Ome Dezin Revives a Googie-Era Hollywood Hills Home with Milanese Flair
Joelle Kutner and Jesse Rudolph restore the architectural drama of a 1960s Whitney R. Smith residence through sculptural interventions, richly grained materials, and sly references to Villa Necchi Campiglio
For those drawn to midcentury architecture, Los Angeles is a remarkable canvas—something Joelle Kutner and Jesse Rudolph know well. The duo has built their practice, Ome Dezin, around carefully restoring the city’s rich collection of historic residences and fashioning unhurried interiors buoyed with sculptural furnishings and nuanced material palettes that humanize the architecture. That approach underpinned their recent renovation of a distinctive 1960s home, originally by architect Whitney R. Smith of Smith & Williams, tucked into a secluded pocket of Nichols Canyon. The pair immediately recognized the home’s singular character: bold geometries, exposed steel beams, and soaring volumes all channel an entrancing collision of Googie exuberance and midcentury ease.
Despite the home’s solid pedigree, two earlier renovations—including a substantial second-story addition in the ‘90s—had obscured those qualities. That compelled Kutner and Rudolph to wield a lighter touch, introducing thoughtful interventions to reawaken the 3,300-square-foot home’s spatial drama and sense of openness. “The original architecture always serves as our North Star,” notes Kutner. “We try to preserve and restore what makes a house special, but we aren’t pursuing one-to-one restorations or trying to recreate a home exactly as it was first built.” The subsequent expansions gave the duo latitude to reinterpret the residence in their own way, carefully assessing each element to determine what merited preservation.
The kitchen, for example, fell outside that category. Previously configured as a compact galley cut off from the dining and living areas, the room lacked the ease and openness conducive to modern entertaining. Kutner and Rudolph removed a dividing wall and inserted a structural header to create more fluid connections between the adjoining spaces. An oversized Ceppo di Gré island now commands the room, its mottled surface of gray, peach, and pale yellow tones contrasting the stained white oak cabinetry that echoes the home’s restored oak flooring.
That newfound openness between the kitchen, living area, dining room, and den demanded careful consideration when it came to furnishing. “We wanted to be mindful that everything would be visible, so we selected lower-profile furnishings on the dainty side,” explains Rudolph. Tempering the angular architecture, they introduced low-slung, curvaceous pieces in earthy hues, including a bulbous Mario Bellini sectional and blob-shaped Paul Frankl cocktail table; a pair of expressive paintings by Serge Attukwei Clottey injects the seating area with bursts of color. The den, meanwhile, adopts a Space Age vibe through lustrous gray fiberglass tables by Willo Perron paired with built-in banquettes nestled beneath the sawtooth roofline.
That futuristic sheen reaches its apex in the staircase, which the designers describe as the project’s most ambitious undertaking. “The original staircase descended directly into the den and occupied far more square footage than necessary,” notes Kutner. After studying several configurations, the duo opted for a spiral staircase that required extensive engineering and fabrication know-how to realize. Their efforts paid off handsomely—finished in a creamy hue that echoes exposed structural beams nearby, the stair coils through the double-height foyer with sculptural aplomb. Its underside glows in an oxblood lacquer echoed in millwork and shelving niches, energizing the otherwise warm palette of oak, plaster, and stone.
Elsewhere, the duo drew from Italian modernism, primarily in response to the smattering of circular windows added during the 1990s renovation, which previous owners had obscured behind furniture. “Seeing them reminded us of Villa Necchi Campiglio, which is one of my favorite residential experiences ever,” muses Rudolph of the beloved Milanese residence by Piero Portoluppi. The reference surfaces subtly through clever material and spatial gestures, such as the downstairs bath wrapped in glossy black tile below the datum line—a deliberate departure from another bathroom rendered in a lemony palette. But the clearest homage arrives at the front entry. Added later in the renovation once the home’s identity fully crystallized, the oversized pivot door is punctuated with a monumental porthole window in reeded glass.
Beyond the staircase, a skylit landing opens onto a library nook before segueing into the lavish primary suite. Wrapped in dark-stained wood paneling and framed by circular windows in a nod to the Milanese influences, the room revels in a quieter vibe. A monumental headboard wall integrates floating nightstands and concealed storage, reading as one continuous plane of richly grained timber. The enveloping mood continues to calming effect in the spa-like primary bath, where an immaculate stone soaking tub luxuriates beyond a blackened portal-like opening. For Rudolph and Kutner, who are using the residence as a temporary office while they build their own, “the upstairs still retains a sense of discovery whenever we walk up there.”
Transforming the residence also became an opportunity to collaborate with friends and creative partners. Furnishings by local hotshots such as Ben Willett are peppered throughout, as are sculptural plantings from Serpentine that heighten the lush canyon atmosphere. They all coalesce to deepen the home’s singular character—and complement the seclusion, warmth, and cinematic grandeur long associated with California’s most coveted midcentury homes.
