When a person thinks of a concrete building, they most likely imagine a drab, gray warehouse void of style and beauty. The word concrete itself carries a commercial connotation and doesn’t seem to fit into the vocabulary or imagery of an upscale residential neighborhood.

Not so at 1129 Oriole Road in the heart of Montecito. This address is the site of a home currently under construction that utilizes concrete in an innovative and exciting way. Designed by Ferguson-Ettinger Architects, Inc., the house is composed of “tilt-up” concrete walls that are made just as they sound—walls are cast on site then raised in place to form the house’s skeletal structure. Compared to typical home-building techniques that employ a “poured-in-place” method (that is, constructing forms for walls, pouring concrete into the forms and letting it dry, then removing and discarding the forms), the “tilt-up” process raises the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of construction.

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