In August 2020, the Beverly Hills Courtyard in Los Angeles was officially completed. It is the first built project in the United States by MAD.

The project is located in the heart of Beverly Hills, at 8600 Wilshire Boulevard. Beverly Hills is known as one of the most iconic residential areas for celebrities worldwide. Wilshire Boulevard is a major artery running through Los Angeles, connecting key destinations including art museums, luxury shopping centers, upscale residences, and high-end hotels.

Hillside Courtyard is a mixed-use project: the ground floor features street-facing retail, while 18 residential units rise organically above a green platform. Layered white façades, pitched roofs, and irregular windows use interlacing linear elements to create a dynamic composition.

The design reinterprets Los Angeles’s iconic hillside residences—reconstructing them within an urban context and arranging them as a small village on an artificial slope. The resulting image is cartoon-like in its directness and innocence, even carrying a touch of humor.

The building façade is covered in lush greenery. In Southern California’s year-round arid climate, drought-tolerant native species such as cacti, succulents, and vines were selected. These plants thrive with minimal irrigation and maintenance, adapting naturally to the local environment.

The vegetation creates a unique living texture on the building’s exterior, introducing an organic and refreshing presence into Beverly Hills’ typically orderly and meticulously maintained urban context. Upon completion, the project became the largest green wall in the United States.

The 4,460-square-meter building includes retail space, 2 studio apartments, 8 family units, and 8 duplex residences. MAD aimed to balance privacy and community within a compact urban footprint. Unlike traditional apartment layouts, each unit has its own private entrance and circulation path. Reflecting local residential typologies, nearly every unit functions as a standalone “house” within a small community each with its own rooftop.

The white volumes frame a shared courtyard on the second floor, which serves as the community’s central public space. Each unit features a balcony facing the courtyard. During the planning phase, particular attention was given to the orientation, distance, and greenery between balconies to encourage gentle social interaction offering a sense of neighborly connection while still preserving personal privacy.

The main pedestrian entrance is located on Stanley Drive, just off Wilshire Boulevard. A void in the white façade forms a dimly lit "cave-like" passage. As one walks inward, faint sounds of flowing water can be heard, and flickering light appears at the end.

A few steps further, the space opens up to reveal a water feature connected to a central atrium, where natural light pours in from above. Looking through the atrium, one glimpses the lush greenery of the second-floor courtyard and the staggered, pitched white rooftops of the residences—evoking a hillside village.

The atrium frames the sky like a picture, turning the sun, water, and greenery into a living composition momentarily transporting visitors away from reality.

MAD aims to offer a sense of retreat within urban living. The quiet, shared courtyard provides each household with a relatively private outdoor space removed from the intensity of city life. Lush vegetation allows residents to breathe in nature daily, challenging the conventional notion of urban apartments as rigid, box-like spaces defined by limited square footage.

“When I first came here, I felt that Los Angeles—and Beverly Hills in particular—was extremely modern and highly developed. But beneath the luxury and so-called advanced civilization, there was a sense of coldness and distance. All the top-tier homes are built on the hills, as symbols of social class and status. While the architecture appears immersed in nature, it’s essentially a form of land enclosure. The relationship between the city and nature has become fragmented.

I thought—why not let everyone in this apartment 'live on the hill'? To build a slope within a highly urban context. Let the building be half nature, half city. Different people live here, sharing a courtyard, and experiencing nature every day. Over time, it forms a kind of tribe. It's a response to a rigid, hyper-modern residential district.”

— Ma Yansong

Shortly before the project was completed, Ma Yansong had a conversation with renowned American architecture critic Paul Goldberger. Reflecting on MAD’s first built project in the United States, Goldberger remarked:

“As MAD’s first realized project in the U.S., it immediately brings to mind the classic Los Angeles residential landscape a series of white gables and pitched roofs popping out of a picturesque green slope, full of humor.
Ma Yansong dances gracefully at the edge of tradition. His work seems completely distinct from its surroundings, yet maintains a curious connection. It reminds me of Gaudí’s apartments in Barcelona's architectural exclamation points in the urban landscape.
No matter the city or the scale, Ma has a way of flipping the narrative — turning contextual response into a form of personal expression. He uses architecture to bring lightness, joy, or reflection.”

— Paul Goldberger