Santa Monica-based Montalba Architects (MA) celebrated an award-winning 2015, receiving a World Interior News (WIN) award and two Spark awards for exceptionally innovative design. The firm readies for a bustling 2016 with several exciting projects including residences and commercial spaces. MA’s recognition for The Row, the ready-to-wear and accessories brand founded by Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, represents the studio’s first WIN award, which celebrates international designs that have made the biggest cultural impact in the past year. The firm’s two Spark awards, a gold award in the space category for the Citizens of Humanity showroom and a bronze award in the health category for the mobile Studio Dental, recognized impactful designs across multiple disciplines, from product and concept to automotive and experience.

Founding Principal David Montalba, FAIA, notes, “2015 was a great year for Montalba Architects with the completion of several prominent hospitality and retail projects, such as Cassia in Santa Monica and the new Equinox facility in Huntington Beach. We’ve also expanded our reach into the European market via our newly opened Lausanne, Switzerland office, and multiple acknowledgments by way of international design awards. We look forward to continuing the momentum with diverse new projects in the works.”

Highlighted 2016 projects include:

Linda Ridge II Residence

A “matchbox” concept was the driving force behind the design of this studio residence in Pasadena. The layered volumes step downhill, creating open spaces between the structures for integrated planting areas, covered terraces, and dual linear water features for passive cooling.

San Lorenzo II Residence

As founding principal, David Montalba’s personal Los Angeles residence, the primary design intention of this 4,000 square foot, single-family home in Santa Monica Canyon is to create a living space that merges interior and exterior spaces to establish a seamlessly occupiable environment. A folding garden feature carries the backyard greenery into the footprint of the home from the central three-story courtyard, which feeds light through each floor of the house, into the basement living quarters.

Canyon Beach House
We will begin construction on this single-family residence in Malibu with a stone exterior entry, full plaster walls throughout, and a poolside sunroom that features completely retractable glass walls. 

Studio Dental Brick & Mortar

MA recently broke ground on the follow up project to its Spark award-winning Mobile Dental Unit design. The dental studio’s brick and mortar location will feature the same soft woods and natural light utilized for the mobile office. 

LAX Terminal 6

MA is the design architect for two new dining terraces that will house eighteen restaurants as part of a $40 million renovation of the terminal that services US Airways and Alaska Airways among others. This is MA’s most recent project with Westfield. 

Additional information about Montalba Architects and a full suite of project images can be found at www.montalbaarchitects.com. 

Founding Principal David Montalba, FAIA, SIA, started Montalba Architects in 2004 and is the driving force of leadership and design within the firm. Montalba Architects is a diverse architecture and design studio of more than 40 designers based in Santa Monica, CA, with a satellite office in Lausanne, Switzerland. The award-winning practice is engaged in retail, residential and other select commercial projects in the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Believing that architecture and one’s environment can truly improve quality of life, Montalba's approach is humanistic in nature, which often leads to solutions that are discrete, contextual, yet conceptual in their intent, effect, and appeal. Projects aim to create environments that are both socially responsive and aesthetically progressive. Montalba Architects’ original Santa Monica studio is located within Bergamot Station, a creative hub and arts district at 2525 Michigan Ave., Bldg. T4, Santa Monica, CA. Montalba Architects, Sàrl is located at Rue Centrale 6, 4 eme stage, Lausanne, CH-1003, Switzerland. 

The photo leading this release is of Montalba Architect's World Interior News award-winning design of The Row, photo credit: Dominique Vorillon