About Whipple Russell Architects

In our 40 years we’ve grown a roster of luxury modern homes with exceptional attributes and enhanced property values; hillside homes with ocean, city, and canyon views, and indoor outdoor live / work spaces with custom pools and hardscapes. Our warm modern designs are peaceful retreats and exciting places to entertain, bringing some clients to happily remark that living in them is like “living in a resort hotel.”

Our work ranges from Mediterranean and Prairie Style, to Provençal and Bauhaus, but today we are almost exclusively called on to design modern resort style luxury homes, each unique and customized to the needs and preferences of our clients. Every project starts with careful listening, to determine how the clients would like to live in their space, and how they want it to perform, and from there a plan is created, which determines the aesthetic.

Throughout the entire design process we maintain a flexible and evolving relationship with our clients, prioritizing communication and a productive flow of ideas. What we design is what is built, so it’s important that there’s a complete understanding of the final plan. Comprehensive 3D videos and virtual reality (VR) experiences allow our clients to see and experience their projects as they take shape, before construction begins.

Each of our designs includes five essential components to varying degrees:

drama

Drama creates a place where people long to be, and can be evoked with elements designed to elicit emotion. Features like double-height glass walls, spacious light filled open volumes, skylights, sweeping vistas, and floating glass walkways all add a sense of drama to the built environment. Fire and water features add nature’s untamed wildness and serene beauty to a home, and create a mesmerizing, invigorating energy when paired together. For visual texture, contrasting materials can be placed side by side, including rough stone and stacked slate alongside smooth tiles and weightless glass.

light

Glass walls and skylights flood our modern homes with natural light, illuminating interior spaces all the way down to lower level anti-basements in designs with open volume atriums. Views, sunlight, and shadows all add visual displays that constantly change throughout the day.

elements

Incorporating nature’s elements into the built environment (biophilic design) can contribute to feelings of wellness in the people inhabiting those spaces, as it supports the primal desire to be connected with the natural world. With floor to ceiling sliding glass walls open to seamless indoor outdoor living, expansive windows and skylights that let in natural light and sweeping views, and the use of natural elements and materials in decor, including fire and water features, marble, and textured stone,, we add nature’s beneficial presence to a home, and create immersive, healing, awe-inspiring, and transportive spaces.

connection

Another guiding principle that shapes the architectural design of our homes is our ‘living small’ concept, which ensures that a sense of connection and closeness can be maintained between inhabitants, no matter the size of a property. This is achieved through view corridors and open sight lines that reach throughout multi-story open volume spaces, allowing for visual connections and shared experiences. It’s a philosophy that we continue to evolve with each new project.

As Marc describes it, “The use of a central volume is the magic that allows a visual connection along different axes within the house, reminders of where you are going and where you have been…”

breadth of experience

Marc’s early work on over 30 designs for the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and Los Angeles County Museum of Art called on him to respond to the needs of the many administrators, restoration experts, and museum curators. From exhibition halls to the storage of ancient artifacts, meeting the museum’s multi-faceted requirements forged his ability for organizing and then translating complex needs into finished satisfying designs.

Spanning 40 years in practice, Whipple Russell Architects enthusiastically embraces new technologies and cutting edge products and materials, while applying solid institutional oversight. With specialized knowledge, patience, and a love of problem solving, we navigate building codes and permits, as well as the politics and processes of planning departments and communities.

marc whipple, principal, aia

Every day, Marc enjoys the privilege of doing the very thing he has been passionate about since early childhood. Born the son of an American diplomat, he grew up overseas where he was exposed to a multitude of cultures throughout Asia, Africa, and Europe. His introduction to classical architecture in a variety of styles has had a significant impact on the classic influences underpinning his modern architectural principles.

Following his education at Eton College and London’s prestigious Architectural Association School of Architecture, Marc was hired and mentored by the uniquely diverse Los Angeles architect, George Vernon Russell, one of the original California modernists, well known for designing the Café Trocadero on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood. George made Marc a project manager on complex projects at a very young age, and when Marc opened his own firm, he honored his late mentor by including his name in that of the practice.

Today, Marc’s signature work is his luxury modern residential designs exemplifying the luxury resort style of the modern west coast lifestyle. And though he enjoys a reputation for being one of the top modern residential architects in Southern California, his project roster has expanded to clients from all points on the compass, eager to import the Whipple Russell vision.

yoav weiss, principal

Fascinated with the nuances of space—its form, voids, and the movement it enables has been central to Yoav’s path as a designer. Early childhood explorations building with Legos and K’nex led to formal training in drafting throughout high school, and a degree from the USC School of Architecture in 2011. His perspective is informed by a love of the timeless, tasteful styles of the Bauhaus and Scandinavian modern movements, discovered while studying and traveling abroad, and an appreciation for innovation and the newest emerging technologies. Integrating cutting edge tools and techniques, he seeks to continually elevate and improve the design process. Licensed in California since 2018 and part of the firm since 2013, Yoav now serves as one of our principal architects.