Noe Valley

San Francisco, California

A three-peat client of ours asked us to design a multi-family house in San Francisco’s sunny Noe Valley. It is to replace an existing 1904 house that had lost its historic integrity due to renovations over the last 120 years. The new design respects the site’s long-standing use as a multi-unit residential building with an embedded accessory dwelling at the garden level.

Four levels that include a shared garage, pool and garden along with roof top deck allow uncommon amenity for a city lot. An open plan builds spatial connection between the neighborhood and garden. Shared by both families, the landscape consists of citrus trees and a vegetable garden, viable due to this sunny south San Francisco location. A photovoltaic array on the roof deck earns a planned net zero annual energy usage.

The tradition of the bay window that shows up consistently in San Francisco’s historic houses is continued here and transformed as a spatial element that organizes the plan and extends through the house to the garden while harvesting light and capturing views to downtown San Francisco.

Team

Greg Faulkner

Jenna Shropshire

Gordon Magnin