Canyon Road House

This steep hillside infill lot in San Francisco's East Bay has stood vacant for fifty years next to a Usonian house designed by a pair of Frank Lloyd Wright students.

The 5,500 square foot house for eight consists of 5 bedrooms and 4 ½ baths organized on three levels. The main level was designed to accommodate the owner’s request for zoneability and scale appropriate for two. Garage space for 3 cars and direct access to the main level was a requirement.

The house is aggressively dug into its site which preserves and frames a view of Mount Diablo from the neighborhood. The terraced form allowed much of the exterior closure to be earth sheltered. The house is organized as a collage like assemblage of room sized forms inhabiting a steep slope and culminating in a vessel like pool with an exposed edge fourteen feet from the ground. The lowest deck cantilevers over a hillside garden path of crushed reclaimed concrete and no mow fescue. The feeling inside is one of hovering in the tree tops over the grass and oak covered hills with an open view east to Mount Diablo.

A net zero photovoltaic solar system and solar pool heat are provided. Recycled content materials were utilized in the sourcing of steel, wood, GWB, insulation, landscape, concrete patios, recycled glass. Concrete was manufactured with fly ash. Corten steel sheathes the outer layers of the house to help protect from wildfire and gives way to reclaimed redwood and IPE decks at people places. Glass roofs shelter entry points. Glass floors at the entry court open paths for afternoon sun deep into the spaces below grade. Throughout the house, radiantly heated ground concrete floors inlaid with stainless steel are demarked walnut screens and soft plaster walls tinted the color of the autumn hills. Together with the exaggerated board formed concrete, this environment feels imperfect and handmade. Furnishings by Gulassa are of the same walnut and steel as the built environment.