Kevin Karami and his son Dustin pointed out the differences among the three next-door houses they designed in Irvine’s Great Park Neighborhoods.
One is “contemporary” with a mix of exterior building materials, from brick to stucco, and a flat roof, mindful of a Pueblo Revival home in the New Mexican desert. Next door is an “abstract traditional” midcentury-style home with a sloping roof on two sides. The third is “transitional,” featuring a sloping roof on only one side and sporting “an urban, international look.”
“They’re not like boxes—they’re really playful,” Kevin Karami said. “We pushed the envelopes by mixing different architectures.”
Karami, an Iranian native who arrived in the U.S. in 1975 at age 20 and never returned, has drawn thousands of designs for homes around the world, including in Dubai, Egypt and China.
“In terms of residential, the U.S. is still strong and the leader,” he said. “Our architecture is still the best in the world. In certain areas of Europe, there is zero growth. They just remodel their homes. Their kitchens are not interesting.”
Six years ago, the Karamis started Irvine-based SDK Atelier Inc., a 14-person firm involved in five home projects, including two with Lennar Corp. and one each with Pulte Group Inc., Richmond American Homes Corp. and TRI Pointe Group.
SDK Atelier, which stands for Dustin’s initials and the French word for studio, was one of the first in Orange County to design three-story homes. The Karamis gave the Business Journal an architect’s view of the homes it designed at Encore, a part of Cadence Park in Irvine built by Lennar where models start at $1.2 million and are 2,232 to 2,600 square feet with four bedrooms.
By building three floors, a developer can place 11 units per acre instead of the more typical three to four units, Karami said. It’s key when an acre sells for more than $5 million in Great Park Neighborhoods, he said.
“Three-story homes are the wave of the future because of the density. It’s the solution [to Orange County’s housing shortage].”
First Floor
At Encore, gone are formal rooms for living, dining and cooking.
“No one uses the living room anymore,” Karami said. “When I have a party at my house, they don’t go to the dining room or living room. They pass by it and go right to the kitchen, where the food is.”
Instead, the living room, dining room and kitchen are combined into today’s “great room.”
Karami said an architect uses subtle tricks to make the room appear bigger, such as lighter colors, more windows and an 11- or 12-foot ceiling rather than traditional 9-foot. Near the dining table is a small enclosed “pocket door” patio that brings light to the center of the house.
“With more light, everything looks bigger,” he said.
The house, across the street from a public park, has no backyard.
“Younger buyers don’t care for bigger yards,” he said, explaining that they don’t want to spend their time taking care of big gardens. “They don’t mind a smaller footprint with a denser, more urban look.”
Notably, many new homes are missing a fireplace, which typically added $5,000 to the home’s cost.
“The fireplace is a thing of the past,” Karami said. “You don’t have formal zones anymore.”
Instead, homes are placing fire pits or horizontal chimneys on patios to take advantage of the temperate coastal California weather.
Local homebuilders and their architects are targeting the lucrative Chinese buyer, who’s known for paying cash instead of taking out mortgages.
“This home in Hong Kong is about $10 to $15 million,” Karami said. “When they come to Irvine and see something for $2 million to $3 million, they can pay cash.”
The bottom floor might also have a 120-square-foot “grandma room” with its own walk-in closet and bathroom.
Karami said that when designing projects in China, he saw the importance of providing space for grandparents because the culture expects the younger generations to take care of their elders.
To attract the older generations, future homes might contain elevators, which cost about $25,000 each.
The house may also have a second “wok” kitchen for the kind of cooking whose fragrance can be overwhelming.
Future homes might include a garage with a lift so two cars can fit into one parking footprint, a strategy that can save $5,000 to $15,000 per home.
Luxurious Baths
The second floor Encore home features three bedrooms, including a master suite with an 11-foot ceiling and five windows.
“Light is very critical,” Karami said. “While space is getting smaller, if you bring more light, it looks more airy.”
Every master suite and many of the bedrooms have walk-in closets, and bathrooms are larger than in previous generations.
“Before, no one cared about the bathrooms—they were functional,” Karami said. “Now the bathrooms have become luxuries” with extra-large showers and granite countertops.
The homes have the newest technology, including the whole-house Alexa voice-command system and what Lennar calls the “world’s first Wi-Fi certified home design.”
The third floor showcases a 420-square-foot “bonus room” opening onto a 210-foot deck.
It could easily be the ultimate man cave with a TV, a bar and a barbecue.
“There are a lot of rooftops in Europe,” Karami said. “Here, everyone is scared of the rooftops. I said, ‘Why not?’”
Dustin said, “We brought the living room to the third floor. We gave the owners an outdoor area with a view instead of a backyard.”
