Thanks to Architectural Digest for the stunning feature of our Veneklasen House – Tour a Los Angeles Home With Classic Modern Pedigree and Tons of Contemporary Panache – with words by Mayer Rus and photography by Sam Frost.

The 1951 Veneklasen House was originally designed by architect Kenneth Lind. Modernist maestro Pierre Koenig subsequently put his own mark on the structure, with the majority of his work confined to the focal living room. Some years later, Josef Van der Kar—a fascinating but lesser-known modernist architect on the L.A. scene—designed an addition. Before Strauss bought the property, the previous owner commissioned an extensive renovation, including the addition of a second level for a new primary bedroom suite, by Los Angeles–based Chu-Gooding Architects. “Our goal was to unite the various design moves of the architects who had touched this place, to make the house the best version of itself by interpreting the original design intent and enhancing the connection between the new interior and the existing mature landscape,” architect Annie Chu explains.

Chu-Gooding’s scope of work involved a strategic reorganization of the floor plan on the ground level, repositioning the kitchen as a hinge space between the living room and dining and family wings, adding en suite bathrooms to the guest accommodations, and expanding the compact dining room volume with a new sloped roof that opens to a glass wall overlooking the pool. The second-floor addition—articulated in an architectural language consistent with the original design—is slightly recessed and painted in a contrasting dark brown color, which allows the historic structure to remain legible in the overall composition.

In the living room, the architects gently tweaked the signature accordion wall that looks out to the courtyard, replacing the wood that formed the accordion’s short legs with glass to heighten the sense of transparency. They also replaced the rubble stone surrounding the fireplace with white brick laid in a staggered pattern that mirrors the original brick treatment of the room’s curved end wall. “The heavy brick and the light glass are polar opposites in terms of materials, and we wanted to accentuate that dynamic juxtaposition,” Chu says.

“The renovation was intelligently and beautifully executed,” Strauss says of Chu-Gooding’s ministrations, which garnered an Honor Award from the AIA’s Los Angeles chapter.