With a budget of $20,000, two young architects turned a ‘murder shed’ into a quirky tiny home in LA. Take a look inside.
Insider spoke with 30-year-old architect Corie Saxman and 33-year-old Keith Marks, who were contracted to convert a rundown shed in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, into a contemporary ADU.
The two claimed that their relationship started in 2018 when owner Roger Merians messaged them on Instagram.
Saxman and Marks, who are now partners in the architectural firm Ham Design Group and met while in graduate school, claimed they had never worked on a project independently.
Marks reported that Roger had “cold messaged” him. “He mentioned that he had seen your thesis proposal. Great, I adore it. I have this small item. “Could you possibly do something interesting and out of the ordinary for us?”
Marks and Saxman weren’t exactly smitten the moment they laid eyes on the shed, even if it was on the same land as their client’s house.
“We nicknamed it ‘the murder shed’ from day one,” added Marks. “We definitely knew we had a lot of work ahead of us.”
They were fortunate to have Merians and Gregory Strait as their initial clients, which alleviated whatever concerns they had regarding the project.
“It was kind of the perfect relationship,” Saxman remarked. “They were super open to all of our crazy ideas, and then they also interjected all of their crazy ideas.”
According to the architects, commencing a project with an existing structure has the advantage of reducing setbacks, at least in Los Angeles.
“You get to maintain certain things,” Marks clarified. “We wouldn’t have been able to fit the ADU at the size or the massing we ended up with if we did not have the existing shed.”
According to him, the architects preserved one of the previous walls that ran across the property, even though the ancient “murder shed” underwent numerous renovations.
“Roger and Greg were so excited we kind of did it all backward,” added Marks. The coral-pink color was chosen by the newlyweds before any plans were drawn up for the building.
