General contractor · Fine homes and art
Thirty years of patient work in good houses
I build, renovate and look after architecturally significant homes on the Westside, and I install the art that lives in them.
Call 310 392 6622 to talk about the house.
A Westside general contractor for architecturally significant homes
I build, renovate and look after architecturally significant homes on the Westside: Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Brentwood and West Hollywood. The work is done with the owner and the architect, to the drawings, and it is finished properly. Renovations, additions, custom kitchens and baths, hardscape and landscape, and the structure, lighting and engineering that large art needs inside a house.
The houses here are not ordinary. A Lautner kitchen, an Ehrlich house, a Kappe renovation, a Turrell skyspace: each one asked for patience, the right materials and a builder who reads the drawings the way the architect meant them. That is the work I have done on the Westside for more than thirty years, with owners who stay clients long after the job is closed.
Call 310 392 6622 to talk about the house. I will come and see it, listen to what you and your architect want, and tell you how I would build it.
Selected work
A few of the houses, and the pieces inside them.
What I do
Three doors into the same workshop.
Build
The architect's drawings, built to the millimetre.
Renovations, additions, kitchens and baths for owners and their architects who want it done right, not fast.
Install
Art hung, lit and engineered to last.
Large sculpture, suspended work, private galleries and the structure, lighting and surfaces they need.
Keep
The house watched by the people who know it.
Once the work is done I keep watching the house: systems, leaks, dry rot and the other trades, so it stays ready for its owners.
About
Ordinary builders have no patience for this kind of involvement. I have built a career on it.
For more than thirty years I have built, renovated and looked after architecturally significant homes on the Westside, from Santa Monica and Brentwood to Beverly Hills, Pacific Palisades and Malibu. The work is done with the owner and the architect, to the drawings, in the materials the house was built from.
I work directly with owners, with their architects and designers, and with the collectors, artists and galleries whose work lives in these houses. From the first conversation through the last inspection, the scope, the trades and the decisions are mine to carry, so the owner can live in the house.
Dick Minium
About the practiceCollaborations
Houses by Lautner, Ehrlich, Kappe, Choate and Lehrer. Installations for Turrell, Chihuly, Burden, Rubins, Venet and Kusama.
Architects
Peter Choate · Steven Ehrlich · Johnson and Favaro · Duncan Nicholson · Ray Kappe · Michael Lehrer · Nancy Powers · Michael Fletcher
Artists
Chris Burden · Nancy Rubins · Antony Gormley · Dale Chihuly · James Turrell · John McCracken · Yayoi Kusama · Bernar Venet · Joel Shapiro · Mineo Mizuno · Craig Kauffman · Raymond Pettibon
Galleries and handlers
L.A. Packing, Crating and Transport · Cook's Crating · Griffin Galleries
“Ordinary builders have no patience or even understanding for this kind of in-depth involvement. Because Dick has worked with so many of these kinds of clients, he brings experience and invention to the world of custom, highly personal residential spaces.”
A longtime client and noted art collector
Journal
Notes from the work.
Contemporary vs. Transitional: Modern Home Architecture Styles in Los Angeles, CA
Eight points of comparison owners weigh when choosing between contemporary and transitional modern home architecture styles. Owners weighing modern home architecture styles for a renovation or addition in Los Angeles, CA usually face one real decision: contemporary or transitional. Contemporary architecture commits fully to its own era, with open structure, large glazing, and honest materials. […]
Mediterranean House Styles vs. Modern Architecture: A Westside Renovation Guide
How Mediterranean house styles and modern architecture differ in climate response and failure patterns on the Westside. An estate manager on the Westside of Los Angeles usually inherits the house along with the job. Sometimes that house is a 1920s Spanish Colonial Revival with clay tile roofs and hand-troweled plaster. Sometimes it is a flat-roofed […]
Hiring a General Contractor for Fine Homes: What to Look For on the Westside
Most contractors can frame a wall. Few can hang a 900-pound sculpture over a stair, hold the architect's intent through a two-year renovation, and still answer the phone when a bathroom leaks three years later. For anyone managing an architecturally significant home, the decision to hire a fine home contractor is a different exercise than […]
Contact
Tell me about the house.
A call is the fastest way. If you would rather write, the form reaches me the same day. Architects and designers are welcome to send drawings.
Dick Minium Construction, Los Angeles, CA
hello@dickminiumconstruction.com
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