# MAD Architects complete first project in the US

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2020-08-26

archdaily, architecture, beverly-hills, development, dezeen, gardenhouse, green-wall, living-wall, los-angeles, mad-architects

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![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/54688365fe3a3345525ea367b4bbf2cd.jpg)

MAD Architects [recently completed](https://www.dezeen.com/2020/08/25/gardenhouse-mad-beverly-hills-los-angeles/) its first project in the United States at 8600 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. It's interesting (and beautiful) in that it was designed to resemble a village of gabled residences sitting on top of a green hillside.

The green hillside is actually a three-storey concrete podium that is covered in what is said to be the largest living walls in the country. The gabled houses on top are wood-frame construction and were assembled to create an open-air courtyard in the middle of the site. Eighteen residences in total. Prices starting from USD 3.7 million ([as of May 2019](https://la.curbed.com/2019/5/30/18645883/mad-architects-gardenhouse-beverly-hills-opening-fall-2019)).

At five storeys, I suppose you would call this a mid-rise building. The site area is about 25,700 square feet and the building area is not even 48,000 square feet, [according to ArchDaily](https://www.archdaily.com/897474/mads-first-us-project-gardenhouse-tops-out-in-beverley-hills). So the overall density on the site is actually remarkably low. At least compared to what we're accustomed to building in Toronto. It might be dense for Beverly Hills.

I would love to see the development math for a site like this. After I got over the architecture, the first thing I thought was, "you could never build a mid-rise building like this in Toronto." I suspect it's also not obvious in Los Angeles. And you probably need "starting from 3.7 million" in order for it to pencil.

_Photo by Darren Bradley via_ [_Dezeen_](https://www.dezeen.com/2020/08/25/gardenhouse-mad-beverly-hills-los-angeles/)

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/mad-architects-complete-first-project-in-the-us)*