The Pacific Palisades Courtyard
+300 sf addition
DG + limestone
Lot to Move-In
All-In
A house, a garage, a yard — read as one composition
The homeowners had lived in their 1948 Pacific Palisades bungalow for twelve years. Their planning horizon had shifted — aging parents on one coast, a daughter heading into college, and the growing realization that their detached garage, used for storage and one rarely-moved sedan, occupied the most privileged piece of the lot: a southwest corner with afternoon sun and a view clear to the ridge. They came to WDC with three overlapping questions. Could the garage become a real living space? Could the yard become a room? And could both happen without the house feeling like a remodel project for the next year of their lives?
The most privileged piece of the lot was being used by a sedan. The design question wasn’t whether to convert the garage — it was whether the house, the garage, and the yard could read as one composition rather than three projects.— On the Pacific Palisades Courtyard
One composition, four interventions
The design response treated the garage, the house, and the yard as a single composition rather than three separate projects. WDC served as design-build lead, with architectural authorship in-house and a collaborating landscape designer for the courtyard planting and hardscape.
01 · ADU Conversion
The original 440 sq ft detached garage was expanded by 300 sq ft to the north — a move that stayed within Los Angeles ADU by-right zoning — and completely rebuilt above the slab. The new studio contains a full kitchenette, a three-quarter bath, a sleeping alcove with built-in storage, and a 10-foot sliding door to the courtyard.
02 · Courtyard as Connective Tissue
Between the main house, the ADU, and the rear ipe fence, a DG-and-limestone courtyard anchored by an outdoor wood-burning fireplace, a compact built-in kitchen with a plaster-wrapped grill enclosure, and a steel-framed pergola planted with Lady Banks rose. The courtyard is lit by concealed linear fixtures under the bench seating — no visible poles.
03 · Main House Continuity
Only the interventions the new composition required: a reconfigured rear door with a matching Fleetwood slider, an exterior plaster refresh to tie house and ADU into one material reading, and a repaired section of original clay tile roof.
04 · Planting
Low-water California natives — ceanothus, manzanita, and native meadow grass — selected to read as intentional rather than as compromise. The existing coastal live oak in the northeast corner was preserved; the courtyard was drawn around it.
Decisions about the planting were made at the same table as decisions about the slab. That is the only way an outdoor room reads as architecture, not as landscape afterthought.— Jacob Bachar, WDC
The material palette
Hardscape
Decomposed granite · honed limestone · plaster · ipe
Envelope
Smooth-troweled stucco · Fleetwood aluminum sliders · clay tile
Interior — ADU
White oak millwork · Calacatta Viola counter · concrete floors
Planting
Ceanothus · manzanita · native meadow grass · coastal live oak
Fixtures
Watermark fittings · Schoolhouse exterior · Bocci 14 pendants
Structural
Steel-framed pergola · Lady Banks rose · concealed linear lighting
Seven months, end to end
+ Survey
+ Selections
(ADU bylaw)
ADU + Courtyard
+ Move-In
Trades + collaborators
Design-Build Lead
We Do Construction · Jacob Bachar
Architectural Authorship
In-house · WDC Studio
Landscape Design
Collaborating partner · courtyard planting + hardscape
Cabinetry
Southern California millwork shop · white oak
Steel + Pergola
Local fabricator · powder-coated steel
Photography
Editorial residential photography · published with permission
