Founded in 2011, Manola Studio is the multidisciplinary design practice led by Jessica Pell. The studio’s diverse portfolio of work and broader creative interests defy swift categorization with projects spanning architectural, commercial and residential design, historical preservation, landscape, and furniture design.
While still a student at Art Center College of Design, Jessica had the precious opportunity to move into Rudolph Schindler’s Sachs Apartments, lesser known as Manola Court. There, in this renowned modernist masterpiece nestled on a hill in LA’s Silver Lake neighborhood, Jessica reveled in and studied the stirring interplay of site, materiality, form, and light. Over the course of eight formative years, these poetics of space intimately shaped Jessica’s own design philosophy and perspectives, laying many of the aesthetic and ideological foundations for Manola Studio. Now the studio’s namesake, Schindler and his Manola Court remain an enduring muse.
Jessica is a Los Angeles native and graduate of Art Center College of Design, where she studied environmental design with a focus in architectural design and furniture. She also studied sustainability at Tama Art University in Tokyo. After graduating with honors from Art Center, Jessica worked at Eight Inc. in San Francisco, Rottet Studio in Los Angeles, and designed for Nike, Herman Miller, and Bernhardt Design, among others. She currently resides in Eagle Rock, where she lives in a historic 1924-built colonial which Manola Studio restored and renovated in 2022.
Founded in 2011, Manola Studio is the multidisciplinary design practice led by Jessica Pell. The studio’s diverse body of work and broader creative interests defy swift categorization, with projects spanning architectural design, historical preservation, landscape, furniture, and experience design.
While in design school, Jessica had the precious opportunity to live in Rudolph Schindler’s Sachs Apartments, known more intimately as Manola Court. Tucked into the hillside of Silver Lake, this modernist landmark became both home and teacher. There, she entered into a quiet, ongoing dialogue with site, materiality, form, and light. Over eight formative years, the poetics of that space deeply shaped her design sensibility, laying the aesthetic and philosophical groundwork for what would become Manola Studio. Today, both Schindler and Manola Court remain enduring muses, their influence woven into the studio’s ethos and name.
A Los Angeles native, Jessica is a graduate of ArtCenter College of Design, where she earned honors in Environmental Design with a focus on architectural and furniture design. She also studied sustainability at Tama Art University in Tokyo. Her early career included roles at Eight Inc. in San Francisco and Rottet Studio in Los Angeles, along with designing furniture for Bernhardt Design. She now lives in Northeast LA, in a 1924 home thoughtfully restored by Manola Studio.
In 2025, the studio opened Hotel Wren, a 12-room boutique retreat in the Mojave Desert just outside Joshua Tree National Park. Conceived and realized under Jessica’s creative direction, Wren is both a love letter to the desert and a quiet expression of the studio’s values—shaped by story and intention, inspired by nature and nuance. Intuitive, grounded, and attuned to place, Wren invites guests into a gentle dialogue between self and space.