John Melfi's daring house

When John Melfi, the New York producer of "Sex in the City," "Rome" and the upcoming Showtime series "Nurse Jackie," decided to become a true Angeleno, he asked Steven Shortridge to build a house for him here. The Culver City architect, however, was a little apprehensive. The daring design he had in mind was for a narrow lot in Venice where he proposed jettisoning the traditional town house layout of small rooms stacked three stories high. Shortridge wanted to experiment instead with seven levels of rooms that zigzagged through a tall, slender box, leaving the interior remarkably open and affording an unexpected sense of spaciousness.

Melfi looked over the plans, and once he got over misgivings about Venice -- the producer worried it was too far a drive to business in Hollywood -- he signed on. Now, when you enter Melfi's home, you have to applaud his instincts. With its high ceilings and tall windows, an ocean breeze gently blowing through, his house feels expansive, even grand. It's hardly what you'd expect on a lot that measures 80 by 30 feet.

Beyond the feeling of spaciousness, the 2,220-square-foot house is the epitome of easy living.

"I can't wait to drive home -- it's this wonderful retreat," Melfi said. "I literally exhale the moment I step inside."

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Even though his first job in Los Angeles was working for the late, flamboyant Frank Israel, Shortridge (now a principal of the firm Callas Shortridge Architects) is known for the disciplined precision of his designs. Working out the intricate placement of levels in the new house appealed to him.

He often would step out from his own home on an adjacent lot and walk 20 yards to examine the spot where Melfi's house would rise. The design started in an obvious place for a Los Angeles architect: the garage. He placed it at the rear of the property, and set the living room on top. Above that were an office and a guest bedroom.

On the front part of the lot, toward the street, he designed an equally tall box. To contrast with the coziness of the rooms in back, Shortridge wanted the front of the house to be airy and open. He pulled the house back from the street, creating a walled-in courtyard with outdoor teak sofas and a built-in barbecue. The backdrop for a fire pit is a 6-foot rusting steel plate. "I used it to give a sense of containment to this end of the house," the architect said.