112 ARCHDIGEST.COM
ichael Misczynski describes it as a “defen-
sive move.” The modest ranch house next
door to the West Hollywood home he shares
with wife and business partner Alexandra
and their two sons was going on the market.
Rather than risk the chance that a bloated
McMansion or newfangled McModern might rise up beside them,
blocking their views of the Chateau Marmont and the twinkling lights
of downtown in the distance, the design duo behind the AD100 firm
Atelier AM decided to purchase the property and transform it into a
garden, entertaining pergola, pool, and poolhouse. As defensive
moves go, it was a pretty sweet deal.
In the great tradition of Angelenos looking to the Mediterranean
for design inspiration, the Misczynskis crafted their new pergola as an
ode to Castiglion del Bosco, the paradisiacal Tuscan estate and winery
converted into a sumptuous resort by proprietor Massimo Ferragamo.
“We have spent many happy vacations there with our family, so we
wanted to re-create a small part of that idyllic Italian countryside here
in L.A. When the time came to design, we went straight to the source
and reached out to Massimo for advice,” Alexandra explains.
In signature Atelier AM style, the end result is an object lesson in
quiet, unpretentious luxury. The posts and beams, wrapped in climbing
vines of jasmine, are made with slender alder timbers from Oregon.
Beneath a roof of heather brushwood fencing, a built-in plaster bench
is outfitted with basic, hard-wearing canvas cushions and pillows
of handwoven Indian textiles. Classic wicker chairs pull up to a 19th-
century Italian elm dining table from Axel Vervoordt, all set on a field
of reclaimed French Dalles de Bourgogne flagstone. “There’s nothing
particularly aggressive or daring about it,” Michael says of the design
scheme. “We built this place for relaxing and easy entertaining, not for
striking poses.”
To create the poolhouse, the Misczynskis simply worked with the
existing home on the site, lopping off one third of the residence to
accommodate the new pool and remodeling the remainder of the struc-
ture as a communal loft space flanked by a bath and a gym. Like the per-
gola, the neutral-toned poolhouse decor—custom canvas-covered sofas,
mottled plaster walls, and rustic wood tables—rejects polychromatic
finery in favor of serenity and ease. Again, in characteristic Atelier AM
fashion, the designers deployed ancient totems—in this case, roughly
5,000-year-old stone idols and a Bactrian disk from the Central Asian
Margiana culture—as a kind of glue, forging bonds across centuries and
millennia of art and design. What little color exists in the poolhouse
comes from a series of François Halard photographs of Cy Twombly’s
home and studio in Gaeta.
Shades of Castiglion del Bosco reemerge in the lush plantings of the
Misczynskis’ Arcadian refuge. Working with Anna Hoffman of Hoffman
and Ospina Landscape Architecture, the designers conjured an homage
to Tuscany with Italian cypresses, 90-year-old olive trees, and banks of
rosemary. “There’s an element of fantasy, but it’s definitely not fancy,”
Alexandra insists, summing up the vibe. “We just wanted a place where
we can take a breath and imagine we’re somewhere far, far away from
the Sunset Strip.”
M
