“LA Home: Home + Life in Los Angeles, Winter-Spring 2016.

A House by the Silver Lake: Actress Lisa Edelstein and artist Robert Russell’s mid-century, Japanese home. Article by Mark Castellino.

The house, an extraordinary combination of California mid-century modern and a traditional Japanese timber-framed house, was created by Edward “Tink” Adams, the founding director of Art Center College of Design, over several decades, with the help of several different architects. When Lisa bought the house, maintenance of the structure was overdue, and the garden, what there was of it, consisted mostly of neglected, diseased cypress and eucalyptus trees and overgrown carpet junipers.

“Everyone was really attached to the house but nobody had the money to do the necessary repair work that it needed,” recalls Lisa. When she moved in, she shored up the retaining wall at the top of the garden. The juniper was pruned and the 100 year old bonzai treesthat had made the long trip with Adams from Japan in the 1940s were lovingly restored by specialist Robert Pressler. Together with landscape designer Wade Graham, Lisa and Robert cleared the overgrown garden paths,removed two diseased pine trees, designed two ponds and added David Cressey architectural pots. Lisa says, “Wade is not only incredibly talented, he is also inclusive and collaborative. Robert and I both love to design and create, and never want to feel left out of that process by hiring someone to do it for us. Wade is incredible to work with in that regard. He has a great talent for manifesting ideas, whether they’re his alone, or ours together.””