A modern four-story concrete house is built under the Hollywood sign

Rising steeply above a ravine in the Hollywood Hills, Nina and Andreas Grueter’s concrete house evokes a villain’s lair in a James Bond thriller – John Lautner’s brutalist Elrod House in “Diamonds Are Forever” comes to mind – with the nearby Hollywood sign adding to its cinema. seduce.

To some, a narrow hillside lot may seem like a risky place to build a home, especially at the end of a dirt road along Mulholland Highway. But for European developers traveling the world, it was an exciting challenge they were ready to take on.

The spectacular swimming pool is cantilevered off the living room.

“Are you dizzy?” » Andreas asked as we climbed one of the house’s many stairs to the roof terrace. “We’re working on a zip line from the beach to here,” he joked when he reached the top floor, which was featured in KeshYou and Snoop Dogg’s “Forever Sunday” music video and in a World Series commercial featuring Saweetie.

As developers of visionary projects for Snow Hill Development, including an art hotel in the North Atlantic off the coast of Canada and a sustainable home in Yucca Valley, the couple were immediately interested when they saw the for sale sign on the empty field while hiking in Griffith Park.

“We do everything from purchasing the land to designing the interiors,” Andreas said of their projects.

The Grueter residence is built into the side of a hill, at the foot of the Hollywood sign.

After contacting the owner, who owned several properties across the country, the couple purchased the 10,500 square foot lot for $40,000 in 2012. Little did they know it would take more than a decade to build a home on this difficult site.

“It was meant to be,” Andreas said. “It was the land that was looking for us, not the other way around.”

This sense of destiny is palpable in the Grueters’ connection to the land, which is enveloped by a canopy of mature sycamore trees. The property offers stunning views of Beachwood Canyon and “on a clear day you can see Catalina,” Nina said as hikers stopped nearby to stare at the house as if it were an attraction. “Yesterday we saw the ocean and the islands.”

A car elevator also serves as an art museum at the Grueter residence.

Desiring a contemporary, iconic building, the couple sought out Why Architecture, where architects Yo-ichiro Hakomori and Kulapat Yantrasast, known for their work on the Grand Rapids Art Museum in Michigan, were tasked with bringing the vision to life Grueters. .

“We wanted our house to be as stylish and clean as possible,” said Andreas, who grew up in Switzerland in a clean-lined Bauhaus house.

After Hakomori left the company, he continued to help Why obtain planning permission and planning approval. Once the Grueters received a building permit, they continued construction with StudioHau, founded by Hakomori.

The wine cellar, on the left and Nina Grueter’s dressing room, on the right.

“It’s like a painting,” Nina Grueter said of the view from the master bathroom.

Hakomori never thought the site was impossible to build, basing it on other hillside homes such as Rudolph Schindler’s Wolfe House on Catalina Island, but the unique topography of the land presented many challenges during construction, from ensuring the stability of the structure with more than 35 boxes to environmental management. permitting process and meeting with several neighborhood planning committees.

Andreas discussed some of the challenges faced during construction. “When we started construction, everyone underestimated how difficult it would be to get the concrete trucks to the job site,” he said. “The roads were narrow and the trucks couldn’t be too long or too big. One company even refused to drive there. For a long time, we thought this wouldn’t happen. »

For Hokomori, who worked with architect Tadao Ando and his mentor, Frank Israel, the project was unlike anything he had created before. But after considering several stacked shapes, he ultimately designed a durable concrete house with three L-shaped frames – with the living spaces sandwiched between them – that extend up the steep hillside to take advantage of the view.

The first floor guest bedroom, called the Humphrey Bogart Room, includes a shaded terrace.

Adhering to strict hill height regulations, Hakomori designed each level of the four-bedroom, four-bathroom home to be directly connected to the outdoors. “We tried to create outdoor spaces even though they hover above the ground,” he said. “The house literally hovers above the landscape.”

Comprised of four floors, the 4,455 square foot home offers a different experience on every level. There is a car elevator that can accommodate two vehicles (due to city parking requirements for their street). There is also a sauna, study, wine cellar and spectacular paddling pool, cantilevered from the living room, with specially designed windows to the side which open into the kitchen, imbuing the room with a soft glow as the pool changes color with sunlight.

At the bottom of the split-level design is a separate guest house, where a deer the couple has affectionately named Hugo is a frequent visitor.

“It’s larger than life,” Hakomori said of the Hollywood sign. “It almost overpowered the site.”

And then there’s the Hollywood sign. Los Angeles has many inspiring hillside homes, from Lautner’s Chemosphere to Frank Lloyd Wright’s George Sturges House, but none have the Hollywood sign in their backyard like the Grueters’ house does.

“It’s larger than life,” Hakomori said of the familiar icon. “It’s so much bigger than you think – just like in Ed Ruscha’s paintings.” This almost overpowered the site.

But from down there, he said, the view feels “like you’re in a cave.” At the top, you feel like you’re in the air.

The balance of the natural world is an integral part of Hakomori’s architectural practice. Born in Japan before his family moved to Boston, the USC professor said, “I am very influenced by the indoor-outdoor movement and California modernism. This comes from going to school in Japan, seeing all the Japanese architecture, living in California, and experiencing the integration of nature.

For the Grueters, the design of the home was a collaborative effort, a labor of love that they infused with their unique style. “We do this together,” Andreas said. “It’s like magic. It’s fun, like turning a black and white film into color.

The Grueters appreciate Brutalist architecture, especially when it is rooted in nature. Yet, as intriguing as the house looks from the outside, it is their home. “We wanted to give a soul to the building by filling it with beauty, joy and art,” said Andreas.

For the couple, the design of the home was a collaborative effort, a labor of love that they infused with their unique style. “We do this together,” Andreas said. “It’s like magic. It’s fun, like turning a black and white film into color.

The couple decorated the interiors with bright, saturated colors, including velvet curtains and Paris wallpaper in tiger and botanical prints. Their style, which Nina describes as “cool, contemporary design mixed with a warm, inspiring vibe,” reflects the Grueters’ love of art and beauty.

Three L-shaped frames extend the living spaces up the steep hillside to take advantage of the views.

Given the limited wall space due to excess glass, the couple’s extensive art collection is installed in surprising places, such as above windows, curtains and also inside the elevator to car, which was featured in a Lamborghini commercial. “We had to add the elevator per city regulations because parking is restricted, so we turned it into something beautiful,” Andreas said.

Interiors are often whimsical, including a photograph of the famous obsessive-compulsive Howard Hughes displayed in a closet and a portrait of Hollywood legend Humphrey Bogart in one of the bedrooms.

“Everyone loves this room,” Nina said with a laugh as she walked onto the room’s shaded outdoor patio. “It feels like we’re embedded in the trees.”

The Grueter residence’s swimming pool, cantilevered from the living room, has windows that light the kitchen.

However, for the couple, the most fascinating aspect of their new home is that they live surrounded by nature, just 10 minutes from Hollywood Boulevard.

“In the evenings it’s so quiet here,” Nina said of her life near Griffith Park. “You can see the stars and hear the owls.”

“Every hour is different,” Andreas adds, “and after 6 or 7 hours it’s a little scary.”

Unlike famed Los Angeles architect John Lautner, who once said Los Angeles was “so ugly it made me physically ill,” the couple fell in love with their adopted city.

The modern Hollywood Hills home, with brutalist elements, emphasizes a connection to nature and the indoor-outdoor lifestyle of Los Angeles.

“LA has such beautiful energy,” said Nina, who is German. “No one in Europe can believe the combination of nature and urban life here. We have the Hollywood Bowl, museums, mountains, culture, fantastic food and diversity.

Although it is one of the Grueters’ most ambitious projects (the couple declined to share the cost of the project other than that it was more expensive than expected), the spirit of Los Angeles permeates their house.

“Every phase has been difficult,” Andreas said. “But as the sun sets, the house transforms into something special. The entire property exudes incredible energy. It was worth it.