Architectural Adventure

When people ask architects Apurva Pande and Chinmaya Misra where they live, they never get a straightforward answer. The couple's home lies at the end of a cul-de-sac somewhere between Culver City and West Adams-an amorphous zone west of downtown Los Angeles where angular streets rudely interrupt the city's regular grid. The neighborhood council is still trying to come up with a name for the area. "We live in an in-between of in-betweens," says Pande. "Given our penchant for complexity, this neighborhood really suits us perfectly."

Most recent architecture-school graduates content themselves with renting apartments for years until they generate enough money and professional kudos to buy or design their dream home. But Delhi, India, natives Pande and Misra decided, in spite of limited financial resources and full-time jobs, not to wait. "We were keen to break the stereotypical architectural career path, which renders inconceivable the possibility of architects fresh from school using their design education and training to build for themselves," says Pande, who used to work for Frank Gehry and is now striking out with Misra on their own. "We were inspired by the ideals of the '60s modernists who attempted to make modern design a way of life rather than an aspiration for the wealthy."

So the couple, who were then in their late 20s, scoured the escalating Los Angeles housing market for a suitable fixer-upper for under $400,000. "We were really down-and-out financially, with little cash and large student loans," says Misra, who was then working for the Jerde Partnership on large-scale retail and mixed-use projects. In the fall of 2003, after more than six months of searching, Pande and Misra spent just over $380,000 on a property so dilapidated that no one else bid on it. Then they set about making it their own.