentury design philosophy and approach. It has become equally well known, however, for its focus on local midcentury home restorations, which comprise a sizable portion of the firm’s portfolio. As perpetual students of modernism, the duo take pride in bringing many of the era’s structures into the present with their considerate approach that emphasizes livability above all.

“Though we’re typecast as midcentury architects, that’s not necessarily who we are,” Woods says. “But we are modernists, and the midcentury approach continues to educate us on staying rational with our ground-up and new-construction works. The tectonic principles [the expression of structural elements such as posts, beams, and concrete walls as a part of the design concept] of midcentury modernism are things that we use in all of our residential designs today.”

Dangaran’s work with Marmol Radziner—a firm known for its restorations of some of Southern California’s most prominent landmarked midcentury structures—involved hands-on work with architect Richard Neutra’s VDL House. And while many of Woods + Dangaran’s renovations are what Dangaran describes as “fringe landmark”— that is, not yet landmarked, but potentially a few years away from receiving an official designation—“we’ll still reference the U.S. Department of the Interior standards for working within a historical context,” he says. “We still approach [these projects] with the same level of rigor: taking cues from original plans and photography, if we can find them in the archives, and going through records of selective demolition to assess what framing is new and what framing is original.”

Among the firm’s earliest renovation projects was a midcentury home in Encino’s Royal Oaks neighborhood, an enclave of modern residences surrounded by a »

For this residence in Encino, California, the architects renovated and restored a single-story midcentury home that once belonged to Bing Crosby’s manager.

“We take the stance that architecture serves as a container for living. But renovating and restoring midcentury architecture is as close as you can get to art, because there’s so much money to invest in these buildings. You’re really placing value on something that kind of falls in that art realm.”—JOSEPH DANGARAN, WOODS + DANGARAN

lush landscape in the San Fernando Valley just north of Los Angeles. Sited on a peninsular plot of land with wraparound views of the San Gabriel and Santa Susana mountains, the home once belonged to Bing Crosby’s manager. But, like many structures in the area, it was not protected by the city’s landmark designation, which left its fate in the hands of its new owner.

Fortunately, that owner entrusted Woods + Dangaran to do right by the home. The team worked to update the space with contemporary aesthetics and function—from travertine floors and teak paneling to a new floor plan. “The house, for all intents and purposes, was a new ground-up home,” says Woods, who describes the update as a very involved retrofitting process; one of peeling away old layers and materials and recreating them. “However,” he adds, “it was important to us, and also to the client, that this remain a single-story home, and scale-appropriate to the property.”

Southern California’s midcentury modern homes, characterized by wide expanses of glass, flat rooflines, and open floor plans, are prized for their timeless sense of style, ease, and thoughtful attention to proportion and siting. Yet the gap between that era’s building technologies and today’s is vast, making the renovation of a midcentury house—even one with good bones—to modern-day standards a significant feat. The overarching intent for each of Woods + Dangaran’s renovation projects, Woods explains, is not to create period reproductions or to romanticize the past, but instead to infuse each home with the best modern-day building technologies while keeping its tectonic character intact. “This extends the life of the home for another 60 to 70 years,” he says, “before someone comes through and wants to renovate it again and keep its history going.”

The success of the Royal Oaks project led to more midcentury modern renovations in the Los Angeles area. The partners have taken design principles from each of these renovations—low-slung proportions, siting that prioritizes natural night—and applied them to the design of their own residences, which are made for 21st-century living. (Dangaran recently designed and completed his own family home, and Woods is currently in the process of constructing his.)

“There are some architects and designers in LA who want to strictly restore or rehabilitate; they don’t want to renovate,” Dangaran says. “They’ll take the black-andwhite stance that if a certain toilet or lighting fixture wasn’t available in the year the home was built, they won’t use it. In our opinion, that’s a very vacuum-oriented approach. We take cues from and respect the original intent, but the homeowners who buy these houses are investing a significant amount of money to live in them. Why should they be forced to live like they’re in the 1940s, ’50s, or ’60s, when, quite frankly, they’re doing a great public service by not tearing these structures down?” »

A 1965 Craig Ellwood house needed significant restoration work—Woods + Dangaran repaired the home to preserve the longevity of the structure and to meet contemporary performance standards. Small adjustments to the layout of the bathrooms and kitchen upgraded it for modern living.

JOE FLETCHER

Striking the balance between authenticity and practicality can be challenging. For guidance, Woods says, “We always ask ourselves, ‘Would Rex Lotery or Craig Ellwood use these technologies if they were building this today?’ Of course, they would.”

The costs of renovating a midcentury gem can be steep, but there’s always a bigger payoff: The partners approach each aging structure as a living textbook that can be used to help sharpen their skills, as well as an opportunity to work intimately with homeowners who trust the duo’s research-driven process.

“The success of these homes is not just about us,” Woods says. “The client has to buy in as well.” Fortunately, the homeowners willing to take on such a project typically comprise a self-selecting demographic that shares the firm’s values. “I think every client who purchases a midcentury home understands that there’s value in what’s there, and they’re drawn to it,” Dangaran says. “They’re almost held as pieces of art that [the client] happens to live in.”

“We’re trying to pay it forward, in a sense, and we’re hopeful that someday, that kind of care and attention is afforded to us and our work,” Woods says of these labors of love. “The greatest honor that we could ever receive, one day, would be someone landmarking one of our designs … and in 60 to 70 years, wanting to bring them back to life.” h

In addition to making architectural upgrades, Woods + Dangaran formulated a plan for the interiors of the 1965 Craig Ellwood house, choosing a blend of custom contemporary and authentic midcentury furnishings. TOP, LEFT: Throughout the home, natural materials— earth-toned ceramic tile, brass-plated hardware, dark marble with golden veining, and honey-toned teak— capture the aesthetic of the home’s original detailing.

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