Surprisingly, given the allure of living in the Hollywood Hills, the reality is that the lots are small, the houses cheek by jowl. This was the hurdle architect Paul McClean needed to clear in his quest to devise a 4,000-squarefoot home for a client and his family that felt like a private sanctuary. A visit to the property revealed the answer in a stunning view of the city. "But it was thirty feet up," McClean says with a laugh. To capture it, he would need to elevate the home. His design evolved from that idea.