The Garage Pavilion is an amalgamation of several things in one place. It is, first but not foremost, a garage. Its very existence on this dense urban site is made possible by the fact that this building replaces a crumbling older garage that had been completely subsumed by climbing vines. But the Garage Pavilion and its wonderful garden designed by G2CLA is also a social space for gathering, lounging, dining and parties. And, last but not least, it is a spa, complete with a large custom hot tub, steam room and sauna.

What was the brief?

Designed for an active family of four, the Garage Pavilion takes advantage of site topography that slopes down from the street to the garage in back, a drop that enables the main level of the home to walk straight out onto the roof of the Garage Pavillion. A wooden bridge reaches out from the home’s kitchen dining space, and spans across to the garage roof. The large roof deck provides space for outdoor dining, lounging and entertaining. And in the back corner - a 7’ square hot tub drops down into the roof.

Descending from the wooden bridge a steel stair with Ipe’ treads lands on a sculptural concrete landing that eases a gradual transition into the garden below. In the garden, recycled granite curbs are interspersed with thyme, moss grows on a gentle slope, and bamboo screens the fence behind a concrete retaining wall that also serves as seating. A Corten steel fire pit holds the center of the space, and in the corner a large granite block catches water from the chain drain to make a bird bath.

Inside the garage on the lower level there is ample parking for two cars, (or space for a ping-pong table, a moped and several bikes), a sauna, a steam room with shower, and a mechanical space tucked under the hot tub.

The Garage Pavilion expresses these multiple roles through a materiality that speaks directly to what it is. Concrete walls solve the fire code requirements for a garage set only one foot from the property line. Standard basement formwork systems were hacked to craft a carefully composed composition of form ties, joint lines, and openings in the wall. This concrete materiality is then complimented by only a few other materials: granite curbs in the garden, black steel for the stair and railings, and 1x4 Ipe’ for the bridge, decking, and built-in furniture.

While the untamed wildness of the previous jungle/ruin has gone, in many ways the memory of that ugly monster remains, re-animated in a more civilized manner. New things grow on the roof now: herbs and vegetables planted by the family’s young gardener, grasses and flowers soon to spill over the walls, and dinner parties, teens watching movies, and folks relaxing in hot bubbly water.