Meticulously Detailed And Designed, 3208 Agnes Road is a Distinct Manhattan Beach Dwelling that Upends Convention And Expectation Alike
Located on a desired street in the Tree Section, 3208 Agnes Road is a singular construction. Warm and bold with an urbane edge, the home’s wood, brick, and gridded glass edifice makes it unique among typical Tree Section homes—one that embraces authenticity and reflects the homeowners’ shared passion for architecture.
“I’ve been transfixed by this home since the first time I saw it,” agent Dave Fratello of Edge Real Estate Agency says of the 3,505-square-foot, six-bedroom, seven-bath home with a sublime landscape. “The style is somehow deeply familiar and yet completely unique in the South Bay. The building is almost new, but in glances, it looks like an older building, perhaps an old downtown commercial property that has been rehabbed and converted for modern living.”
3208 Agnes Road is not just an architectural curiosity though, it is an extremely practical set of living spaces that takes full advantage of its corner lot.
“Everybody wants the sort of indoor/outdoor flow that you get at this house, with all of the living spaces opening fully to private outdoor spaces,” Dave Fratello adds.
Moreover, the practical details include a much-coveted guest unit as well as a garage hidden in the alley. That’s just not possible on most lots in the Tree Section of Manhattan Beach.
Leveraging every attribute of their quiet location and corner lot, homeowners Tom and Linda Elle Warren—he with his architectural and engineering background, and she with her interior design eye—envisioned an airy, light-filled design and deviated from a doctrinaire aesthetic identity to meet the specific needs of their family.
“We shifted our focus to what we wanted,” Linda Elle says. “Visual appeal, comfort, and flow—a balance between dramatic and comfortable.”
Following modernist architect Mies van der Rohe’s dictum “God is in the details,” they scrupulously considered every luxurious particular and the implementation of individually sourced, engineered, or hand-fabricated components. Of these are 14,000 individual brick veneers (some imprinted with the name of their manufacturer, the LA Brick Company, J Mullally LA, and Simons) they rescued from the foundation walls of Union Rescue Mission, and gorgeous reclaimed wood salvaged from dismantled buildings and warehouses based in LA for use as exterior siding, interior floors, and shiplap-style cladding at the eaves. The mix of historic materials with modern elements, like the aluminium Fleetwood windows and doors, lends the space a soulful aesthetic tension—not old, not new, but timeless.
Citing both chiaroscuro (the Italian concept of light and dark) and a PBS period drama as references, Linda Elle designed a series of vignetted spaces where more and more is observed.
“Sit at one place at the dining table, and you’re drawn to the far end of the yard, where the thrusting verticality and gorgeous bark of a eucalyptus is repeated and balanced by the upward movement of a cast staircase,” she explains. “Sit in another chair, and look through a garage door at well-landscaped trees and sunny California skies. Sit in another, and notice the structural beam, salvaged brick walls, and dramatic grid doors.”
This procession begins with entrance to 3208 Agnes Road, its ornate 9-foot-high front door the gateway to the radiant foyer highlighting a soaring exposed beam ceiling, concrete floors, full-height windows, and a custom steel staircase. From here, the home forms a hospitable social core, including the family room, formal living room, and kitchen with pantry, plus a modifiable bedroom/office. The dining room is especially dazzling with a unique structural beam ceiling and full-length glass garage door that, when raised, invites fresh air to flow through with a burbling water fountain beyond.
A glass wall system, representing what Linda Elle calls the “functional pièce de résistance of living,” transforms the main living space into a spacious outdoor room, replete with California beach breezes and sunshine. “We joke about needing paperweights when we open the doors or windows,” she says. “It’s not really that strong, but it is the unanticipated bonus of this location.” Along with the evening breeze, “the sunsets can be quite spectacular, and are often a moment to pause and drink it in—along with a glass of wine, of course.”
Among the balance of the bedrooms and ensuite baths on the second floor—including one with 12-foot ceilings and a Juliet balcony with French doors, and another with nearly 9-foot ceilings and a wide span of windows with treeline views—the loft at the top of the staircase precedes the sumptuous primary suite with an exposed structural ceiling and a wall of French doors that open to a generous balcony. Off the balcony is a guest suite and a cast staircase down to the lower deck.
At the opposite end of this space is an area containing a built-in library system—ideal for an office, library, or nursery. The primary bath, meanwhile, is swathed in subway and encaustic tile and features exposed structural beams, a cast-iron tub, and a floor-to-ceiling window glazed in frosted wired glass.
Both floors bathe in views of artfully trimmed Chinese elms and eucalyptus trees that bracket both ends of Tom’s painstakingly graded yard, which makes way for a durable Ipe wood deck, natural-looking perimeter walls, and a hidden sliding gate that opens onto Agnes, presenting an opportunity to surprise and visit with neighbors.
Because as much as 3208 Agnes Road stands apart, it is very much connected to the fabric of the neighborhood it calls home. It is also universally praised by architects, a Manhattan Beach city planner, and a bicyclist who once enthusiastically shouted out, “I love your house, it’s my favorite!”
Dave Fratello | DRE #01880469 | 310.386-2952
Edge Real Estate Agency
List Price: $5,895,000
Photography by Paul Jonason
