Due to the architecture’s complexity and the opportunities of the views, one begins to fully grasp the ambition of the undertaking. The architect and the owner analyzed every aspect of the experience, including examining the neighborhood, exploring sight lines, light conditions, and space progressions based on their experience through an intimate study of the topography. The kind of local research that is seldom, if ever, a starting point for most architects.

“There’s a give-and-take between embracing the terrain and defying its challenges,” Swatt notes. “Ultimately I think the architecture makes a respect­ful accommodation.”

Considering its mass, the house makes a relatively discreet impression from the quiet street, with much of the structure’s bulk atop a knoll and concealed from view via a mahogany wood clad gate and fence for maximum privacy. Once encountered straight on, however, the scheme is a tour de force of architectural acrobatics, its breathtaking steel cantilevered overhangs and column-free spans invoking a palpable sense of weightlessness. This quality is perhaps most eloquently expressed in the three independent volumes that are balanced atop each other -

“The house is not about small gestures but about the quality of the spaces and views,” The architect explains. That said, there is no shortage of sybaritic delights and high-tech thrills. Take the main level’s living room, where the massive opposing window walls open to an elaborate outdoor seating on either side with gorgeous bar overlooking city lights on one side and on the other, views overlooking the pool, deck, the western hills and the one of a kind Carrera clad outdoor kitchen all the while the room is merging with both, blurring interior and exterior lines.

“I wasn’t just going for spectacle,” Robert Swatt says. “I wanted it to be a total, immersive experience that transports you to another world—your world.”