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| 1.13.23
S W E E T D I G S | 9 0 4 H I G H V I E W A V E
B
orn in Southern California,
architect Gerald Horn made his
way to Chicago in 1966. Horn, a
modernist whose bona fides were
shaped by his time spent working
at the LA firm of Craig Ellwood, an influential
mid-century residential designer responsible
for several Case Study houses, would go on to
join the ranks of prominent Chicago architects
of the day, producing notable works like the
Northwestern Law School Building and the Illi-
nois Bell Telephone Co., the latter winning Horn
a national American Institute of Architects (AIA)
design award in 1974.
In the late-1990s Horn came home to the
South Bay (he was born in Inglewood) for a
Manhattan Beach commission. His clients were
looking to maximize the otherworldly Pacific
Ocean views of their vantage corner lot at 9th
Street and Highview Avenue. The AIA Fellow
did just that, creating a glass-and-steel home
distinguished by two striking, custom steel-
truss wings, encased in glass and jutting over
the coastal landscape.
With an open floorplan and compartmen-
talized living areas neatly conjoined with the
property's coastal setting, the approximately
3,643 square foot residence with 3 bedrooms
and 3 bathrooms was named Sharon's Cali-
fornia House II, and received a Residential
Architect Design Award in 2000. The home was
a showcase of Horn's design talent, particularly
when it came to realizing exacting structure
and details. It was also a perfect complement
to the majestic Hill Section site that today, real
estate agent Lauren Forbes points out, is less
than a block from the current highest-on-record
home sale in Manhattan Beach.
Fast forward to a dozen or so years later,
when the home's new owner embarked on a
mission to update the home, enlisting Marga-
ret Griffin of Griffin-Enright Architects, another
AIA Fellow, for the job. "The new owner is an
artist and did not change the architectural
components of the house," points out Forbes,
"but she brought it to a 2020-era time frame."
Every inviting contour of Horn's design remains
the same, with the sophisticated, sun-kissed
atmosphere appearing freshly au courant with
revised finishes and fixtures—including glossy
mahogany floors and enhanced lighting, along
with new counters, cabinets and closets—and
re-configured outdoor living spaces.
The glass-encased kitchen, for instance,
was re-cast as a hyper-minimalist retreat
with sleek Gaggenau and Miele appliances
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