DESIGNER SOPHIE GOINEAU RESTORES HISTORIC MCM ALFRED WILKES HOUSE ON COVE WAY DRIVE

BEVERLY HILLS, CA | 2021 Contemporizing a consequential mid-century home is a carefully considered process. Designer Sophie Goineau, alongside Scott Strumwasser and Tash Rahbar, principals of Los Angeles-based firm, Enclosures Architects, collaborated to conceive every detail while preserving the integrity of original L.A. Modernism. Goineau references her inspiration for materials as drawn from the Modernist icons inherent to the project, as well as her study of the philosophical elements of design. “It is a belief that there is a soul in every simple thing, the concept that hard materials are also living. It teaches me to address the way we treat matter and make choices. This is all part of the design process.”

From the Entry and Throughout, the millwork is produced in woods indigenous to the U.S. wherever possible; the inlaid ceiling, wall partitions, and stacked doors frames are teak, including the Art Wall tiles in the Powder Room, handmade from Mosarte in Brazil. The wall paneling, fluted bar, doors, closets, vanities and kitchen are custom designed in walnut. Bespoke brass hardware handles on the main entry doors echo a half moon motif on every pull and closure throughout.

The dual-sided fireplace, from Living Room to Library, is built from Kolumba™ clay bricks handmade in Denmark by Petersen Tegl and designed in collaboration with Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor, renowned for his gallery at nearby LACMA, also used at the Kolumba Museum in Germany and the Royal Danish Playhouse in Copenhagen. The home’s original carpet flooring was relaid in terrazzo, meticulously inlaid with brass inserts and cream Calacatta stone, inspired by architecture icon Alexander Girard’s textile prints designed for Charles and Ray Eames, replete with Minotti and Henge furnishings.

Architectural lighting merges with the decorative, in semi-recessed Find Me 1 and Find Me 2 fixtures from modern purist lighting manufacturers, Flos; with vintage 1960’s Danish Bar sconces, Rejuvenation sconces in the Powder Room, Flos classic mid-century Glow Ball sconces throughout the Bathrooms, and Ochre’s Lancelot sconces in the Master Bedroom.

Novacolor’s Italian-made Lime Plaster Paint flows from the exterior facade to the indoor wall surfaces, also streamlining the Master Bath walls with their seamless coating, Wall2Floor, setting the stage for the custom designed bathtub carved in Spain from a single block of Pietro Grigio stone. The Master Bath fixtures are the byCocoon collection by John Pawson, the acclaimed American architect recently known for designing the West Hollywood Edition with Ian Schrager, with Cocoon’s Piet Boon Dutch-designed fixtures in the secondary Baths. In the secondary Bedroom’s ensuite, circular shared Bath, existing skylights expand to enhance the Japanese-made Yohen Border Tiles Ceramics in green, repeated in various shades in a second and third Bath, as well as in the indoor/outdoor Solarium, each space exploring its own individual niche.

No detail is left untouched, down to the crowning finish of each electrical outlet. The trimless Bocci disappears smoothly into walls and millwork, while minimalist brass Meljac plates are functionally elegant, and consistent with each element down to the Pitt burners flawlessly integrated into the quartz Kitchen countertops.