This couple’s house has ‘love’ written all over it — literally
As these LA newlyweds built their dream home, they wrapped themselves in their feelings for one another by adorning the second story with the Hebrew word ‘ahava’
LOS ANGELES — When Maxine Morris and Bob Hale blended their lives, they also built a house of love — literally.
Early in their marriage, the couple constructed a new 5,000-square-foot Los Angeles home integrating Morris’s fondness for Hebrew letters with Hale’s passion for architecture. Like a “sukkat shalom,” a shelter of peace, they wrapped the second level of their three-story retreat with the repetition of four Hebrew letters, spelling out — and literally surrounding themselves with — the word “ahava,” or, love.
Their very public display of affection was the result of two influences. Morris was inspired by a porch light in the shape of the Hebrew letter “lamed.” And Hale had experience working with perforated aluminum while a principal at the famous Frank Gehry’s architecture firm.
Rather than opting for simple holes, they scored corrugated aluminum panels with forward and backward expressions of the amorous Hebrew term.
The result, their “Beit Ha-Ahava,” or “House of Love,” as they call it, not only represents an innovation in home design, it also symbolizes a deep sense of healing and commitment for Morris, the daughter of an Auschwitz survivor who died in 1987, and Bob, a widower, who describes himself as a Jew-by-choice.
“The house is a cloud floating in a garden,” says Hale, a veteran partner at the award-winning Rios Clementi Hale Studios that specializes in multi-disciplinary design. He served as the project’s principal architect. “It’s a home that is literally wrapped in love.”
On an urban upslope hillside in a beautiful residential niche tucked into west Los Angeles, their front yard is a meadow of native grasses, flowers and a small orchard of fruiting trees. Star jasmine climbs the front wall and guardrail. A rear yard grotto features an inviting lap pool and spa. For those familiar with Hebrew, the very open building broadcasts love to the neighborhood. It also invites the shapes of the letters inside their home.
The Hebrew letters are arranged to read from both the exterior and the interior. And in some places, the letters have been dropped to create what Hale calls “an overall illusive cloud-like pattern.”
“With light streaming through them, the screen’s positive and negative spaces result in beautiful and ethereal shadows and light,” he explains.
The home’s clean lines are majestically modern, with many appealing features, including a beautiful guest wing for Hale’s adult children from his first marriage. But it is the ways the house changes as the sun rises and sets that makes it even more interesting as each day unfolds.
“It surprised me how ubiquitous the shadowing is,” Morris says. “I didn’t expect it to be on every surface — the floors, the walls, the ceilings, the cabinets, even the door of the refrigerator! The light and shadows move around the house as the sun moves throughout the day and it’s just gorgeous and sweet.”
Panels in the front windows open using custom-designed mechanisms to allow for unobstructed views that also alternate presentations of the exterior of the building, depending on how widely they are opened.
“I love the views through the house; the spatial composition, the way the light and shadows move throughout the day,” Hale says. “The way the screen is illuminated in the early morning and late afternoon with the sun grazing it at a steep angle — almost like it’s on fire.”
Hale, who earned his masters in architecture at UCLA, worked for his mentor, the noted Jewish architect Frank Gehry. Another influence was Charles Moore. For 12 years prior to coming to his current firm, Hale oversaw many award-winning projects at Gehry’s studio, including the temporary home for LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art and Loyola Law School, The American Center in Paris and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. In addition to serving as past president of the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects, Hale has taught at UCLA, USC, UNLV and Tulane.
Hale met Morris on Match.com at the end of June, 2008. A Denver native, she recently left a position of 14 years at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica as director of financial operations. She previously worked in financial management in the entertainment industry. Two years after meeting, the couple married in Vail, Colorado. Their new home took 18 months to complete.
“This was a very collaborative project for Bob and me,” Morris says. “Our tastes in modern architecture are consistent, which was good, and so we didn’t really disagree on any basic concepts.
“For the details though… Bob was great at drawing things out on paper for me so I’d understand. So the actual project of designing and building the house was really a joint effort and I’m not sure how common that is with couples.”
Hebrew letters are a pervasive theme among the many collectibles Morris adores.
“I love the shape of Hebrew letters,” she says. “They are just so beautiful with their curves and movement.”
Morris also enjoys how the home represents their joint interests.
“Bob took great care in really thinking about how we would live in it and how that should to designing the specific elements,” she says. “The little details that make a difference were always on his radar. For example, the walls where the door handles touch the walls when the doors are open, have little spaces cut out. So the doors are straight open and flat against the wall. Those are cool details that he was very attuned to.”
With stucco and glass, the home serves as a dramatic backdrop for Morris’ vibrant dreidel collection and other items — family photographs and colorful work by Hale’s late first wife, Anne Greenwald, who was an accomplished artist, children’s book author and illustrator.
Hale, who appreciates such designs as the Villa Savoye by Le Corbusier and the House in Bordeaux by Rem Koolhaas, chose the distinct silver-colored siding for its unique qualities.
“It shimmers, is strong and durable, and it’s light. And it’s not expensive,” Hale says. “Living in Los Angeles, there’s a long history of modern houses that respond to the climate and culture here. Being able to live inside and out, open but also intimately.”
At the end of this month, the pair plan to throw a New Year’s Eve party and after midnight, Max will officiate a wedding for two dear friends. Under a California regulation, she is obtaining a license to serve as a deputy commissioner and serve as a justice of the peace.
“The fun part is that the couple is Christian and Muslim — and me, a Jew, is marrying them at Beit Ha-Ahava,” she says.
The pair is happy to share their love with others.
As Hale explains, “It’s our home that we made together. In that, it is a physical manifestation of our love for each other together.”
Morris agrees. For her, the repetition of “ahava” represents a signpost of commitment.
“They are like a mezuzah in a way, a constant visual reminder of our love,” she says. “It sounds corny, but you stop and think, ‘Oh yeah, we really love each other.’ It’s an active thought and so, it’s not taken for granted.”
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