For 50 years, Batter Kay has punctuated the San Diego landscape with livable sculpture
We explore the architecture firm’s light-filled oeuvre
“It’s that feeling of ‘ahhhhh’ we really want,” says architect Janice Kay Batter from her Del Mar office overlooking San Dieguito Lagoon. “I want clients to be in their house and feel uplifted.” The Del Mar native and her husband, Michael Batter, alumni of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, rejected traditional firms upon graduation. Instead, they established Batter Kay in 1975, using their first home on Balboa Avenue as a design manifesto. This case study — focused on light, sculpture, and space — echoed Le Corbusier’s harmonious minimalism.
They were purists from the start, snubbing a cash offer because the buyer demanded design alterations. They not only kept the Balboa house, but went on to remodel it three times. Today, their award-winning portfolio includes some 200 houses in San Diego, Napa Valley, Arizona, Connecticut, and beyond.
“We keep the design clean and sculptural so you see the space and feel the light as it shifts and changes throughout the day”
Architect Janice Kay Batter
Their process, too, is a throwback to core principles. “It starts with a hand-drawn floor plan. It’s the essence and driving force,” says Batter. “We’re from the old school. We do physical models so we can play with them and problem-solve.”
Drive through the hills of Del Mar and La Jolla, and you’re likely to spot their work: A Batter Kay house has become synonymous with a white-on-white palette, curvaceous forms, and abundant light. Equally important is what’s left out: wood exteriors, drop ceilings, and (as Kay Batter proclaims), “never wallpaper.”
“Luckily, we share the same aesthetic,” says Batter.
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