L.A. VILLA By Oppenheim Architecture

Perched high above the city of Los Angeles on nearly eight acres in the exclusive enclave of Bel Air – the private residence of director, Michael Bay, is a cinematic tour de force, capturing views of the city below and majestic valleys behind. The three-story residence designed by Oppenheim Architecture features sculptural massing of rectangular forms and astonishing cantilevers with expansive window walls that provide breathtaking and quintessential views of the Los Angeles skyline and the surrounding terrain. The dramatic home was designed to be nearly invisible from the street, blending into the hillside. Its powerful design celebrates and maximizes views of the sky, nature, and the city while creating comfortable domestic spaces. The house pivots on its’ axis at each level in response to different functional and program requirements while maximizing and accessing its variety of dazzling vistas. As these planar shifts give issue to a varied and dynamic mix of forms, the complex massing yields a fascinating set of residual spaces that make for all sorts of unexpected and novel ‘places’ to be lived in. A dramatic entry sequence from drive to court, to a sunken garden pond and waterfall, leads you inside the home, where there are five bedrooms and ten bathrooms on three levels.