The self-guided tour represents a rare opportunity for visitors to meet with homeowners, architects and landscape designers within our school district and gain an insider’s perspective on unique designs for living and working.
The tour is a fundraising event for the award-winning Santa Monica High School Orchestras program.
Four homes are featured on the tour:
1. Breeze Home –
Glen Irani conceived this home as more sheltered landscape than traditional house and thus it features a woven tapestry of views, light and a lofty canopy of “roof forms.â€
The one-story design enhances the integration of the landscape, capitalizing on natural light and creating an illusion of dancing rooflines. The gardens were made possible in part by a grant from the City of Santa Monica.
2. Painted 
Light Studio –
Architect Jennifer Wen met the challenge of designing a combined living and studio space that adhered to Santa Monica’s strict zoning limits with great vision. Drawing from the beauty of beachside tree-lined surroundings, planes and surfaces incorporating hyperbolic paraboloid walls are folded into a livable sculpture thanks to Wen’s vision. Light and shadows paint the building, blurring the boundary of art and architecture. By day, the living space disappears into the sky. At night, the studio vanishes into the night sky, redefining the live-work boundary.
3. Green Serene –
In this home, architect Warren W. Wagner blends a bright, open themed floor plan with LEED standards that include bamboo flooring, solar panels, passive solar hot-water roofline tanks, a heat-absorbing flooring design, high-efficiency appliances and low-flow fixtures. The garden is planted with drought-resistant species that reduce water consumption.
4. Artist’s Garden –
Renowned painter and landscape designer Lace Bencivengo gives us “a perspective of the garden through the eyes of an artist.†The landscaping features a showcase Arbutus marina, succulents in unusual vessels, pomegranate and citrus trees, and an herb garden. Sustainable gardening concepts include an eclectic mix of natives and drought tolerant species, with drip irrigation and no grass or turf.
Intrigued? Well, come on and tour these stellar designs on May 6, 2012 11:00am – 4:00pm.
For tickets (which can be pre-ordered for $30 prior to 5.5.12 at 5:00pm) at: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/239727,
Or
Send a check postmarked, by April 28, 2012 , to;
Samohi Orchestras, Attn: Home & Garden Tour, 601 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90405 to get the same pre-order discount.
Same-day tickets are $40 (children younger than 12 are free).
Will call tickets can be picked up at, along with the ability to buy same-day tickets, at 705 San Vicente Blvd., in Santa Monica.
For more information: steve.nemzer@yahoo.com
