Kendrick Bangs Kellogg Organic House with Avocado Grove, San Diego

This remarkable Valley Center residence is more than a custom home. It is a fully realized example of organic architecture that fuses structure, landscape, and daily life into a single sculptural experience.

Designed by Kendrick Bangs Kellogg and set within a 40-acre avocado grove, the property shows how thoughtful design can embed a contemporary dwelling within its natural context. The home delivers comfort, functionality, and long-term value.

A Sculptural Organic House in an Avocado Grove

Located at 10650 Old Castle Road in Valley Center, California, this home sits high on the site. Its hilltop position offers uninterrupted 360-degree views of distant hills and the green canopy of avocado trees.

From the outset, Kellogg’s approach was to create a house that appears to grow out of the land itself. The design takes cues from the topography, climate, and agricultural setting to produce a residence that feels both deliberate and inevitable.

Architecture Rooted in the Land

Designed in 1984 and completed over six years, the home represents a mature exploration of Kellogg’s organic design principles. The structure is composed primarily of glass and wood, anchored by substantial rock walls built from stone quarried directly from the property.

This strategy visually ties the building to the land while reducing the environmental impact of importing materials. The stone masses ground the composition, while the lighter glass and wood elements open the architecture outward to embrace views and daylight.

This interplay between weight and transparency is a hallmark of hillside design in regions with dynamic topography like Southern California.

Balancing Monumental Form and Human Scale

Despite its bold, sculptural presence, the house is composed as a series of intimate, human-scaled spaces. Kellogg’s work often plays with dramatic forms, yet this residence shows how those forms can support everyday living.

The interiors are organized to break down the overall mass into comfortable zones. Circulation flows naturally from one space to another, guided by the geometry of the structure and the movement of the sun across the site.

Interior Layout and Livability

The residence includes five bedrooms and three bathrooms, supporting both family living and flexible guest accommodation. The design integrates pragmatic considerations such as privacy, acoustic separation, and functional adjacencies within the sculptural shell.

Immersive Connection Between Indoors and Outdoors

The most striking aspect of the house is its continuous visual and spatial dialogue with the surrounding grove. Floor-to-ceiling glass dissolves the boundary between interior and exterior, immersing occupants in the landscape without sacrificing comfort or protection from the elements.

The mature avocado trees, planted in 1972 as part of the original family’s return to agrarian roots, now function as both productive landscape and environmental buffer. They soften wind, filter light, and provide a lush, living backdrop that changes subtly with the seasons.

Designing With, Not Against, the Environment

From an architectural and engineering perspective, the house illustrates several key principles of site-responsive design:

These strategies produce a residence that feels less like a separate object on the land and more like a crafted clearing within a working agricultural environment.

A Singular Work of Organic Architecture

Offered at $2,995,000, the Valley Center organic house stands as one of Kendrick Bangs Kellogg’s most inspired and complete works.

It shows how a dwelling can function as shelter, sculpture, and landscape element, while meeting the needs of its occupants.

For architects, engineers, and design-minded owners, this property is a compelling case study in blurring the line between dwelling, landscape, and art.

It also shows how disciplined, site-specific design can stay relevant and meaningful for decades.

 
Here is the source article for this story: This $3M Kendrick Bangs Kellogg Home Comes With an Entire Grove of Avocado Trees