La Jolla California Modern Architectural Home Tour & Design Critique: $34.7M Property

This La Jolla architectural home blends seamlessly with its surroundings, maximizing ocean views despite design flaws.

### La Jolla's $34.75 Million Architectural Home: A Detailed Critique
* 🏡 A La Jolla home tour critiques design choices, highlighting the blend of architecture and landscaping, but also pointing out flaws.
* 🌊 The approach to the house is designed to tease the ocean view, creating anticipation.
* 🏞️  The landscaping is exquisite, fitting the desert climate and modern architecture, but the backyard's placement in front is a significant design choice with drawbacks.
* 💦 A water feature connects the entrance to the ocean view, a highlight of the property's design, but some details, like exposed pipes, detract.
* 📏 The house's long structure creates connectivity issues and long corridors, while the formal dining room's placement is criticized as a missed opportunity.
* 🏊‍♂️ The infinity edge house design, replacing a traditional pool, is praised for maximizing usable space and views.  The property features **5 bedrooms, 6 full and 5 half baths, and 11,239 square feet** on a **66,646 square foot lot**, listed at **$34,750,000**, but ultimately remained unsold.
* 🌳 The house is built around existing cork trees, a design choice that limits positioning but enhances the property's character.  The reviewer states, "they chose to rub against the trees, you know, which is cool".
* 💡  The critique covers various aspects, from the kitchen's design (highlighting the Texas limestone) to the outdoor spaces and guest house, concluding with a discussion of the west-facing orientation and its impact on sunlight.

I'm going to critique this property so when you decide to buy, design, or build a property yourself, you won't make the

same mistakes. I'm Marvin Hadad, I'm the Hat Toy Manion guy. Let's watch this one

together. What's been very sad to see in La Jolla is people coming into a site and

tearing everything down. The true uniqueness of this home is how they took care to blend it into the landscaping

and the hillside. Did you hear what he said? Blend it with its surroundings. What this guy is really saying is that the

most important, most significant properties do exactly that: they blend with their surroundings. Where the lot is prime—a prime example of that

would be Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright. Welcome to La Jolla, California. I'm beyond excited for today's tour; we're

checking out this amazing architectural home. Now I'm currently in the motor court. Right now, we have the gates

opening up to a curved driveway, and right before you arrive at the motor court, you get a glimpse of the view. The

approach teases you with the view, sets the mood, sets the anticipation. It really clears your mind. You go through a

tunnel to get to the motor court. Now I want to bring everybody to this point because we have a beautiful urban garden

here. I don't know about an 'urban garden'; it's just the, you know, landscaping, but the choice of landscaping is exquisite.

It definitely goes with that desert climate of California. It fits right like a glove to modern architecture—that kind of harshness of the plant

and, you know, with the board-form concrete right behind it—beautiful. Now let's go to this side. This is

actually a gate that moves. So on this side, I'm going to leave it closed for now because you can access your backyard

directly from your driveway. Now you're like, wait a minute, I thought we first go to the motor court, then we go to the

house, and then we go to the backyard. But no, in this property, your backyard is positioned in your front yard; it's on

the front street side of the property. The main reason why this architect decided to take this approach is because

it could give an amazing, amazing motor court and utilize this little nook section of the lot that is skewed to the

left and doesn't get the best views on the property. Now that comes with its own downfalls that you're going to find

out in the rest of the video. Now I'm really going to take my time to talk about the details here. This is where you

get your first peek of the Pacific Ocean. Okay, do you see what they just did? They're teasing you with the view before

you even walk in. But what really caught my eye here are these three pipes kind of sticking out from the side of the

house that kind of look like sewer cleanout pipes, which I don't think they are, but then there's water leaking from

some of them. Is it the drain for the roof? I'm not sure what it is, but it doesn't look pleasant to me. Now I also

really like how the water reflects on this board-formed concrete wall. And to take a step further, they even

incorporated the steps into the water feature. If you show up here at nighttime, you might take the wrong steps, but I

want to talk about the water feature used in the entrance of the property. In a lot of high-end properties, we see

water features used, but this really makes sense because they've kind of created a fountain water feature that gives you

that infinity edge, connects to the ocean. This is one of the best, most appropriate places where a water feature has ever

I've been used. I really, really like how they incorporated this from the moment you step onto the property to the moment you

start going through the property; that whole transition had to be very zen-like. As you walk in the front door, you

have a lot of depth. As you walk through the house, you see the cork trees; you hear sounds of water. Okay, so the wow

factor kind of builds up. You come in through your private driveway; you get teased by the view. You go through that

tunnel; you reset what happened to you in the real world, and you enter... You go through the steps as you go into the

property; you're going to see, like, a wow factor to your left: the ocean view and the lower lot, and then a humongous

backyard, which is really your front yard, to the right. So your head is just going left, right, left, right, and it just really

like builds up to that point, and then boom! It just like hits you in the face, which is also extremely zen and peaceful

during the whole process. Amazing! Now, off of the foyer, we have home limestone floors, plaster walls, warm walnut

paneling. Okay, now you're like, 'Arin, the wow factor is not there; like, you know, they're holding it back.' They are holding

it back. You could tease; you could definitely tease because the architect decided to build this huge structure

that divides the lot and where the actual house is. It's a very, very long house, and you're going to have corridors

all throughout the property because you're going to have a connectivity issue. On my left-hand side, we have this

architectural staircase opening that leads you to the lower level. Like, for example, this is a tease because right

now it's overexposed, but in real life, when you're looking at this, you will see the ocean between the steps. Right? It's

Just kind of teasing you with the view, keeping you engaged, coming back to the entry and going to the other side, we

have the formal dining room, circular table in the center. Okay, pay attention to this room. I really, really don't like

where this formal dining room is, but keep an eye on it. I'm going to cover it in the video now. Right in the center, we've got

this gorgeous Steinway & Sons piano, dressing the room really nicely. This is technically your formal living room. I love

the coffee table in the center, a few chairs, a couch; then the entire room is surrounded by picture windows facing the

views. Okay, do you see what happened? This is where the infinity edge pool would have been. Instead of giving you an infinity

edge pool, they gave you an infinity edge house by dividing the lot. And you can make a very strong argument that

that's actually more usable. How often are you going to be in your pool to enjoy the view than how often are you

going to be in the house? I really like the fact that it gives you an amazing view, a closer view from this side, and it gives

you a wow factor from both sides. I think it's a really risky choice they made, but they freaking executed it to

perfection. I absolutely love it. That's the Pacific Ocean right there. Down below us is the oval garden—like, the oval

garden is really your backyard, but it's beautiful. You still get a backyard view and you get the ocean. If all that wasn't

enough, this living room cantilevers about 18+ feet above the garden that's below us. That's an infinity

house, right? Like, technically speaking, this is an infinity edge view home. Looking at this room from the exterior is such a beautiful architectural frame.

In fact, right behind me is also the second cork tree that they built this house around. You see, like they didn't

have to build the house around the trees they chose to. If they positioned the house all the way in the front of the

lot, they were nowhere close to this view, and you could argue actually these trees would have framed the view really

beautifully, but they chose to rub against the trees, you know, which is cool. And I feel like this room right here,

we've seen it before in another property in Hollywood Hills Bel Air. I should critique this property; I've

actually shown this property to a client. Really cool property, small backyard, but pretty damn good. Now, while we are here,

before we leave this room, let's cover the specs for a second. We have five bedrooms, six full, five half baths,

11,239 square feet of interior space, built on a 66,646 square foot lot, on the market for

$34,750,000. Now, this property never sold. It came on the market, made a lot of

noise, but it did not sell. In this video, you're going to find out why it didn't sell. Was it the demographic? Was it the

price? What was it? I want to go this way so we can check out the powder bathroom. Onyx vanity, that's fabricated. Mirror is

nicely recessed.  Tin walls. Okay, very soft palette. It works in powder rooms, especially the main one in the property.

You should really try to go all out. The square footage is small; it's a great place to spend money. All your guests

will see it, definitely. They've tried to do that over here. There's actually a butler's kitchen here, but first let me

bring everybody to the great room. This is definitely the heart of this property. It houses the kitchen, dining area, and

the family room. On each side, we have massive sliding glass doors seamlessly opening up this room to the outdoors on

In the back, we have the backyard. Do you see what I'm saying? This room will break your neck; you'll be like, you'll be

moving here like left, right, left. Like, you will be amazed what a heart of a house, right? You've got amazing

distractions that are just, you know, pulling you like a magnet towards them. One is a flat lawn with a swimming pool,

and the other is just the view and the lower lawn. I mean, executed perfectly. A lot is happening in this room, but I just

love how it's integrated to the outdoors, and you can simply walk outside from your great room to these views. Look at

this. I mean, what a beautiful, beautiful view. You know, it's a dynamic view. I really don't like the, you know, straight

up ocean views that it's all you see—ocean. I like that view to be framed. I would rate this view as probably an

eight because, again, it's not really panoramic and it's obstructed, but it's beautifully framed. Then you look over

here; you have this beautiful patio that curves with a walkway. Do you see that kind of Japanese element, that walkway?

The landscaping on this side is a little bit different than the other side. You know, on the backyard side or the front

side, it's very kind of Americano, you know, very typical kind of a modern side. If you look at this house from a bird's-eye

view, you realize that the lines of the water feature—okay, he's showcasing the pool, which it connects to the water

feature outside—very cool. But what I kind of want to visualize for you guys in this frame is that most architects would

have taken this property and moved it much closer to the front road, and then you would have had the backyard on the

back side instead of the front side, which would have kind of had a, you know, infinity hedge pull, and then you had

Steps going down to the lower lawn. Then, in front of us, we have the family room: L-shaped couch, coffee table, two chairs.

Even these chairs are so elegant, with stainless steel legs. Then you come over to this side; this is a 130-inch TV wall, okay?

I love the TV. I think it's one of those panels that you connect, and you can make the TV as big as you want. But I love the

fact that it just kind of gets sucked in, with no edges around the limestone walls, and then it's framed really beautifully by

that fireplace and, you know, the wood pieces next to it. This whole living space is stunning. You're going to

be here all the time, and you're going to have that indoor-outdoor flow. Each side is unbelievable! I always love kind of black

mixed with wood, and then they have these splashes of white, which I guess you said is limestone. Okay, I think Mike is

right, but he said it the other way around: the main elements are natural wood and white features, like the

limestone walls or the limestone floors. Then the dash—you know, that pop of color—is the black window frames. Then

you have this live-edge walnut dining table right in the center. Okay. Do you remember that formal dining room area

Flaws Exposed: Enes Yilmazer's Tour of La Jolla's Most Expensive Home

Arvin Haddad 

Introduction and initial critique of the property's landscaping

The presenter introduces himself and the purpose of the video: to critique the property's design and construction.

The presenter expresses concern about the demolition of existing structures in La Jolla.

The presenter praises the home's integration with the landscaping and hillside.

The presenter highlights the importance of properties blending with their surroundings, using Fallingwater as an example.

Tour of the property's exterior and entrance

The presenter begins the tour, highlighting the motor court, curved driveway, and the view.

The presenter comments on the landscaping, describing it as exquisite and fitting for the desert climate.

The presenter points out the unusual placement of the backyard on the front street side.

The architect's approach is explained as a way to maximize the motor court and utilize a less desirable part of the lot.

The presenter notes the first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean and critiques some pipes near the entrance.

The presenter discusses the water feature at the entrance, praising its integration with the ocean view.

Interior tour and critique of the main living areas

The presenter describes the interior materials and finishes of the foyer.

The presenter discusses the large structure dividing the house and lot, leading to connectivity issues.

The presenter expresses dislike for the formal dining room's placement.

The presenter describes the formal living room and its views, highlighting the absence of an infinity edge pool.

The presenter provides the property's specifications: five bedrooms, six full and five half baths, 11,239 square feet, and a $34,750,000 price.

The presenter critiques the powder bathroom's design.

The presenter describes the great room, highlighting its connection to the outdoors and the views.

The presenter discusses the kitchen countertops and cabinetry, suggesting higher-end materials could have been used.

The presenter expresses dislike for the placement of the rotisserie oven.

The presenter identifies the Texas limestone as the key element that defines the kitchen's design.

Tour of the backyard and outdoor features

The presenter comments on the covered section, landscaping, and privacy hedges in the backyard.

The presenter critiques the outdoor kitchen's gray quartz countertops.

The presenter praises the pizza oven's design and integration into the concrete column.

The presenter comments on the mosaic tiles in the recreation room and the importance of powder bathrooms for outdoor entertaining.

Critique of the primary bedroom suite and other bedrooms

The presenter critiques the main staircase's design and placement.

The presenter tours the primary bedroom wing, commenting on the office and the unique built-in wall with shelves and a cuckoo clock.

The presenter discusses the entry point to the primary bedroom suite and its location on the ground floor.

The presenter expresses concern about the finishes in the primary bathroom, suggesting a hotel-like vibe rather than a bespoke design.

Critique of the guest house and remaining features

The presenter critiques the guest house, noting its poor design and repurposing as a gym.

The presenter comments on the library and its balcony access.

The presenter critiques the finishes in the secondary bedrooms and bathrooms.

The presenter discusses the main oak tree's condition and the second office.

The presenter points out the house's west-facing orientation as a final flaw.