AD is welcomed to Montecito by Gwyneth Paltrow for a tour of her peacefully luxurious family home. Paltrow first fell under the spell of Montecito during her two semesters at UC Santa Barbara and deemed it to be the perfect setting to fulfill the dream of building her first ground-up house. 

To tackle the assignment, Paltrow tapped her longtime collaborators Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch of Roman and Williams, the AD100 firm that had previously designed the actress’s Tribeca loft. She eventually called upon AD100 designer Brigette Romanek, a close friend of more than two decades, to join the adventure as well. “A home should reflect the physicality and ethos of its owner, and this house takes its cues from Gwyneth’s height, beauty, and focus on distillation" says Standefer. “The house is built around extremely precise, thoughtful spaces that we refined again and again for years.”