Modern Laguna

Architecture & Design on the Coast

 

Temple Hills, Laguna Beach

 

 

 

The Sunset Duet & Sunrise Duet

At the 2025 AIA Orange County Design Awards, a Laguna Beach project took honors in the Unbuilt Category. The jury cited its quiet clarity, a sculptural stair, a floating upper volume, and a plan that answers its site instead of fighting it. The architect is Anders Lasater. The site is 2155 Temple Hills Drive.

Unbuilt awards are a particular kind of recognition. They reward the idea before the market, the budget, or the contractor has had a chance to sand its edges off. Most of the work honored in that category stays on paper. This one does not have to.

 

In Laguna Beach, the drawings are rarely the hard part. Getting them approved is. That work is finished here, and the permit to break ground is imminent.

 

Half an Acre, and the Whole Horizon

Temple Hills sits high above the village, on the ridge that gives Laguna Beach its long views. The parcel runs to approximately one-half acre and looks out over the Pacific, Catalina Island, and the sunset line. Views reach nearly every room in the current house, which is the condition the new design was drawn to exploit rather than invent.

Anyone who has tried to build in this city knows the sequence. Design review, neighbor comment, view equity, height and grading constraints, coastal considerations. It routinely turns a custom home into a multi-year exercise before a shovel moves. A buyer here inherits an approved outcome instead of an open question.

Somewhere to Live While You Build

The residence standing today is not a teardown of convenience. The main level opens under soaring ceilings with hardwood floors and walls of glass framing the coastline. The kitchen is fitted with Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Bosch appliances around a granite island, with an ocean-view breakfast nook beside it. A custom Cellinite fixture hangs in the dining room; a wood-burning fireplace anchors the living room.

Below, three bedrooms include two ocean-view primary suites, alongside an office and an exercise room, nearly all of it opening to the view. Upstairs holds a soundproofed media and game room. A den serves as an additional bedroom. Parking runs to a three-car garage and a broad driveway, and the grounds leave ample room for a pool and gardens.

2155 Temple Hills Drive

Offered at $5,995,000
Approximately one-half acre in Temple Hills, Laguna Beach
DRB-approved plans for a 7,500 sq. ft. residence
Architect: Anders Lasater Architects
2025 AIA Orange County Design Awards, Unbuilt Category
Panoramic Pacific, Catalina Island, and sunset views
Three-car garage, room for a pool

 

 

 

 

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