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Montalba Architects – Club 1683 Member

The open kitchen in David Montalba's private Santa Monica residence, featuring Gaggenau appliances.
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Montalba Architects, a renowned international architecture firm based in Los Angeles, produces humanistic and socially responsive projects to create new forms of expression through space and scale. Founded in 2004 by David Montalba, the firm’s practice blurs the lines of progressive architecture, “believing that architecture and one’s environment can truly improve quality of life.”

Poolside view of the Venice Beach House, an urban beach single-family residence. Full-height sliding glass doors create an open breezeway to living spaces at the Venice Beach House, an urban beach single-family residence.

Photographer: Kevin Scott for Montalba Architects

David Montalba, the founding principal of Montalba Architects, is the driving force of leadership and design within the firm. His diverse background as an architect includes over 25 years of professional practice, recognition in several notable publications and numerous awards, including the AIA’s National Young Architect Award in 2008, a 2019 AIA Institute Honor Award, and over 100 other design awards. Montalba’s core principles continue to pave the way for the firm’s success, finding solutions for clients that are “discrete, contextual, yet conceptual in their intent, effect, and appeal.”

Gaggenau ovens in David Montalba's private Santa Monica residence.

Favorite Gaggenau appliance?

“The warming drawer! It is the most used. No one initially wanted it except for Amy [my wife], but it’s really practical!”

David Montalba standing on one of three decks of the Oxnard Beach House.

Born in Florence, Italy and raised in both Switzerland and California, Montalba’s personal aesthetic is Euro-centric, streamlined and curated, especially when considering the design of his stunning California home. “Simplicity is hard to achieve,” Montalba noted when speaking about his kitchen in particular. “To get something that is simple and has depth and functionality is not easy, and for us, having a kitchen that looks this simple — but you realize it has everything you need and it works well — is really rewarding.”

Montalba’s core architectural and design beliefs, both personally and professionally, revolve around the idea that “people make a home. Buildings don’t have a soul, they are simply frameworks for people to inhabit or live in…the frameworks are beautiful and ordered, but come to life when inhabited.” This fundamental truth informs Montalba Architects, approaching every project with honesty of materials, expansion of space, expression of technique, sculpted light, and movement.

Photographer: Kevin Scott for Montalba Architects

The top floor of the LR2 House lights up the night, set against the forest backdrop.

Photographer: Kevin Scott for Montalba Architects

David Montalba in a dark blue shirt against a concrete wall.

With over 60 designers, architects, and professionals across two offices, Montalba Architects emphasizes creating environments that are both socially responsive and aesthetically progressive. A variety of experience and expertise within the firm allows them to produce select architecture and urban design-related projects ranging in scope and context, from rural landscapes in Wyoming and Switzerland to dense urban scapes of New York and Los Angeles. Montalba’s work has been published in notable publications such as Architectural Digest, the Los Angeles Times, ARCHITECT, and more.