Why is early coordination with the electrician important on hillside home projects?

Early electrical planning with the architect and general contractor allows the electrical, lighting control, and shade wiring to be settled before framing closes. This is especially important on downhill sites where service entrance, conduit runs, and exterior circuits must follow the slope.

How does an open-corner glass design affect electrical device placement?

With pocketing sliders removing walls where switches and keypads usually live, device locations must be decided on the architect's drawings in advance. Lutron keypads and scenes are designed so the room reads correctly with the corners open to the terrace and the shades up.

What is the advantage of running Lutron lighting control with motorized shades?

Lutron lighting control and motorized shades can be integrated into scenes so that a single keypad sets both the lighting and the shades simultaneously. This allows evening scenes to control both systems at once without adding equipment after construction is finished.

How is conduit and wiring handled when the structural frame is left exposed?

Where stainless columns and the frame serve as the finish, conduit, boxes, and fixture mounts cannot be hidden in framing. They are coordinated with the structural engineer and placed once, cleanly, at rough-in to work with the exposed frame rather than against it.

Why is the kitchen and public floor placement significant for electrical planning?

The kitchen contains the heaviest electrical loads in the house and requires the most lighting control. Placing the kitchen and public spaces on the second floor means distribution, panel location, and risers are planned with the structure rather than threaded through it later.

What should hillside homeowners do before starting construction?

Hillside homeowners planning a custom home should contact their electrical contractor while drawings are still open so the electrician can work with the architect and general contractor from the beginning to coordinate all systems.

Pacific Palisades Residence: Hillside New-Build Electrical

Pacific Palisades Residence

Pacific Palisades, above Temescal Canyon. Ground-up new construction. Architect: von Studnitz Architects.

A four-bedroom house designed from the ground up on an 8,730-square-foot downhill lot overlooking Temescal Canyon and the Pacific. The architect put the living room, kitchen, and public spaces on the second floor to take the view, and opened them to a large terrace through custom pocketing sliding-door systems with open outside and inside corners. The structure, worked out with the structural engineer to suit the slope, is left partly exposed: a run of stainless steel wide-flange columns defines the terrace over the ocean and the canyon. Buzo Electric Co carried all of the electrical on the house, plus the Lutron lighting control and the Lutron motorized shades, as one scope.

What the design asked of the electrical

Three things about this house shape the electrical work before a single circuit is drawn.

The public floor is upstairs. The kitchen, the heaviest loads in the house, and the rooms that need the most lighting control sit a full floor above the service. Distribution, panel location, and the risers to the second floor are planned with the structure, not threaded through it later.
The corners are glass. Pocketing sliders with open corners remove the walls where switches and keypads usually live. Device locations are decided on the architect's drawings, and the Lutron keypads and scenes are designed so the room still reads correctly with the corners open to the terrace and the shades up.
The structure is on show. Where stainless columns and the frame are the finish, conduit, boxes, and fixture mounts cannot be hidden in framing. They are coordinated with the structural engineer and placed once, cleanly, at rough-in. The terrace lighting works with the exposed frame instead of against it.

Add a downhill site, where the service entrance, the conduit runs, and the exterior circuits all have to follow the slope, and the project rewards the way we work: one firm on the plans early, with the architect and the GC, settling the electrical, the lighting control, and the shade wiring before framing closes.

Lighting control and shades

The house runs on Lutron: lighting control throughout, with scenes engineered for a public floor that is mostly glass, and motorized Lutron shades on the view openings. Shade pockets and power were wired at rough-in alongside the lighting circuits, so the keypad that sets the evening scene also sets the shades, and nothing was added to the finished house after the fact.

Systems

Electrical, Lutron lighting control, and Lutron motorized shades by Buzo Electric Co, CSLB C-10 #1048529. Architecture by von Studnitz Architects.

If you are planning a custom home on a hillside lot in the Palisades or anywhere on the Westside, call (323) 252-7498, Monday through Friday, 7:00 to 15:00, and bring us in while the drawings are still open.

Prefer to talk it through? Call (323) 252-7498 — a quick call is usually the fastest way to get a straight answer for your situation.

Pacific Palisades Residence

Pacific Palisades Residence

What the design asked of the electrical

Lighting control and shades

Systems

Other projects.

Tell us what the house has to do.