ESSENTIALS

Firm Name: Anacapa Architecture

Principal: Dan Weber

Headquarters: Santa Barbara, California

Accolades: Forbes Architecture’s “America’s Top 200 Residential Architects,” 2025; Forbes Architecture’s “America’s Best-in-State Residential Architects,” 2025

House Name: Off-Grid Guest House

Location: Central California Coast

Area & Layout: 1,800 square feet; 2 BR, 2 BA

Architectural Photographer: Erin Feinblatt (erinfeinblatt.com), Aaron Leitz (aaronleitz.com)

Architects often talk about connecting houses to their settings. But it’s hard to think of an example so seamless as the one Anacapa Architecture devised on a remote stretch of California’s Central Coast. Conceived as a guest house for a nearby residence, the building burrows into the surrounding hillside and is concealed beneath a planted roof, making it barely visible among the emerald bluffs cascading down to the Pacific.

The 1,800-square-foot structure consists of two offset boxes bisected by a staircase that descends from the parking area above. The larger box is wrapped in glass and cantilevered over the hillside, delivering dizzying views from the living, dining, kitchen and bedroom areas within. The smaller volume contains a primary bedroom and bath oriented toward a window wall at one end.

“We worked carefully to position the structure within the natural contours of the property, preserving existing vegetation and reducing the need for significant site disturbance,” says architect Dan Weber, founder and principal of the Santa Barbara–based firm. Since utilities are scarce here, and the primary residence is several hundred yards away, the guest house is powered by a photovoltaic solar array; the surrounding berms help insulate the interior, as does the rooftop garden, which also reduces stormwater runoff. Large overhangs and retractable glass walls keep the interior shaded and breezy.

Inside, the material palette feels as primal as the setting, with exposed steel columns and concrete walls and floors tempered by the warm glow of walnut ceilings and cabinetry. Furnishings are spare, so as not to distract from the view, which can be engulfed in a dense veil of fog one moment, then clear to reveal an undulating carpet of green that stretches to the sea.

Anacapa has several other projects in the works that revolve around sustainability, resiliency and low-impact living. “The Off-Grid Guest House represents a growing interest among our clients in thoughtful, resource-conscious design,” Weber says. “And we expect that conversation to become even more important in the years ahead.”

A California airman died Thursday after the heavy machinery he was operating rolled down an embankment at a military base, officials said.

Airman 1st Class Cedric Eneluna was a member of the 30th Civil Engineer Squadron Pavements and Equipment Flight at Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County. He was part of the “Dirt Boyz,” a nickname for heavy construction and civil engineering specialists in the Air Force.

Eneluna, along with other technicians, ensured maintenance and safety of the base’s launch, testing and range operations, according to officials.

He was 23.

Military base officials said an investigation into Eneluna’s death is ongoing. The Santa Barbara coroner’s office has not release an official cause of death, nor did it respond to a request for comment Saturday afternoon.

Eneluna joined the military in March 2024, and was assigned to a post in August of that same year. According to officials, Eneluna “served with professionalism, humility, and an unwavering commitment to his teammates and the mission.”

On Facebook, his mother, Myra Locsin, said Eneluna was excited to continue his military training in Chicago. Locsin shared that four of her son’s brothers in service knocked on her door Thursday night to break the news.

“I thought you were hiding behind them to surprise me but it was the moment that any parent didn’t want to experience,” Locsin wrote in a Facebook post. “I love you son! You had been a very good son. Loving, responsible and smart kid.”

Originally from the Philippines, Eneluna grew up in St. Louis. While in the Philippines, he attended UNO-R Senior High, a private, Catholic university, according to his Facebook page.

“He brought out the best in everyone,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Seth Poulsen, 30th CES commander. “He was always ready to work, always willing to help, and always had a positive attitude. He truly represented what it means to be an Airman.”

SISKIYOU COUNTY, Calif. — Law enforcement in far Northern California’s Siskiyou County announced the arrests of a father and his adult son in the alleged kidnapping of two U.S. Forest Service workers, who are now safe and free.

The sheriff says they got a call around 10:55 a.m. Thursday from the Forest Service that a man had taken two Forest Service employees hostage in a very remote area.

The 49-year-old suspect had zip-tied the two Forest Service workers, holding them at gunpoint for nearly 15 hours in a trailer near Gumboot Lake in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, officials said.

The suspect indicated he wanted to speak with the FBI, but it remains unclear why. Officials are still investigating motives for the kidnapping.

A huge contingent of law enforcement moved into the area. The FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team arrived on a Boeing 757 from Quantico as snipers, SWAT teams, bomb units, and drones were deployed.

Dashcam footage shows armed officers in tactical gear hitching a ride from a passing pickup truck.

Eventually, after many hours of negotiating, the two Forest Service workers were released just before 2 a.m. and are now safe at home.

The suspect and his adult son came out and were arrested at around 2:30 a.m.

The father will be charged with kidnapping a federal employee. In the trailer, he had an AR-15, knives, and claimed to have grenades.

It’s unclear if the trailer was his, but it did not belong to the Forest Service.

ABC7 Eyewitness News contributed to this story.