Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

A Bel Air House by Iconic L.A. Architect Paul R. Williams Gets a Modern Refresh

A Bel Air House by Iconic L.A. Architect Paul R. Williams Gets a Modern Refresh

Designer Ernest de la Torre marries the house’s 1934 Tudor style with a minimalist vibe.

The key to a lasting relationship, they say, is striking a perfect balance. In the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles, designer Ernest de la Torre describes his latest project as a “great marriage” of sorts. He and Mark Rios of the architecture firm RIOS were tasked with marrying two opposing themes: the clean, modern sensibilities of their client and the vintage flourishes of her 1934 Tudor-style duplex, a design ­evocative of the English countryside by legendary Hollywood architect Paul R. Williams.

The ensuing 30,000-​square-foot renovation with new addition resulted in a measured study in contrasts: airy California cool tempered by organic textures and a historical collection of art and design.



“She really is a minimalist,” de la Torre says of his client, a film producer with homes in New York and L.A. For more than a decade, she and her husband, a former entertainment chairman, had been living at odds with their home’s elaborate crown moldings, wrought-iron staircase, and other old-world elements. They once considered moving, but found themselves unable to part with their scenic backyard views of lush treetops. Still very much in love with the location (notably right on top of the Bel-Air Country Club’s 17th hole), they ultimately decided to stay, but not without a major intervention.



A complete overhaul followed, with the demolition of half the duplex. In place of a detached apartment that had always felt oddly disjointed, Rios’s team built a seamlessly attached modern wing, designed for a couple focused on entertaining. The addition houses the informal spaces, including a family room that continues out to the pool deck through disappearing glass doors. Upstairs, a main-bedroom complex occupies the entire second floor with marble bathrooms and closets akin to luxury boutiques, and two lower levels cascade down the steep hillside, one for a seven-car garage and another for the home gym.



The client entrusted de la Torre to build upon the home’s collection of art and design. Having worked for her before, he came into the project with a clear understanding of her vision: “She likes her minimalism, but also rich history and art,” he says. In the more formal interiors of the original construction, where expansive sliding-glass walls have replaced French doors, the eclectic decor spans the work of contemporary Los Angeles artists to vintage pieces of European and Southeast Asian provenance. A flash of illuminated neon cuts through the moody watercolors of Mary Weatherford, mounted in the living room behind the plush Jean Royère Polar Bear sofa. Craggy geodes and quartz spheres sit in various corners for their feng shui properties.



De la Torre wanted to establish a distinctly West Coast mood for the home, leaning into more casual indoor-outdoor living while maintaining a level of elegance. Rather than silk rugs for the living and dining rooms, he opted for woven raffia by Edward Fields and Cogolin; along with the Vietnamese bamboo window treatments and rattan furniture that appear throughout the house, they are a nod to the client’s Malaysian heritage and a necessary organic element to temper the coolness of the new glass walls. “A little layer of texture,” he says, “makes modern not feel cold.”

In the formal dining room, the walls were laboriously treated with layers of deep mahogany plaster, then scored along the surface and finished with wax to resemble traditional Chinese lacquer. They were inspired by a pair of 18th-century Chinese Coromandel screens that de la Torre repurposed as doors for china cabinets.

Take a Tour of This Modernized Paul R. Williams House




Wanting to avoid an endless series of white from room to room, he applied the “compression-expansion” effects of alternating light and dark. The receding view through the dark dining room and white living room doorways frame the icy Stuart Haygarth chandelier in the foyer. There, in place of Williams’s original wrought-iron banister, the stairway curves around a sinuous panel of steel, patinated to exude the same rich warmth of the dining room walls.



For the couple, the entire project was a “compromise,” de la Torre says, “to build a modern space, but keep the original house that they had loved for more than 10 years.” Touches of the original architecture remain in the ornately carved limestone entryway and the decorative wall panels of the former Tudor library, now the study, lacquered in a lustrous Chinese red.

From the outside, Williams’s half-timbered, formerly redbrick Tudor-style facade is still visible beneath the layer of black and white paint that matches the modernist new addition. In this story of love, compromise, and rehabilitation, it was the process of give-and-take, of striking the perfect balance, that quite literally kept this household together.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
×