I’m looking at the setback lines in my head. I’m thinking about the zoning designation. I’m noticing the slope in the back, the width of the driveway, whether the garage is detached or attached, where the utility easement probably runs. I’m doing the math on lot coverage before we’ve even gotten out of the car.
She thinks I’m obsessive. She’s probably right. But this is genuinely what I enjoy doing. Properties are puzzles, and every lot in Los Angeles is a different puzzle with different constraints and different solutions. After ten years and over 1,500 projects, I still get the same satisfaction from figuring out what a difficult property can actually hold.
Every Lot Tells a Story
When I walk a property for the first time — whether it’s for a client or just because my wife dragged me to another open house — I’m reading the lot the way you’d read a book. Everything on the site is telling you something about what’s possible.
The slope in the backyard isn’t just a slope. It’s a grading condition that determines where a structure can sit, what kind of foundation it needs, and whether a retaining wall opens up buildable area that doesn’t exist without it. The detached garage isn’t just a garage. It’s a potential conversion candidate, or it’s a structure that needs to come down to make room for something better, or it’s in exactly the right spot to share a wall with a new ADU.
The narrow side yard that looks like wasted space might be a path to rear access that makes a detached unit feasible. The weird jog in the property line that makes the lot look unusable might actually create a pocket that’s outside the typical setback geometry — a pocket where something can be built that nobody else saw.
None of this is visible if you’re just looking at the lot as a shape on a map. You have to walk it, feel the grade changes, pace out the distances, and think about how the zoning provisions interact with the physical reality of the site.
The Properties Nobody Else Wants
The lots I find most interesting are the ones that other designers have already passed on. A client calls and says they’ve been told the property is too constrained for what they want to do. That’s when I get curious.
Not because I’m trying to prove someone wrong. But because “too constrained” usually means “too constrained for the approach that was tried.” A different approach might work. A different reading of the code might open a door. A configuration nobody considered might fit within the setbacks in a way that a conventional layout wouldn’t.
I’ve spent enough years doing this that the difficult properties are where I feel most useful. The straightforward projects — flat lot, clean rectangle, standard setbacks, build an ADU in the back corner — are satisfying, but they don’t require much creative problem-solving. They require competence and thoroughness, which we bring to every project. But the sites with real challenges are the ones where deep code knowledge and ten years of experience actually make a visible difference in the outcome.
What My Wife’s Business Taught Me About Property Potential
Working alongside my wife’s house-flipping business gave me something that most building designers never develop: an investor’s eye for property potential. When she evaluates a property, she’s not just looking at what’s there today. She’s looking at what it could become — and what that transformation is worth.
That mindset changed how I approach design. I don’t just think about what the client is asking for in front of me. I think about the full potential of the property under the code. Can this lot support more than what the client is requesting? Is there an ADU opportunity they haven’t considered? Could the project be configured differently to create more value?
I’m not making these decisions for the client. But I want them to know what their options are. If someone comes to me wanting a single ADU and the code actually allows two units plus a junior ADU, they should know that before we start drawing plans. Maybe they still want just the one ADU. That’s fine. But they should be making that choice with full information, not because nobody told them what was possible.
Why This Matters for the People Who Hire Us
I know this article is more personal than our other posts. But I think it matters because it explains something about how we work that clients notice but can’t always articulate.
When you work with Design 1 Studio, you’re not just getting a set of plans. You’re getting someone who genuinely enjoys the problem-solving part of this work — the code research, the site analysis, the puzzle of figuring out what a property can actually do. That enjoyment translates into thoroughness. We dig deeper because we want to, not just because we have to. We spend more time on the code research because we find it interesting, not because we’re billing by the hour.
The result is that our clients consistently end up with projects that maximize what their property can do. Not because we cut corners or bend rules, but because we read the rules more carefully than most people bother to. And after 1,500 projects, we’ve developed an instinct for where the opportunities are hiding.
The Puzzle Never Gets Old
People ask me if I ever get tired of reading zoning codes and analyzing setback diagrams. Honestly, no. Every property is different. Every jurisdiction has its own quirks. Every project has a moment where the pieces click together and you realize what the site can actually support. That moment is why I do this.
If you have a property you’re curious about — especially one that someone else has told you is too difficult — give us a call. I’d love to look at it.