History Goes High Tech
Baths of the Year: Grand Prize Winner
By: David L. Coddon Photography by Brent Haywood
WHEN A HOME IS 100 YEARS OLD — exactly 100 — you don’t mess too much with history. Armando Ivan Flores of Charco Construction kept that in mind when remodeling a bathroom in a vintage 4,200-square-foot residence across from the Marston House in Balboa Park.
“The client wanted everything elegant and in keeping with the architecture that was there,” says Flores, who undertook the project of reconstructing the entire home over the course of a mere four months.
What had been a second floor with two bedrooms and a sitting area was transformed into one large master suite and bath. “We relocated everything,” Flores says. “The bathroom was half this size.”
The makeover includes a soaking tub and steam shower, Paonazzo marble walls and silk wallpaper. The upshot: “Very nice detailing and a unique design solution,” says judge Kellie McCormick. In the same vein, judge Amy Noel praised Charco’s “good execution of materials.”
Though this bathroom is located in a century-old home, it has a contemporary feel of which Flores is duly proud. “What I like is the space of this bathroom — the feeling when you walk in is like a resort bathroom, the Peninsula in Beverly Hills or the Beverly Hills Hotel. It feels very elegant.”
Elegant enough to come with a “real high-tech shower,” Flores says. The shower is equipped with a surround-sound system. To say that such a feature would have been unheard of in 1911 is an understatement.
