big pine

la canada flintridge, ca

BIG PINE is a foothills family compound reimagined from the ground up — a 30,000-square-foot La Cañada property transformed into a layered landscape of outdoor living, ecological planting, and spaces for childhood wonder. Nested at the edge of Gould Canyon, where coastal sage scrub gives way to the pines and oaks of the Transverse Range, the design draws its character directly from the land it sits on.

The backyard unfolds across multiple elevations: an open air pavilion with outdoor kitchen and fireplace anchors the upper terrace, stepping down through a restructured pool surround and stone decks toward a lower meadow of native grasses and chaparral planting. A sauna overlook perches at the canyon edge; a treehouse clubhouse occupies the north eastern edge of the property. Throughout, the material palette — board-formed concrete, rough-sawn cedar, decomposed granite, native stone — keeps the architecture honest and the landscape in the lead.

This project came to life through close collaboration with the family, whose vision for a landscape equally at home in the foothills and in a life fully lived outdoors guided every decision. Construction was led with care by Natural Earth LA, and the final work was beautifully documented by Erika Bierman.