Inspired by another mid-century modern home the client owned, this new residence represents a much larger 21st-century version built into the gently sloping hillside to take advantage of the sprawling hilltop views of the Sonoma valley. The quiet front facade leads guests into a formal entry that divides the house into private and public spaces. Rounding the corner into the great room, one is immediately hit by the breathtaking view that extends outward beyond the infinity pool and deck through a continuous wall of glass. In the opposite direction, each of the three bedrooms was designed with its own seating area and bathroom, creating private suites for family members and guests alike.
Berliner Architects was chosen to provide master planning and design services for Magnolia Science Academy in Santa Ana, California. The two-story, K-12 school now houses 750 students in 34 classrooms. The design incorporates standard classrooms, lab classrooms, administration areas, a multi-purpose room, and a gymnasium with locker rooms.
This project was built adjacent to the Mountain Course in the Bighorn Golf Club, Palm Desert, California, in the foothills of the Santa Rosa Mountains. The design of the central living space has formed a theatrical proscenium, framing the desertscape scene of mountains, trees, and sky.
Our client visited the desert frequently growing up, and always wanted a house there. In addition to an indoor/outdoor open feeling, he wanted to see water from every vantage point in the house. Yoav Weiss, the Architect + Project Manager, explains, “This is why we not only have the backyard patio that pockets neatly into the fireplace and kitchen, but have created the entryway courtyard, which is really a very large pond. From anywhere in the backyard, you see the pool. From anywhere in the kitchen, you see both the pool and the courtyard. And then from all the bedrooms, if you open the door, you have views of the water through the columns. While very private from the street side, every room has a view of the water. “
Designed in collaboration with the client – an architect based in Truckee – Analog House celebrates a rugged, high desert site populated by ponderosa pine, manzanita and exposed basalt. The home’s footprint meanders through the understory, deliberately shaped to preserve existing specimen trees and create a protected internal courtyard. Extensive transparency and clerestory windows throughout the home provide access to views and daylight, while numerous indoor/outdoor connections link occupants to their surroundings, an important consider for this active family.
Spiegel Aihara Workshop (SAW), has designed Wraparound House, an expansive architectural renovation and landscape of a 1930s home in the Marina neighborhood, for a couple with three children. The family was looking for more space to accommodate indoor and outdoor activities for the kids, places to work and entertain, and views of the Bay. The project was also an opportunity to remediate and stabilize the land beneath the home, and for the architects, a conceptual reconsideration of the notion of groundedness through re-distributing the excavated ground vertically.
This 1,480 sf. house has been built on a lot of only 2,400 sf. in an area known as Sunset Terrace in Laguna Beach, California. It is anchored to the site by a helical form that allows the surrounding space, seemingly compressed, to pass through it.
The house is comprised of a ground floor living level and garage with a bedroom level perched on top. After a lengthy variance process, an existing masonry garage was incorporated into the design when permission to reuse it was granted by the city. There are roof decks on the second level where it is set back at the front and rear yards in accordance with the zoning requirements.
The design consists of transforming a 1950’s existing Joseph Eichler home. Using a complimenting modern material palette, the design utilizes the primary floor plan, transforming the existing space and forming the new second floor by folding out a series of horizontal and vertical planes of the ground floor. The new roof form creates a large central area and links the bedroom wing with living area. Poured-inplace concrete masses are used to support the roofs, upper floor and cantilevered main stair landing.
Sited on a private coastal California hillside street lined with five tightly stacked homes, the 3000 square foot residence optimizes a compact footprint, resulting in an experience that maximizes outdoor living, without compromising the privacy of the family. A façade of smooth plaster and cedar siding bundle the interior rooms with strategically placed exterior spaces, producing long sightlines throughout the interior. The informal configuration supports the family’s love of music and art, generating numerous opportunities to display their art collection and engage in impromptu recitals.
High in the Berkeley Hills sits an updated mid-century modern home that for the homeowners, feels like a cabin nestled in the treetops.
It was important that the new designs were aligned with original intent because of the client’s appreciation for mid-century modern architecture. As with many original mid-century modern homes, the house was scaled to the 1960s lifestyle where rooms were smaller and openings to views were limited and tightly framed. Klopf designed a remodel and addition to bring the house into the 21st century indoor-outdoor living.
The development of a skyline is a design theme as old as Architecture itself. When reaching urban heights, orientation and a sense of identity for the community are the most visible outcome of that architectural ambition. Such understanding feeds the environmental vision of this proposed scheme. The Lake Merritt BART compounds intentionally amps up its presence at street level and on the Bay Area horizon to sculpt a memorable massing on a physically low‐shaped territory.