Daniel Okonkwo
Principal
Workplace
Draws the section before the plan.
Los Angeles, CA · Architecture & Research · Est. 2014
Built forthe hourof good light.
A small Los Angeles studio, shaping houses, workplaces, and cultural rooms around the way light moves through them.
Residential · Workplace · Arts & Culture · ResearchScroll
Selected work
Eight homes we'd happily live in.
Built work · 2021 — 2025
ResidentialThree stepped pavilions under one long roof.Cordillera HouseMount Washington · 2025
ResidentialTwo houses sharing one planted court.Doble CourtyardSilver Lake · 2024
WorkplaceSawtooth roof, north glass, all daylight.Halftone StudiosFrogtown · 2024
Arts & CultureBoard-formed concrete lit from the sky.Vellum GalleryCulver City · 2023
ResidentialA courtyard house that vanishes into its orchard.Loma Vista ResidenceOjai · 2023
Arts & CultureOne curved concrete wall, wrapped around readers.Reading Room WestPasadena · 2022
ResidentialLight wells instead of walls.Marfil LoftArts District · 2022
WorkplaceA workplace around a shaded outdoor room.Tidemark OfficeEl Segundo · 2021
Where we work
Rooted in Los Angeles.
Built within an hour of the studio
The people
One table. Every name on the door.
Whoever sketches your project walks the site with you at golden hour. No handoffs.
Lucía Marín
Principal
Arts & Culture
Galleries and reading rooms — the ceiling is the show.
Theo Park
Associate Principal
Detailing · Construction
On site to completion. Owns the mockups.
Priya Nair
Senior Architect
Residential · Workplace
Runs the sun studies that start every project.
Sam Whitlock
Principal, Research
Daylight · Housing
Keeps the tape measure and the manifestos.
Cordillera House — a house that tells time
Case study · Mount Washington · 2025
GRADE +9FT · SW EXPOSURE · R1 HILLSIDEThe light study
Drag the sun. Watch the house answer.
Every project begins with one of these — a section drawn against the sun's path. Here is the Cordillera House section, live.
2:41 PMSUN ALTITUDE 67°
Finding 01
Morning belongs to the kitchen
East glass is small and low — enough sun to wake the room, never to cook it.
Finding 02
Noon is handled by the roof
The clerestory's 22° tilt takes winter sun and shears off summer — no blinds.
Finding 03
Evening is the whole point
The west wall opens to the garden, and the house turns the color of the door.
Free lookbook
Chasing West Light — the 12 questions to ask before you build.
A short, illustrated field guide to the decisions that shape a house long before the first line is drawn — siting, glazing, and budget, weighed the way we weigh them. Twelve questions, each answered with a golden-hour study from our own projects. Read it in an afternoon; carry it into every early conversation.
- 01Which direction does your best light come from — and at what hour?
- 04How much glass is generous, and how much just runs the AC?
- 07What does the site do that no drawing should undo?
- 10Where does the budget belong — and where is it quietly wasted?
- 12What will the house feel like at 6 PM in July?
- +7more, and a one-page siting checklist.
Process
Slow where it matters, fast where it doesn't.
A residential project, from first site walk to keys. Cultural and workplace work follows the same four movements.
I
Listen
Weeks 1–4
Site walks at every hour, and a sun study — before a single sketch.
Sun study · site survey
II
Sketch
Weeks 5–12
Three honest schemes, cardboard models you can hold, budgets from day one.
3 schemes · study models
III
Shape
Months 4–9
The chosen scheme developed in section first — light, air, and structure agree.
Sections · construction set
IV
Build
Months 10–22
We stay on site to completion. Weekly walks, full-size mockups, no surprises.
Weekly walks · mockups
Material library
Eight materials, chosen for how they age.
A deliberately short shelf — everything on it gets better with sun, salt air, and time.
White stuccoSmooth steel-trowel · 20/30 sand
Board-formed concrete1×6 doug fir liner · sealed
White oakRift-sawn · hardwax oil
Poppy enamelNo. 27 · doors + steel
ZelligeHand-glazed 4×4 · bone
Blackened steelHot-rolled · waxed
Low-iron glassDual-glazed · 70% VLT
Decomposed granitePalomino · stabilized
Mara Estes, AIA — and the Atwater Village workroom
The studio
Eleven people. One long table.
A small studio since 2014: fewer projects, drawn more carefully. Eleven of us share one table — and every project gets all of us.
V.1Three schemes, always. Never one idea defended to the death.
V.2Budgets are design tools, not bad news delivered late.
V.3The section leads. Plans follow the light.
V.4We stay through the build. Drawings are promises we keep on site.
11People in the studio
48Built works since 2014
3Schemes, every project
100%Projects with a sun study
Recognition
They found an hour of light we didn’t know we had — and built the house around it.
The studio changed how the whole team works. Every seat is a window seat now.
They drew the gallery in section first. The ceiling is the whole show.
Journal
Notes from the field.
Research notes from the studio
ResearchThe 4 p.m. problem: cooling west rooms without curtains
A year measuring three west rooms — and the screens, fins, and trees that fixed them.
Read the note →
StudioCordillera House photographed at every hour
One photographer, one full day, 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. The house tells time.
Read the note →
Field notesWhat we learned measuring 40-year-old courtyard houses
A winter with a tape measure: the dimensions that still work, and those that never did.
Read the note →Start a project
Build for the light you already own.
Tell us about your site — even just an address and a hunch. Every project starts with a conversation and a sun study, free.
studio@westlight.example(323) 555-01273117 Glendale Blvd, Atwater Village, Los AngelesStudio visits Thursdays, 3–6 PM