The Best Renovations Know What to Leave Alone

A 1955 Mario Corbett house in the Pacific Palisades is a beautiful reminder that updating a home doesn't have to mean reinventing it.

I loved a recent Architectural Digest feature on the Pacific Palisades home of MOTHER cofounder Lela Becker and her family.

The house was originally designed in 1955 by San Francisco modernist Mario Corbett and has something that can be difficult to recreate: a real sense of place. Redwood cladding, warm natural materials, an unusual grove of mature redwoods and an architecture that feels distinctly Californian.

When the house was updated, the goal wasn't to erase those things.

Designer Jed Lind worked with the family on the architectural renovation, maintaining the character of the original house while opening it to more natural light and strengthening its connection to the landscape. Kelsey Sundberg approached the interiors with the same sense of layering rather than starting over, and Terremoto reimagined the landscape around the extraordinary existing setting.

The result feels collected rather than designed all at once. Comfortable rather than overly precious. And, importantly, it still feels like the house it was always meant to be.

It's something I think about often with older homes on the Westside.

There can be an instinct to look at an older property primarily through the lens of what needs to change. But the really interesting question is often the opposite: What's already here that's worth protecting?

Maybe it's the proportions. The materials. The way the house sits on the lot. An original architectural detail. A mature tree. Or simply a feeling that would be impossible to recreate once it's gone.

The best renovations find a way to make a home work beautifully for the way we live now without stripping away the things that made it special to begin with.

This house is a particularly beautiful example.

Read the full Architectural Digest feature:
https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/lela-becker-pacific-palisades-home?