The oasis-like Verdant Sanctuary with its California xeriscape landscape that provides a buffer zone between the building and the street offers a pastoral and poetic break in an existing row of workaday buildings. Located in Palo Alto’s Stanford Research Park, Verdant Sanctuary neighbors a 1953 building designed by German architect Erich Mendelsohn (1887-1953) the original research-and-development facility that started Silicon Valley. Designed by Form4 Architecture, Verdant Sanctuary expresses its embrace of nature through each design element. It will be made almost entirely of mass timber and glass, and its dramatic roof design echoes the shape of a bird’s wings. Form4’s design plays off of the vernacular tradition of California Modernism, revisiting forms by inverting gable roofs and opening up the building enclosure to nature.
The dynamic architecture of the Innovation Curve at Stanford Research Park celebrates the creative process of technology, which is fundamental to the international success of Silicon Valley. The peaks and valleys of sweeping metal curves serve as architectural metaphors for the highs and lows of exploratory research and development. Designed by Form4 Architecture of San Francisco, the new development comprises four buildings on the edge of Stanford Research Park in Palo Alto. The LEED Platinum-certified project contributes to the site’s emergence as an uplifting campus for tenants involved with computer gaming, translation software, and digital inventions. Representing the evolution of innovation on the face of the buildings, the lyrical design serves as a potent visual reminder of the dedicated, expansive, and intense work taking place inside.
Size: 288,000 total square feet in four buildings on 13.5-acre campus: Building 1: 66,700 square feet; Building 2: 66,700 square feet; Building 3: 77,000 square feet; Building 4: 77,000 square feet
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.
Named for its butterfly-inspired angular canopies that adorn the project’s exterior, Folded Wings is a speculative office campus designed by Form4 Architecture in the technology epicenter of Palo Alto, CA. The first consequential design decision was to angle the typical office bar at mid-point of Building 1’s footprint. This angle helps outline a welcoming, pedestrian-friendly urban plaza between the complex’s two structures. The design’s lyrical intent is emphasized by a butterfly-form canopy that signals access to two levels of below-grade parking. Folded Wings’ overall appearance yields a form of humane modernism at the scale of the pedestrian. The design is counter to the typical notion of the Silicon Valley fortress campus where no one is allowed behind the gates. This site is open to the public as well as to the rest of the business park. Adjacent to walking and bike trails, the courtyard and park invite the local community to share the beauty.
Mary Maydan, founder and principal of Maydan Architects designed this ultra-modern 7,000 square-foot Palo Alto residence, for her family. Nicknamed “Floating Boxes,” the home creates an illusion of three floating boxes. The boxes, which appear to float separately but are structurally interconnected, symbolize the three generations that share the home: Mary and her husband, their four children, and Mary’s parents. The home’s ultra-modern minimalist style stands out in the neighborhood. Mary’s multigenerational family home redefines modern design in Silicon Valley, both through the exterior facade and the interior details. The floating concept continues inside the home with walls that appear to be detached from the floor and ceiling, an effect that was achieved using special aluminum drywall molds. The house includes doors with no jambs to create a completely flush look with only a slim reveal between the door and the walls, and door handles without rosettes. A 52-foot-long glass facade opens the home to the backyard, enhancing the indoor-outdoor flow.
Klopf Architecture updated a classic Eichler indoor-outdoor home to better suit the needs of a very busy family. The owners have two rather young kids and are also professionals with unpredictable, busy schedules. The house also had to accommodate the needs of two live-in nannies who cover for the parents when they’re indisposed. With those considerations in mind, the owners selected this house because it was larger than typical Eichlers because past additions had been already been made to the house. However, at the time of purchase the house was in poor condition and needed a complete gut remodel including all new roof, mechanical systems, and electrical, the replacement of dry-rotted siding and framing, some layout changes, and all new finishes. The house is super-insulated and has no need of air-conditioning.
I know that this remodel of an iconic mid-century home would be a wonderful renovation feature, because the design team so sensitively addressed the needs of the homeowners and expanded on the original intent of the home.
How do you expand an L shaped Eichler with the challenge of extending a long dark entry? Klopf Architecture’s solution, to design a light filled atrium in the hallway to open up the bedroom expansion with green plants, sky lights and a glass wall.
The goal was to modernize and brighten a dark, closed-in, chopped-up 1960’s Brown and Kauphman home. The solution, create space, light and flow by taking away internal walls that were barriers to light and adding windows.
Located in Palo Alto, the goal to expand and open spaces that flow in a smaller Eichler while increasing the amount of shelving place for books, magazines and archives from work for a retired owner preparing for aging-in-place. The design was intended to brighten and welcome land-locked rooms with skylights and using beam bays to expand the hallway and kitchen.
email
Facebook
Twitter
RSS Feed
