Adore those villas you saw in Tuscany?
That vintage château in France? Architect Richard Landry takes a
page from the past and gives it a modern twist.
When California native and designer Lorna Auerbach was shopping for
an architect to design a home, she happened to attend a Christmas
party at a Tuscan-style villa. But it was in the chic Los Angeles
enclave of Brentwood, not in Italy. Not long after that, she went
to a school-committee meeting at a French-country-style house in
the same area. Next, a friend told her about her parents' place, a
gorgeous French Normandy home in the Pacific Palisades Riviera.
The common thread in these uncommon dwellings? Richard Landry.
Landry is one of the most sought-after residential architects in
the world, with clients such as NFL star Keyshawn Johnson, Eddie
Murphy, and Sylvester Stallone as well as business moguls in
Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Asia. The Los Angeles-based French
Canadian is the go-to guy for überhomes inspired by a historical
period or a country - especially England, France, Italy, and Spain.
"Quite often, the homes I design are built around clients' most
treasured travel memories," says Landry. "A Tuscan villa, a Spanish
hacienda, or a French château brings back the feelings of carefree
times in a familiar place."
Unlike many of the world's top architects, Landry can't be
pigeonholed into a signature look. Equally comfortable with
contemporary and traditional, he navigates design across many
architectural styles with all the ease of a global traveler who
speaks a dozen languages.
"After I met Richard, he took me to see Sugar Ray Leonard's home,
an Italian villa loaded with beautiful architectural antiques,
like 300-year-old door surrounds and columns, reclaimed doors, and
old fountains," Auerbach says. "I thought: 'He's the one, an
architect who designs totally for the client.'?"
With architectural degrees from the University of Montreal and the
University of Copenhagen, Landry started his career in Montreal and
later also worked in Edmonton. But after a building boom that went
bust in 1984, Landry sold his few possessions, drove his Honda
Civic to Santa Monica, California, and quickly found a job in
theme-park design. A year later, he went to work for another firm,
where he specialized in the design of custom residential estates.
Then in 1987, Landry went out on his own, working at first from his
studio apartment. Five years later, musician Kenny G commissioned
Landry to design a 12,000-square-foot waterfront home in Seattle
inspired by Greystone, a 1920s Tudor-style mansion in Beverly
Hills, as well as a 5,000-square-foot guesthouse. That project was
featured in Architectural Digest, leading to many prominent
commissions from celebrities such as Rod Stewart, Leonard, and,
later, hockey legend Wayne Gretzky and his wife, Janet Jones, for
whom he designed a 14,000-square-foot red-brick Georgian manor
house with a French-influenced interior. Landry's 10,000- to
100,000-square-foot homes typically run anywhere from $400 to
$1,000 per square foot to construct - excluding the cost of the
acreage.
Landry says he developed his architectural philosophy at an early
age, and it was readily evident when he designed his first home.
"On a visit to my small hometown in Quebec, I noticed a
100-year-old barn that was falling down and about to be demolished.
Suddenly, all my happy childhood memories of playing in barns came
flooding back in vivid detail. And I thought it would be so
wonderful if I could capture that feeling in a home. So I bought
the timber and shipped it to California. Aged by decades of wind,
rain, and snow, that old barn wood became the main building
material for my hilltop Malibu home, which still comforts me. I've
learned that what matters most is that the architecture should
soothe your soul."
And that's something the 49-year-old Landry excels at - homing in
on what makes his clients feel entirely relaxed, whether the style
is influenced by a favorite travel destination, their heritage, or
the place where they grew up.
Landry and his 30-member team at Landry Design Group spend a lot of
time talking with clients, learning about their life experiences,
travels, lifestyle, and the way they want to feel in their home.
"And if they come to us and say, 'We want a Tuscan villa, or a
French château,' I want to find out why," Landry says. "Is it
because it's trendy, or is it that they've spent time there and
love the mood? During our process of reviewing architecture books
from different cultures, storyboards, pictures of old castles and
villas, photos that get across different moods and landscapes, I
want them to go more than skin-deep and to end up with a home that
transforms them."
Landry's dedication to his clients and to the homes he designs for
them is so great that sometimes a little out-of-the-office
exploring is required. In 2000, Auerbach, an avid traveler who'd
spent a lot of time in Mexico, Morocco, and southern Spain,
commissioned Landry to design a 10,000-square-foot home in the
Pacific Palisades Riviera. But she wanted a residence inspired by
Andalusian architecture - a style Landry was less familiar with.
"After giving him 1,000 digital images I'd taken on past trips,"
says Auerbach, "I convinced Richard to join me on a shopping and
scouting trip in Spain, visiting dealers, artisans, and salvage
sources I'd discovered in my work as an interior designer."
They stayed in hotels that were converted old mansions; measured
rooms and ceiling heights to make sure they had everything in scale
with sixteenth- and seventeenth-century design; found an artisan
who makes beautiful tiles using centuries-old techniques that make
them look hundreds of years old; and spent seven days buying
antique doors, wrought-iron grilles, door surrounds, and
chandeliers - all of which brought an aged character to the home
Auerbach calls Hacienda Andaluz.
"While the home is large, it's very romantic and informal, with
great flow and lots of arches. Plus, every room has a patio or
balcony," explains Auerbach. "I feel like I'm on vacation in
southern Spain or living on an old Spanish estancia dating back to
early California, where the cattle and horses are gone but the
house is still there."
Landry explains that many of the homes he's designed seem like
they've always been there because he incorporates centuries-old
wood, salvaged doors and grilles, antique mantels, rubble stone,
and old roof tiles and uses custom wall finishes that add to the
old-world vibe. "One couple who spend a lot of time in Europe had
been buying architectural antiques for a home before they even
contacted me," he says. "They asked me to call their dealer in
France to get all the dimensions so we could incorporate those
pieces into our design. Fortunately, when the shipment arrived, we
documented every item, and the measurements were correct. The home
is a simple, rambling Italian villa, but what makes it unique isn't
just the 15,000-square-foot size but the architectural antiques and
reclaimed materials such as the roof tiles from a convent in
Italy."
Landry currently has about a dozen homes under construction,
including a French château in Beverly Hills that is the third home
he has designed for business entrepreneur Alec Gores. "We spend a
lot of time in France and love the architecture," Gores says. "So
we asked Richard to design a home right out of the French
countryside, something very informal. Whenever we're in France, we
take photos of things that move us - a stone or slate roof, a
spectacular entrance, a garden - and give them to Richard. He's a
genius at taking all this data and understanding our vision." And
Landry not only designed the ultimate château, but he also created
a wonderful cobbled street between the home and the guesthouse.
"It's unbelievable," says Gores, who is eager to move in this
summer. "You'd think you're in Europe - an old-world street built
from French stone, and wrought-iron-and-glass entry doors on a
rubble-stone home that looks like it's been there for hundreds of
years."
Though many of Landry's traditional-style projects are inspired by
European architecture, he also does a fair amount of contemporary
design; the entire spectrum of his work is showcased in the new
coffee-table book Modern to Classic: Residential Estates by Landry
Design Group. But when it comes to European-inspired homes, Landry
is quick to point out that he's not doing historical re-creations.
"If we were doing an authentic château, the windows would be small
and you wouldn't have a house full of bathrooms - visit Versailles
and you'll see that. Our clients want the charm and character of
the old world, but they also want city or ocean views through large
panes of glass, plus spacious bathrooms, open floor plans, generous
closets, and outdoor loggias with fireplaces and televisions -
features you wouldn't find in centuries-old architecture. If you
study floor plans of these old homes, you'll see many things that
wouldn't be practical today, [such as] a big ballroom. While we pay
attention to historical precedent and use authentic materials, we
must adapt to contemporary lifestyle, so we break some rules.
Granted, breaking the rules is a risky thing to do. One must walk a
very fine line, but I believe diverse architectural styles can
coexist. I often refer to these resulting homes as hybrid
architecture, influenced by the past but not pretending to
re-create it."
Even Landry's barn-inspired home has contemporary adaptations. At
each end of the house, there's an aluminum-clad silo - one features
a marble-floored master bathroom with contemporary fixtures, and
the other houses a steam room, which adjoins a high-tech gym that
has wall-to-wall mirrors and a rubber floor.
"I'm pretty much inspired by music, art, and everything I
see, especially when I'm traveling," notes Landry. "I got a great
idea from visiting old wine caves, which were often paved with
gravel. For one client's wine cellar, we're using huge
stepping-stones surrounded with gravel, adapting the original
concept to today's lifestyle; that way, you get the same casual
feeling without ruining your shoes. Not only is this a practical
solution, but the cellar will make a beautiful place to
entertain."
Although he didn't start traveling until later in life, Landry says
the more he travels, the better he gets as an architect. "I
realized how much you can learn from the world - every journey
broadens my view and brings new inspiration."