Dean Nota

Principal, Dean Nota Architect

Hermosa Beach

Specialty: Open, light-oriented residences

What does an architect do when he or she needs an architect? David Brotman of RTKL Associates Inc. called Dean Nota.

“He took an (existing) house that was uglier than hell and created wonderful, interesting spaces,” Brotman said. Nota “was able to change the whole look of the house. He knew just how to do it, and he made it very easy.”

Nota is indeed an architect’s architect better known within the profession than among the general public. Soft-spoken and with a single employee, he has built a comparatively small number of projects.

Yet he has become one of the best known of L.A.-area home designers, in part because his works have been published in the prestigious Japanese magazine “Global Architecture” and elsewhere.

Nota is a purist who says he’s concerned primarily with open space and light. “The people who come to me (for design services) are usually interested in a dramatic play of light and are interested in open, spatial kinds of experiences,” he said. “A lot my buildings are ‘edge’ buildings that open up to a view.”

Nota was a member of the first graduating class from the Southern California Institute of Architecture, and later worked in the office of the school’s founder, Ray Kappe. Nota’s mentor incorporated many solar-heating and cooling features into his buildings, and Nota continues the practice today in his own buildings, although he balks at the suggestion that his buildings are merely “solar buildings.”

Strong-minded architects sometimes end up alienating clients, but Nota does not let his personality get in the way of his work, according to Brotman.

Nota, he said, has “strong convictions about design, but he does not express himself in an overbearing fashion. He convinces you with logic. He is also willing to listen to your ideas as well. He is just easy to work with.”