TAKACS ARCHITECTURE

Essential design for California living.

Our studio is proud to be developing its first home design for inclusion in the LADBS Pre-Approved Standard Plans Program supporting the Pacific Palisades Rebuilding initiative. This one-story, 2,000-SF residence—three bedrooms and two baths—establishes a flexible, elegantly simple framework that homeowners can tailor through curated finish and layout variations.

Every design choice is guided by a commitment to sustainability and energy efficiency, prioritizing materials and systems that are both high quality and gentle on the planet. The home is shaped around the spirit of California living: easy, open, and connected to the outdoors. It is designed to sit comfortably within its landscape—respectful of nature, attuned to the climate, and contributing to a healthier ecosystem.

Crafted to be enduring, efficient, and effortlessly livable, the plan set is now nearing final plan-check approval.

Set within the open expanse of Joshua Tree, this residence is conceived as a quiet dialogue between architecture and landscape. The home is composed of simple, sculpted volumes in light desert stucco, oriented to frame long views of mountains, sky, and native terrain. Generous glazing brings the shifting desert light deep into the interiors, while warm wood accents soften the clean modern form.

Inside, spaces are calm and elemental—anchored by natural materials, minimal detailing, and a constant visual connection to the outdoors. Rooms open toward the land rather than a single façade, creating a sense of immersion in the high-desert environment. A spa-like primary bath captures the essence of the project: serene, grounded, and shaped by the surrounding geology and light.

Designed for effortless living in the Mojave, the house emphasizes sustainability, durability, and a respectful footprint. It is a modern desert dwelling that sits lightly on its site, offering a refined and intimate connection to the landscape.

olded roofline and a contrasting palette of dark metal panels and warm vertical wood, giving the building a crisp yet inviting presence. Large sliding glass openings anchor the ADU to the landscape, creating a seamless connection between the interior living space and the outdoor environment.

Inside, the atmosphere is serene and minimal. A restrained material palette—smooth plastered surfaces, warm wood cabinetry, and soft neutral tones—establishes a calm backdrop for daily living. Natural light washes across the space, enhancing the geometry of the interior and highlighting simple, thoughtful details. The open plan integrates living, kitchen, and lounge zones in a compact footprint, emphasizing flexibility and quiet elegance.

The design responds to the client’s desire to maintain privacy from the main house while still fostering a sense of community. Open sightlines and shared outdoor areas create opportunities for connection, while careful placement of windows and circulation preserves separation and comfort for both homeowner and tenant.

Designed for modern California living, Moon ADU balances privacy, simplicity, and warmth—an efficient architectural addition that is small in scale but rich in spatial quality.

Bouldin Creek is a contemporary residence shaped by the character of its site and the quiet presence of Texas live oak trees. The home’s sculpted white volumes are arranged to open generously to the landscape, blurring the threshold between indoors and out. Large expanses of glass frame the oaks and the surrounding greenery, making the natural environment an integral part of daily living.

A central courtyard sits at the heart of the home—an intimate outdoor room that offers privacy, shade, and a sense of retreat. This sheltered garden becomes a treasured slice of nature within the architecture, bringing filtered light, fresh air, and softness deep into the interior spaces.

Throughout the project, the design focuses on connection: to light, to trees, and to the rhythms of the outdoors. The result is a calm and gracious modern home that embraces its Austin setting, creating a seamless dialogue between built space and the landscape it inhabits.

Set on a generous Beverly Hills lot, this early-1920s residence was thoughtfully remodeled and expanded to support contemporary family living while preserving the home’s original character. The clay tile roof, expressive massing, and cut rafter tails were retained as anchors—maintaining the spirit and silhouette that define the house.

Inside, the plan was comprehensively reorganized for today’s lifestyle: clearer circulation, more fluid connections between rooms, and a renewed relationship to the garden. A carefully scaled addition extends the home without overwhelming it, using detailing that references the original architecture while quietly refining it.

At the rear, larger glazed openings and layered outdoor terraces create a seamless indoor–outdoor experience—bringing light deep into the interior and framing the landscape as a daily backdrop for living, entertaining, and retreat.

Conceived as a private home for a significant car collection—yet designed to welcome the public—Steellight Auto Gallery rethinks the utilitarian warehouse as a civic room for exhibition. The building begins with a straightforward Butler-style steel system, then strategically departs from the expected: simple sculptural volumes, calibrated roof moves, and a sequence of clerestory and tall glazed openings that pull daylight deep into the interior.

Working within a modest kit of parts, the project pushes the performance and character of an economical structure. Off-the-shelf materials—steel framing, metal panels, and polished concrete—are assembled with precision to create a space that feels simultaneously industrial and refined: a quiet, luminous backdrop where the cars read as the art.

Sited between the bustle of Wilshire Boulevard and 6th Street in Koreatown, The 616 Building is a mixed-use project built around live/work life—homes that can actually support a small business. Amenities are tuned to the way people work now: shared workspace, conference room, and a print center that keeps the everyday logistics on-site.

The façade is intentionally symmetrical and tailored, echoing the crisp formality of Wilshire’s historic and mid-century streetwall—quietly contemporary, but in the same disciplined lineage.

height: 85'

stories: 7

units: 77

area: 74,732 sf

retail: 3,105 sf

Mixed-use that fits its street

PicoFax is a mixed-use project that leverages the Transit Oriented Communities (TOC) program for additional building area—without chasing density for its own sake. Through neighborhood research, we concluded that micro-units weren’t the right match here, and shaped the unit mix accordingly.

The building is organized as a doughnut-shaped plan around a central, landscaped courtyard—bringing daylight, air, and a quiet shared outdoor room into the middle of an otherwise urban site.

Architecturally, the façade uses angular vertical moves to pull attention down to the commercial street level, reinforcing a transforming stretch of Pico with increasing pedestrian activity. A highly transparent, wraparound ground floor strengthens the corner and keeps the sidewalk active, while upper levels settle into a calmer rhythm of deep window recesses and bold balcony “pods”—color used sparingly, but with intention.

height: 85'

stories: 4

units: 28

area: 24,480 sf

retail: 2,364 sf

Camden Arches is a strategic repositioning of a prime little property in Beverly Hills’ Golden Triangle: a targeted addition and remodel that brings mixed-use life back to the building—full-service restaurant and bar with patio dining at street level, offices above.

The street frontage is designed to feel active from morning to late evening, with a comfortable indoor/outdoor flow and a patio that reads as an extension of the sidewalk—lively, but controlled.

The façade is all about depth and shadow. It’s an archetype made current: the arch as structure, shade, and storefront frame—not decoration.

Angeles Six is organized for urban dwellers who want real space and real privacy—without the isolation (or upkeep) of a single-family house. It’s a small community by design: six generous residences with variation and clear individual ownership.

Two two-story townhouses anchor the front, with four single-level flats behind. Each home has expansive outdoor space that leans into Southern California indoor/outdoor living, and the building shares a roof garden—a collective “back yard” in the sky.

height: 45'

stories: 4

units: 6

area: 14,400 sf

A new multifamily building in conversation with its block

A new multifamily project on a leafy West Hollywood street, Flores uses California’s State Density Bonus program to add homes—including much-needed affordable housing—while staying disciplined about the neighborhood’s scale and character.

The massing aims for compatibility on an eclectic block: a board-formed concrete ground level as a nod to the rusticated texture of nearby mid-century apartments; light stucco and deeply recessed windows at the mid-levels in conversation with an adjacent historic Spanish-style building; and upper floors wrapped in translucent glass panels that catch the sky and shift with the day.

height: 45'

stories: 5

units: 14

area: 17,265 sf

SB Omega brings a contemporary skyline presence to the Historic Core without ignoring the street rules that make the neighborhood work. A tightly articulated network of horizontal balconies zips up the tower façade—giving the building a clear, legible cadence at city scale.

At the base, the podium does the contextual heavy lifting. The rhythm of balcony openings stays restrained and regular where it aligns with the adjacent building, then loosens as it approaches the corner—more depth, more daylight, and a more public face to the street.

Two major amenity decks extend the project’s “city rooms” vertically: one at the top of the podium as an elevated outdoor commons, and one at the top of the tower as a true skyline terrace.

height: 390'

stories: 38

units: 452

area: 551,800 sf

retail: 25,000 sf

Takacs Architecture worked closely with the owner on the architecture, detailing, furnishings, and landscape for this 3,600 SF pool pavilion in the Hollywood Hills. Designed to feel inevitable—like it has always belonged to the estate—the building frames the existing pool and anchors the outdoor rooms around it.

It’s equally suited to large gatherings and quieter, everyday use: a living room and bar that host effortlessly, a rear patio with BBQ for parties that naturally spill outside, and a generous steam room and shower suite that keep the program comfortable and self-contained. A large hot tub at the front faces the pool and acts as another social zone—more gathering place than spa.

The late Diane Keaton brought her unmistakable eye, curiosity, and character to every aspect of this project—a 9,000-square-foot residence and adjoining work studio shaped by the deeply personal visual world she assembled on Pinterest. Her design approach, much like her body of work, was idiosyncratic, intuitive, and unapologetically her own. She embraced texture, craft, memory, and contrast with a clarity that only an artist of her multifaceted talent could bring, creating a home that feels both cinematic and intimately lived-in.

Working in close partnership with Cynthia Carlson Associates, Diane developed the architectural concept, guiding the form, materiality, and spatial sensibility with the same instinctive creativity she brought to her performances, writing, and directing. Takacs Architecture collaborated with Stephen Shadley Designs to refine the interiors, pool, and key façade elements, helping translate her richly layered vision into spaces that are soulful, precise, and unmistakably hers.

All photography is by Lisa Romerein and appears in Diane’s Rizzoli publication, The House That Pinterest Built.

This 6,400 SF hillside residence, with commanding views over Los Angeles, underwent a complete remodel and structural retrofit—taking a very dated house down to the studs and rebuilding it with clarity and intention. The work included a comprehensive rethinking of systems, structure, and interior organization, not just a surface refresh.

Interiors were reconfigured to make the grand spaces feel distinct yet connected, with a more fluid flow that supports family life and a house that entertains easily.

The project’s siting at the southernmost boundary of the Historic Broadway Theater District acts as a gateway. The cubic mass is scaled to the height of the block and fills a long-standing void at the intersection of Broadway & Olympic. Linking old with new, the building design references the early 20th century buildings of the Historic Core with its classic vertical tripartite order of base-middle-crown and simultaneously presences itself as a contemporary structure through it’s detailing

height: 166'

stories: 15

units: 163

area: 184,700 sf

retail: 5,800 sf

The Hill Tower references design elements from adjacent historic buildings while packing in a dense amount of dwelling units on a compact urban infill lot in the Southpark neighborhood of Downtown LA. The tall tower won’t blend in, but neighboring references provide a respectful acknowledgement of the existing fabric and an opportunity for inventive contextual design that redefine the block.

height: 340'

stories: 33

units: 239

area: 261,600 sf

retail: 5,400 sf

The ample acreage of the Panorama Tower adaptive reuse project provides an opportunity for additional program on the site. The Panorama Paseo is designed as a 40,000 sf concrete and glass retail companion to the mid-century Tower and extends the existing open space by pulling it along the length of the Paseo. Parking displaced by the footprint of the building is relocated on top and connects to the tower via a pedestrian footbridge.

Venice Quartet is a study in repetition and nuance—four new single-family houses set on adjacent lots within the eclectic fabric of Venice. Conceived as a unified composition, the homes share a common language of form, proportion, and material, while subtle façade variations give each its own presence and rhythm along the street.

Rising three stories, the houses are compact in footprint yet expansive in experience. A sequence of balconies, terraces, and ocean-facing roof decks extends the living spaces outward, blurring the boundary between interior and exterior and capturing light, air, and views while maintaining a sense of privacy. One residence is slightly wider than the others, a quiet irregularity that is absorbed into the ensemble and contributes to the cadence of the whole.

Together, the four houses read as both a single architectural gesture and a collection of individual homes—reflecting Venice’s long tradition of experimentation, informality, and layered domestic life.

Los Angeles’s Small Lot Ordinance provides a smart way for more affordable home ownership while also establishing a small community within low rise areas. The Garfield project consists of 5 townhouses that are 3- stories plus roof decks strategically screened for privacy. An additional collective open space garden fosters social togetherness within this little community.

height: 30'

stories: 3

units: 5

area: 10,089 sf

Originally designed by Welton Beckett in 1964, this 13-story modernist office building sat shuttered after the Northridge earthquake for nearly two decades—an outsized, empty landmark that quietly blighted the neighborhood.

A visionary developer—known for being first to engage Downtown LA’s Adaptive Reuse Ordinance—recognized the same catalytic potential here: a tall building in a largely low-rise context, ready to become a neighborhood anchor again. We gutted and reorganized the interiors into 194 joint live/work residences, transformed rooftop mechanical areas into panoramic penthouses, and repurposed an abandoned subterranean electrical vault into a dramatic indoor pool space.

The project was also the first to have its concrete structure reviewed and approved under the City of Los Angeles Non-Ductile Concrete Retrofit Ordinance—helping establish a workable methodology for future reviews.

height: 170'

stories: 13

units: 194

area: 173,000 sf

retail: 10,400 sf

Takacs Architecture worked to reposition Sidney Eisenshtat’s iconic and brilliantly detailed 1962 building on Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills. After the building was historically landmarked, the rights for additional building area were sought via the Historic Incentive Program. We designed a quietly discrete penthouse addition, an updated replacement of ground floor canopies and an interior remodel of the lobby with a keen eye towards respecting the original building design while not creating a false impression that the alterations were part of the original building fabric.

The longstanding owner of this underused little gem in the Historic Broadway Theater District was looking to reposition the 6-story building as an adaptive reuse joint live-work project. The mounting project challenges proved counter productive and the strategy changed to a reactivation of the commercial occupancy through the Broadway Commercial Reuse Ordinance. Takacs Architecture found historic photos that showed beautiful detailing of the facade, but investigations under the stucco cover showed that the original brickwork was too far damaged. Other historic elements like the gridded glass transoms and terra-cotta ornamentations were restored.

The beloved Rialto Theater in South Pasadena has deteriorated from lack of care by previous owners. Takacs Architecture worked closely with Chattel Inc. Historic Preservation Consultants and the City of South Pasadena to arrive at a strategy for restoration of the facade.

This rare black & gold Art Deco beauty had suffered from decades of bad alterations. Takacs Architecture worked with the new property owner to thoughtfully reposition this landmarked building. We all worked collaboratively with Chattel Inc. Historic Preservation Consultants, & the City of LA’s Office of Historic Resources to be faithful to the original building design while also making contemporary alterations.

This 2- unit condominium is located on a narrow corner lot that maximizes the building envelope while being broken into volumes in order to establish a pedestrian scale in this area of high beach circulation. Loft-like open living spaces with en-suite bathrooms in master suites allows the golden California sun to wash through all the interiors.

height: 30'

stories: 3

units: 2

area: 1,886 sf

The historically landmarked Security Pacific Bank building by Curlett and Beelman from 1924 has a prime location in the revitalizing Downtown of Long Beach and is well suited for adaptive reuse into 118 lofts. Takacs Architecture worked closely with the City of Long Beach’s Planning Dept. and Building Dept. to navigate their own nascent adaptive reuse policy which parallels that of the City of Los Angeles.

height: 161'

stories: 13

units: 118

area: 107,309 sf

retail: 14,000 sf