This home was the 2012 CH+D Award winner for Residential Architecture (More than 3,000 Sq. Ft.). A sculpture spelling out the title of the Smiths’ song “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” emblazons the entry corridor of the Oberfeld home, a contemporary vision in white located on one of the ever-coveted “Bird Streets” in the Hollywood Hills. Mauricio Oberfeld, the homeowner and—get this—the homebuilder, chose the artwork by Mexican artist Jonathan Hernandez to remind everyone who passes through the house ogling its modernist finery that heaven is still a superior place to be.

Or is it? Zoltan E. Pali, principal of Studio Pali Fekete Architects in Culver City, makes an argument for the home’s divinity by citing its architectural purity. “It started with the simplest of diagrams,” says Pali. The long arm of the L-shaped domicile houses a living room, dining room and kitchen on the ground floor, and a master suite and two kids’ bedrooms upstairs. The short tail of the configuration contains the laundry room and guest quarters. “It’s an elegant and perfectly functional structure,” says Pali.