Abramson Teiger Architects is a professional practice committed to rigorous inquiry, ambitious design and responsive service.  As a design-oriented firm, we place the highest attention on architectural concepts, design details and clarity in drawing quality to portray our ideas.

We approach our work as a collaborative effort, working within our client’s design, scheduling and financial goals.  We act as team captain, coordinating the services of a wide range of consultants that may include structural, mechanical, and civil engineers, lighting consultants, landscape architects and interior designers.

We believe that good design should raise your soul to a higher spiritual level.  This is done by transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary through the creative use of wood, glass, concrete, stone, steel and other materials.  We pride ourselves on our ability to create projects unique in both their architectural structure and internal ability to evoke a sense of peace and well being in all those who enter. Our goal is to create architecture that will stand the test of time.

"thought is the wind,
knowledge the sail,
mankind the vessel,
- August Hare
“...and home the sanctuary”

The site is located on the sand at the harbor entrance to the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach.  When the architect visited the site and viewed the sea directly to the south of the site and the bustling Newport Beach Marina to the east, the seeds of the poetry that would guide the design process were sown.  The sight of the sailboats’ movements over the course of that afternoon, were recreated as a sense of lightness of motion in the architecture of the house. The sail form that resulted and rises to cradle the roof terrace above satisfies zoning codes for height and setback, and gave the architects an opportunity to bring some of the grace from the water into the home.  Finishing the exterior of the ‘sail’ with white mosaic tile gives a visual illusion of light rippling over the wall.

Due to the narrow forty foot wide site, and the city guidelines pushing one back even further from the site edges, the architects were presented with a challenge to bring sunlight into the heart of the house.  Incorporating natural sunlight was accomplished by creating a skylight volume in the center of the building. The space was literally opened up to the sky above by sloping the wall, which supports the stairs, in an outward direction.  The open steel stair rises through this space to a roof deck above. 

The architecture of the house was carried through to the interior of the living spaces. Detailing and millwork, which re-emphasized the design concept maintained the integrity

The client’s brief described the need for spaces to entertain friends.  The architects created several spaces, which responded to different weather conditions. The beach faÁade is all glass with large sliding panels that open the living area up to the expanse of beach directly in front of it.  Tall planes of glass line the exterior sides, sheltering the area from any afternoon winds that may crop up.  The roof space has been maximized as an entertainment area and is reached through the multi-volume staircase.  There are clear 360-degree views allowing one to feel part of the unique marina environment surrounding the site.

Awards:
American Institute of Architects, Orange County Merit Award, 2003

This house took its form as a direct response to its context.  Three principal contextual concerns had to be accommodated: a neighboring house, which is elevated 10 feet above the grade of the project lot and presented an ugly edge;
a desire to orient the house to take advantage of afternoon light; an existing grove of established trees on the southwest corner of the site.
The geometrical shift in plan was introduced to open the house to the afternoon sun.  This was achieved by angling the mass of the living room, dining room and entry toward the northwest, off of the orthogonal grid of the rest of the house.  Additionally, this shift served to screen the garden and the house from the neighboring residence to the north.  The shifted mass is articulated with a vaulted copper roof, further delineating the two elements of the composition of the house.  The collision of the angular and the orthogonal is reverberated throughout the project, and is manifested in details such as the repeated triangular skylights, trapezoidal shower/bathtub and the angled step risers. 
The swimming pool is considered a design element essential to the house.  There are numerous visual links to the pool from the interior.  A strong sense of indoor-outdoor interaction is expressed; large doors literally open up to the edge of the pool.
Materials include smooth Venetian plaster on some of the interior walls of the living room, kitchen and master bedroom.  Syndecrete, a lightweight cast concrete material, is used on most of the lower level floors and in the master bath for the shower and tub.  The kitchen counters with their integral sinks are also cast in Syndecrete.  The handrails are brushed steel with a lacquer finish, sandblasted glass and oak rails.  The window system is made from vertical grain Douglas fir.  The living room ceiling is paneled in flat sheets of vertical grain Douglas fir plywood.

This single family house on a typical 50’x100” city lot offers a wonderful play of spatial diversity. The central two story high entry hall begins a theme of volumetric
compression and decompression that echoes throughout the house. This entry space, lit from above by a dramatic skylight and activated by a sculptural staircase, organizes adjacent uses and spaces. The open feeling is further complemented by strategically placed windows that terminate the circulation axis with views to the rear garden. The house has been designed to bring the
outdoors in. In the kitchen-family room, the 9’-6” high doors open completely so that the outdoor eating patio becomes a part of the interior space. The living room ceiling slopes upward expanding the view not only to the garden, but upward to the sky.

The primary materials include smooth concrete floors colored by troweling in colored powder into the fresh concrete. In the living room, the rough plaster of the exterior is brought into the room. White oak hardwood floors articulate the entry, the staircase and the kitchen floors. Kitchen cabinets are by Bulthaup, Inc. and are covered with a white Corian countertop. The stainless steel splashes, the powder room mirror, the front door and the handrails are manufactured by Pacific Images. In the master bathroom gray limestone is used.

Abramson Teiger Architects was asked to transform an existing house with a maze of rooms into a functional family home.  The Architects were asked to change the style of the house from a non descript traditional home into a modern open plan house.

The floor plan was organized to create a logical flow through the house. It was organized to provide glimpse views of the rear garden and pool from the front entry.  The original living room was in the location of the new dining room.  This large room had a very low ceiling.  The Architects added to the existing living room two create two new rooms: the living room and the dining room.  The existing ceiling height had to stay.  To play up the low ceiling the horizontal axis was emphasized.  This axis was terminated with large butt glazed windows, which stretch the horizontal and capture the garden view.

On the south side of the house in the location of the new family room, a maze of small rooms were demolished and the new one and a half story family room was built.  The ceiling height of this room was purposely modulated to offer a different experience from the low horizontal living/ dining room.  The tall wall of glass that faces the garden opens up almost completely with large sliding doors.

The third spatial experience is the towering central skylight space.  This space was cut into the existing pyramid shaped roof.  It was cut into the center and highest point of the roof, in a deliberate gesture to open up the middle of the house.  The walls in this space literally curve up and outwards through the skylight.  The space opens to the sky, flooding the heart of the house with light, and connecting the house visually through its two stories.

On the second story the ceilings of the new rooms are sculpted and flair up and way from the existing pyramid roof.  The curved master bedroom ceiling opens up towards the view.  Large sliding windows face the pool and view, while a small square window on the south wall frames a dash of sky from the bed.  The second floor is light an airy. It provides one with varying sequences of spaces and views.

The Architects were retained by the First Presbyterian Church of Encino to remodel their space of worship.  The pews were reorganized in the round.  The floor of the Chancel was brought forward and lowered to bring the pastor and choir closer to the congregation.  And finally, sculpted planes and volumes whose irregularities shape different qualities of light, were utilized to create a unified plastic expression.

The dynamic and transformative character of light heightens the sense of the ecstatic, of being brought into the revelation of divine grace and wisdom.  Light as metaphor to divine light and spiritual revelation is the primary symbol and theme for the design of the First Presbyterian Church of Encino.  Light is shaped in three movements that take one on a long procession of enlightenment. The first movement represents entering the house of God.  The light in the narthex filters from above; its source is not evident.  There is a suggestion of a space beyond, yet the main sanctuary is seen only in glimpses.  The second movement corresponds to the main worship space.  The congregation is illuminated by large openings to the north, which fill the sanctuary with tender light representative of God’s love and charity.  Sources to the south are low creating a common horizon of more brilliant light illuminating the congregation, the community of man.  The third movement is the most brilliant and the most varied.  Only here does light flow directly down the curved surfaces that shape the sanctuary finally illuminating the full form of the church.  A multiplicity of openings create a symphony of light that is a varied and continually changing illumination of the cross and place of communion.

Symbolic form has also been given to the space of the sanctuary and the key elements of service.  This form also has its origins in the early Christian depictions of the mother of Christ.  The choir and communion table are an interpretation of the dove of Christ whose wing shelters the choir and whose heart becomes a place of peace and communion.  The cross wall at the back of the chancel is composed of two parts.  A vertical cross serves as the symbol of the risen Christ and God’s love.  It is elongated so that like a steeple, it represents an axis of connection between heaven and earth.  This literal presentation of the cross projects from and is supported by a more abstracted version of the cross symbolizing the support of the Holy Spirit. 

It reflects colored light from existing stained glass windows and reveals rays of light projected from new openings.

In the axially symmetrical interior with such strong focal orientation terminated by the cross, the greatest challenge was in creating a space in which the perspective view did not govern the design.  This was achieved by creating curved panels flanking the aisle that deliberately varied from one side to the other.  This allows the perspective view to be subservient to the larger issues of changing light, temporal light, and the ecclesiastical procession towards the chancel with the presence of the cross symbolically rising to become the highest focal point.

Finally, returning to the Narthex after the service is finished, we see the upper balcony flanked by two symmetrical pieces that when joined together take the form of the garment that Saint Francis made and wore during his lifetime. With this garment of modest fabric he fashioned himself into a living symbol of the cross. We leave the church with an example of mankind’s deeds as an expression of faith.