Property of Mr. Samuel H. Bells, La Jolla, California | Architect Dale Naegle

The La Jolla, Calif., guest house of the Samuel H. Bells, designed by architects Dale Naegle and Associates, is so fascinating structurally that it is a form of entertainment itself. A perfect circle 30 feet in diameter, its roof and walls are of poured concrete and concrete block. So is the pedestal on which it dramatically but securely perches. Although the pedestal is 20 feet tall, the house is elevated even farther than that from the beach because there is a steep slope below the column's base. Hardy guests might still want to try (once) the old Indian path down from the Bells' earlier, traditional house atop the cliff, but the standard route to beach and guest house is by an electric tramway with almost 300 feet of track. During the summer, when the Bells are living in the main house, they use the three bedrooms in the beach house for overflow guests, and in winter, when they rent the big place, they weekend in the guest house themselves. Mrs. Bell gives dinner parties for as many as twenty in the semicircular living room. The family uses the house as a base for countless summer picnics and clambakes on the shore, and visiting sun-and-surf bathers are always trooping through.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | July 1967