Marcel Sitcoske and Michael Oddo bought this house off Mulholland Drive three years ago with plans to remodel it and sell. Oddo recalls taking floor plans along with photographs to the Los Angeles building department, where “the guys there laughed and said they’d never seen anything this ugly,” he says. But during the construction process, the pair fell in love with the property’s views and attempted to create a modern, livable space that made the most of its prime asset.

Here, Sitcoske rolls back a glass pocket door in the master bedroom, whose patio deck was designed to block out much of the cityscape and better emphasize the mountain panorama.