Hey, a Project of Mine Was in a Magazine and I Didn't Even Know It.
 

I designed and built this little tea house in conjunction with a quarter million $ landscape job up in Mandeville Canyon (above the Brentwood area of Sunset Blvd.) It was in a Sunset Patios and Decks book, 2nd Edition. It's been out since 2000. How'd I miss that?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1172191736.jpg

Hey Milt,

Nice workmanship man.

Allan

Beautiful design man! I like your incorporation of the surrounding natural landscape!

-Nick

Nice job. Did they give you a credit in the book? You should contact the publisher and see if they will. You've got nothing to lose.

Very nice. That Mandeville canyon is some nice dirt, huh?

Milt,
Beautiful work!!

Turns out you are a true artist, Milt. Really very nice!

There is nothing NATURAL about that Landscape, everything there is planned out, to the last rock in the Stream.

Holy !"/$%?&&* MILT...you are an artist...superb design and craftmanship...Look beautiful...can you put one in my backyard...!!!

Beautiful work Milt!

That's one helluva an outhouse Milt! Looks like it's leaking outthe bottom though! :D

Seriously though, that's pretty cool. Did you get credit in the book, or did the homeowner for their "great wallet"

Very true. Over 80 tons of rock were lowered into the yard by a crane from the street above. The yard was the shape of a quarter bowl and the koi pond was built at the bottom. All the rock in or surrounding the pond are manufactured in place by the same people that do Disneyland.

My job was to "float" the tea house on the water. I built a scale model as part of the proposal and they reduced the overall size by 25%. I liked the bigger one which would have been 12 x 12 on a 15 x 15 deck. The pier remained the same.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1172245936.jpg

edit: he he, I spelled koi as coi.

Tea house? Looks like a good spot to medicate with a big fattie. Not a woman fattie, a fattie fattie.

Which has been known amoungst many things as "tea." :D

I dug up some more pics from an album. The construction is all clear heart redwood (to approximate teak), clear doug fir and some cherry. We used resawn for the rafters and space sheathing and S4S for the deck. The joists and girders are treated, hence the black you see. All fasterers are concealed, no nail or screw heads show. The deck was tied down from the underside using a stainless steel system known as Deckmaster. I couldn't find a pic of the 2-way cantilever which was the object of the whole deal, "float."

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1172251770.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1172251804.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1172251824.jpg

Wow, that's some nice craftsmanship!

Thanks for the compliments, guys. I enjoyed the surprise of finding this and revisiting the project. It was done in 1998. No, the book didn't mention any names, the landscape architect, the pond constructor or the location or owner of this project.

The owners who commissioned this were obviously very wealthy, but the wife was a direct descendant of a Japanese commercial orchid grower and knew her stuff. so, the project was well planned and executed. I was but a small part. The husband was from Brazil and managed money for the wealthy and elite. Both very nice folks although I have not remained in touch.

Here's a link to a brief LA Times Magazine article that spoke of the project. http://www.marpa.com/article3.html I knew it had been featured in the Times. The architect, Martin Mosko, is rather famous and has done a lot of work in CO for the wealthy such as the Coors family. He's very good, but I thought he was a jerk. he really didn't know quite what to do AFA the tea house, so I visited a few around SoCal and came up with the design. He has since done a few more, all variations on the theme I presented. What with all of his experience studying in Japan, I would have thought he had more to say about the concept. I don't know, maybe for a short time he trusted me. I hadn't done anything before or since quite like this. I prefer more period projects, particularly Arts and Crafts from the early 20th century.

Stunning. As mentioned by bevenator, wonderful place for a fattie, a deep sigh and a few quiet moments........

As a matter of fact, Milt, that is pretty much exactly what I would like in my garden.

Do you do house calls ? Bet you wouldn´t mind a Swedish Weekend - All included.. ;)

True craftmanship. My kudos to Milt!

Well, Markus, except for the complicated joisting, the "plans" are pretty much represented in the pics. Help yourself. :D And, if you are serious, I still have the blueprints somewhere of how it all works. Google "Marpa" and take a look at some more of Martin's work. You will see a common theme as with many designers. You might see a tea house you like better. ;)

Another story: We also worked with another local designer from Pasadena named Van (somebody). He's pretty famous, too. This was when Martin was running out of ideas with respect as to how to tie all of this to the house itself. There was no direct way from the house to the garden. So, Van what's-his-name comes out to look things over.

One afternoon after we had finished (I had hired a furniture maker as a helper) sanding the decks ready for the tung oil finish and left for the day, ol' Van walks down a dirt path picking up some cement powder on his shoes (from another part of the project) and walks up on the deck. As anyone might know, cement makes wood black. The next morning, I could see every footprint on this beautiful wood. I could have killed this bastard. Another jerk.

I've never been able to work well on large projects with a lot of people involved. The incompetence and stupidity is overwhelming. We have a guy here on Pelican who goes by "lonewolf." That really should be my handle.