52 DIGS.NET
| 8.22.25
S W E E T D I G S | 3 2 0 8 A G N E S
L
ocated on a desired street in the
Tree Section, 3208 Agnes is a singu-
lar 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
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 build-
ing 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."
The home 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," 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 inte-
rior 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 individ-
ually 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,
lend 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
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