Blackbirds, a cluster of 18 Barbara Bestor–designed homes situated in the hills of Echo Park, is one of the more inventive residential projects to pop up in Los Angeles in recent years. According to Bestor, it’s “an experimental contemporary urban living where community, nature, and design are in balance with each other; a progressive design solution for high-quality dense housing in a city with little available land. The houses are all under 1,920 square feet and are built around a central courtyard that serves as the stage for larger community functions and play.”
When we happened upon a Blackbirds house with interiors by of-the-moment LA firm ETC.etera, we were curious to find out the backstory, so we emailed Jake Harrison, a partner in the firm. “The house belongs to Michael Brown of Local Construct, the developer of the Blackbirds property,” Harrison says. “Michael is very much a ‘man’s man,’ so we added elements that felt like they could have been collected by him throughout his life. The color palette is pretty neutral, so we wanted to add different textures with wood, leather, and brass. We wanted something that felt modern, but organic and layered.”
Join us for a tour.
Photography by Amy Bartlam courtesy of ETC.etera.
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