Dolores Heights 1
Stepping back the terraces and maintaining the eave detail
integrates this new house with its neighbors.
We were asked to build a new house on a San Francisco site surrounded by traditional Victorian homes. The neighbors, understandably, were very concerned about protecting the street’s architectural character. We worked with the neighbors to successfully design a house that blends in harmoniously. To protect adjacent homeowner views, we matched the scale of the older structures, and we stepped the front facade back. This massing gave us wonderful roof terraces, which relate well to the natural topography.
Inside, we united a variety spaces into an integrated whole. The client had loved his previous homes: a farm in New Jersey, a loft in Manhattan, a condo in Spain, and a full-floor apartment in Pacific Heights. He brought those experiences to the design of this house. Every opportunity was taken to allow small spaces to feel large, and to create hierarchy of space and variety of experience. The house blends a modern open plan with traditional detailing.
As we worked with the client and the neighborhood character we arrived at an architectural language evoking the Craftsman movement as well as Modernism.
“I liked him and his ideas. I think he is a very good architect. The end result was a fabulous house.” - BP
featured in:
San Francisco Houses, by Ana Cristina G. Cañizares, 2003, teNeues