It’s no secret that architecture is a profession of delayed gratification for both practitioner and client. In this case, however, delayed gratification was still in the equation, but architect and client were one and the same. David Martin, third-generation principal of AC Martin Partners, waited nearly a decade to complete his lap pool and pool house. That was after he spent six years designing and building the main house, which he completed in 2001. The 5,000-square-foot residence sits in a piazza like setting on 2.5 wooded acres in Rustic Canyon, a beach-adjacent enclave of Los Angeles. But the pool and the little house, which doubles as a design studio, were included in the overall scheme from day one.

“If you want a piazza, you need a village around it,” Martin starts off. References to the European archetype come easily to him, since he spent four months abroad surveying community spaces when he was a recent graduate on a traveling fellowship from Columbia University. Martin also acknowledges a link to Peter Zumthor’s Hotel Therme Vals in the Swiss Alps, having made the pilgrimage several times. “The lesson there was all about the glamour of swimming and the shower,” he recalls.

But the real genesis came from his wife. A swimmer, Mary Klaus Martin had been on the Olympic track when she was young. She ultimately became an All American triathlete, completing more than 20 national and international events. “The 25-yard pool was a serious requirement,” her husband notes.

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Interior Design Magazine
“Poolside Manner” by Edie Cohen
October 2012

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