FIVE ROOMS WITH A VISION : FROM LINES AND LIGHT TO SYNERGY AND SPACE, LOCAL ARCHITECTS DISCUSS THEIR FAVORITE DESIGNS FOR LIVING.

Byline: Diana E. Lundin Daily News Staff Writer

Shafts of light the color of sauvignon blanc stream toward a huge bank of windows in the dining room of this hilltop home, shattering into pieces of rainbow as they hit the glass.

Of all the rooms in all the houses architect Ronald Firestone of North Hollywood has designed, it is this one, at the summit of Mountaingate, straddling the San Fernando Valley and West Los Angeles, that Firestone calls his favorite.

``You know why it's my favorite?'' asked Firestone. ``Because I can just envision myself here on a Sunday morning, drinking my coffee, reading my paper and looking out at that view, at that great nor'easter light.''

We asked five local architects to show us their favorite rooms in houses they designed, and tell us why.

Firestone took full advantage of breathtaking Valley, downtown and ocean views for Marianne Moys' 12,000-square-foot home in the Santa Monica Mountains between Encino and Brentwood.

``It just feels so tranquil to me, like almost no room I've ever been in, and I've done a lot of really big houses - a lot of them bigger, more expensive, dollar-wise - but this is one of my favorites,'' he said.

The circular room capped with a high-ceilinged dome is rimmed with ribbon lighting, a style that is recessed with only the glow of the light apparent. The windows have discreet grids running through them for a clean, uncluttered look.

``I happen to like this leaded glass pattern,'' he said. ``It's simple enough to not distract from the view and it's also enough to pick up the prism effect of the light shining through.''

Moys is pleased with her dream home, which took two years to construct.

``He builds homes like this all over,'' said Moys, a builder herself, although she didn't build her own house.

``I've gone out with him for a long time looking at his work, and I've taken pictures of all these little things that I liked. So we put them all together.''

But Firestone is drawn to the dining room.

``It has a great feeling whether you're there morning, afternoon or night,'' Firestone said.

Greg Nelson: the foyer & more

Across the Valley, architect Greg Nelson was chosen to design a home for Jitu and Meena Mehta in Chatsworth. Because Jitu Mehta is a structural engineer, Nelson began his drawings with a lot of straight lines.

``I've had a reputation for doing fairly loose, fairly abstract goofy work in the past,'' said Tarzana architect Nelson, who worked on the Mehta home with Alan Boivin. ``I started out being tight with it because he was a structural engineer.''

But that wasn't what Mehta wanted.

``He pushed very hard to have a free-flowing abstract house. It became a little more meandering,'' Nelson said. ``It became far more interesting because he wanted some more (design) along the lines of what I typically do.''

Skylights connect two major masses in the interior. The foyer is in a circle and Mehta's study is on the top of it, overlooking the living room.

``It's a fairly open house, which I like. The rooms sort of flow into each other. They also provide privacy where required,'' Nelson said.

But because of Mehta's prompting, the living room-study-foyer combination became one of Nelson's personal favorites in his portfolio.

``He really made it possible to push himself as well as myself,'' Nelson said. ``It makes it much more humane, much more livable and more exciting.''

Dale Bergerson: the breakfast nook

In 1971, Dale Bergerson designed the all-wood home of Frank and Jean Butler on a point of the shore at Westlake Lake. That home is undergoing a complete renovation, with Bergerson as the designer, but the house the Butlers are living in currently has become one of the Woodland Hills architect's favorites.

Bergerson also designed that home, a couple of houses down on the cul-de-sac where the Butlers' principal residence is being remodeled. It is the kitchen and breakfast nook that Bergerson finds most interesting.

``To me, it might be the openness,'' he said.

The breakfast nook is within a radius bay with six windows offering a view of the lake. The room has a recessed circular ceiling.

``The thing about the Butler family is it's a big family,'' he said.

The kitchen and nook are large, open areas, big enough to accommodate the Butlers, their seven children and spouses and grandchildren.

``We have big party times,'' Jean Butler said. ``Events throughout the year that everybody comes together.''

And when they do, they generally congregate in that area.

``When someone comes in this house, they always like and feel the best about this room,'' she said.

``It's like the friendliest kitchen,'' Bergerson said.

Georgie Kajer: the kitchen

Michael and Patricia Silversher may make their living as a composer and lyricist, but they are also virtuosos in their Glendale kitchen. So when they asked Georgie Kajer to remodel their kitchen a year and a half ago, it had to be a very functional space.

``We had a fixed area to work within and a very strict program in terms of how it had to function because of their cooking abilities and cooking requirements,'' said Kajer, a Pasadena architect.

And storage. With the renovation, Kajer opened up a room that previously had been a guest bedroom. She removed the hallway and the space now serves as something of a library/music room, connected to the kitchen, with their piano as the centerpiece.

``The piano used to be at the far end of the living room,'' Kajer said. ``We put the piano in the center of the house where it makes sense. When they're entertaining, people are in the kitchen and they're around the piano.''

The kitchen flows into the library and the breakfast nook. Gone is the narrow path the kitchen once took. ``It was kind of like a bowling alley,'' she said.

All is brilliantly lit.

``Our natural light is usually fabulous,'' Patricia Silversher said.

``That's the thing that puts this room over the top,'' Kajer said.

``All these things you never think of when you buy a house - light in the morning when you have your breakfast,'' Silversher said.

Kajer said it is her favorite room simply because of the light. ``It's just a place you want to be in the morning. It's kind of an ideal situation for a kitchen and a breakfast area because of the natural orientation of the house. All we did is make it better. Put more windows and open everything up,'' she said.

And the Silvershers are so thrilled to have their new kitchen, they've even held a cooking class there.

``The thing about Georgie is she has a lot of integrity and she keeps the integrity of the house,'' Silversher said.

``Also, she works very well in regard to collaboration,'' Michael Silversher said. ``We didn't feel left out of the process. In fact, Patty was definitely involved in the design and the particulars of this house.''

J. Carter Wendt: The courtyard-living room combo

J. Carter Wendt, a North Hills architect, loves to work with space and he had plenty of it to play with when he designed a contemporary hacienda in La Canada-Flintridge.

``The fun thing about haciendas is the inner play between the interior rooms and the courtyard space,'' he said of Linda and Scott Deacon's 12,000-square-foot house. ``That's really just a big exterior room out there. You go from the grandeur of the living room into a much more comfortable, intimate dining room and library.''

The combination of the rooms is Wendt's favorite.

``This was designed, as most haciendas are, with a central access. The feeling I wanted to achieve on this house was that the entry be important and that you come from a smaller space into a larger volume.

``And then as you come to the side, you come to a space that's more geometrical with the cylindrical curve and conical ceiling and have the windows kind of punctuate that curve as it goes around.''

There are quatrefoils, traditional Spanish designs, in the tall walls of the living room as well as the fountain in the courtyard and the jacuzzi near the pool.

``It became thematic for the house,'' he said.

Wendt keeps in consideration his client's aesthetics when he designs a house. ``The highest compliment to me, as an architect, is when the client can say, `This is my home. I helped design it. It feels like me,' '' he said.

CAPTION(S):

6 Photos

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) A few of their favorite Rooms

F ive area architects show off some of their finest creations

(2--Color) Georgie Kajer prizes the natural light in the kitchen she designed for Michael and Patricia Silversher of Glendale. ``That's the thing that puts this room over the top,'' Kajer says.

Phil McCarten/Daily News

(3--Color) Ronald Firestone: the dining room

Firestone, a North Hollywood resident, is particularly proud of this Mountaingate dining room. ``It just feels so tranquil to me, like almost no room I've ever been in,'' he says.

(4--Color) Architect Dale Bergerson's favorite room, the breakfast nook in Frank and Jean Butler's Westlake home, is designed for a large family.

(5) For Linda and Scott Deacon's contemporary hacienda in La Canada Flintridge, architect J. Carter Wendt created a courtyard-living room combo in which ``you go from the grandeur of the living room into a much more comfortable, intimate dining room and library,'' he says.

Michael Owen Baker/Daily News

(6--Color) ``The rooms sort of flow into each other,'' says architect Gregory Nelson of the living room-study-foyer combination in Jitu and Meena Mehta's Chatsworth home. The study is in the circle above the foyer.

Gus Ruelas/Daily News