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"This article originally appeared in the December 2010 issue of Architectural Digest.\n\nHe&amp;#39;s played a big-city doctor transplanted to Alaska (Joel Fleischman, in the television series Northern Exposure) and an FBI agent stationed in Los Angeles (Don Eppes, in Numb3rs). Then he began impersonating a New York City defense attorney (Jimmy Brogan, in the ABC legal drama The Whole Truth). Long before he dropped out of high school to pursue an acting career, however, Rob Morrow had another role in mind for himself: \u201CAs a kid I always wanted to be an architect,\u201D says the actor. \u201CI used to draw\u2014not well or anything\u2014these kind of quasi-house plans. I always had this fantasy of a kind of horseshoe [structure] overlooking the ocean with a pool in the middle.\u201D\n\nA few years ago, \u201Cwhen Numb3rs looked like it was going to stick,\u201D Morrow and his wife, actress Debbon Ayer, began looking for a place in Los Angeles in which to settle down with their young daughter. Not too surprisingly, their checklist included ocean views, a pool and significant (if not horseshoe-shaped) architecture. \u201CI couldn&amp;#39;t imagine buying one of the quasi-Mediterranean houses that are ubiquitous out here,\u201D the actor says. \u201CI definitely wanted something that spoke to the times we live in.\u201D The couple zeroed in on a newly built and thoroughly up-to-date residence in a canyon in west Los Angeles.\n\nA dramatic, three-story trapezoid of glass, steel, concrete and wood, the house has a steel-and-wood staircase that zigzags between floors like something dreamed up by M. C. Escher. Its creator, architect Melinda Gray, says that \u201Cthe stair draws your eye all the way up to the top. The magic of the house is the openness of the main floor and between the main floor and the levels above it.\u201D\n\nView Slideshow1 / 7The large, three-story volume &amp;quot;is traversed by a zigzagging stairway that stitches the floors together at seemingly unrelated angles,&amp;quot; says Gray. Original 1967 Beatles posters by Richard Avedon hang on a wall on the third-floor landing.\n\nAll that exposure begged for some serious storage. Morrow, Ayer and Schuyler Samperton, the interior designer the couple brought on board, made their first priority installing enough cabinetry\u2014 shelves, drawers, sliding panels, pullout trays\u2014to satisfy three born organizers. \u201CWe&amp;#39;re all Virgos,\u201D Samperton says with a laugh. \u201CThe cabinetry is very specific,\u201D she adds. \u201CRob and Debbon have fantastic taste. They wanted things that slide open and serve different purposes. Nothing is what it seems; there are many different layers in this house.\u201D\n\nThey then turned to more artistic concerns. \u201CWe were only going to get a house with amazing views of the ocean,\u201D muses Morrow, \u201Cand we got a house where you could see some of the ocean from one room on the top floor\u201D\u2014until the actor hit on the idea of manufacturing his own views. Samperton found a romantic photograph of the beach in Southampton and had it blown up to cover a 16-square-foot wall that can be seen from every floor. \u201CThat was really the departure point for the entire house,\u201D says the designer, \u201Cin terms of the palette, the wallpaper choices and the outdoorsy feel.\u201D\n\nThe dining room, for example, features a curvy banquette, known as the wave, that wraps around a surfboard-shaped table with a removable skeg at one end. \u201CIt&amp;#39;s a different take on a beach aesthetic,\u201D says the designer. She pulled the misty hues of sand, sea and sky from the wall photo and used them throughout. She put up organically patterned wallpaper in a number of areas\u2014 an unexpected touch that brings texture and depth to the spare architecture. Rich materials\u2014wool and silk rugs, mohair upholstery\u2014also help to warm up the rooms.\n\n\u201CI didn&amp;#39;t want something that felt like some kind of scientific experiment. The house is cozy despite its modernness.\u201D\n\n\u201CI love clean,crispand functional, but I didn&amp;#39;t want something that felt like some kind of scientific experiment,\u201D says Morrow. \u201CThe house is very cozy despite its modernness.\u201D Among the creature comforts are rooms that each member of the family can call his or her own\u2014offices for Rob and Debbon upstairs, and a playroom with whiteboard wallpaper on the walls for nine-year-old Tu in the basement. The same floor has a plush media room where Morrow screens movies for friends and hosts an annual Oscar party. As often as not, though, everyone can be found outside. \u201CBasically, come June, the first thing we do every morning is open those two big walls of glass in the living area, and we&amp;#39;re in and out all day,\u201D says the actor. \u201CWe always have people hanging out, and our daughter&amp;#39;s always swimming in the pool with her friends.\u201D And when anyone tires of the outdoors he or she can always go inside and gaze at the ocean.\n\nRelated: See More Celebrity Homes in AD"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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