The Shayan House takes full advantage of its canyon site.
With the help of Sarah Zames of General Assembly Design, Brian Crano and David Craig merged two apartments into one while preserving their general layout. One apartment serves as a space for entertaining while the other, housing a bedroom and home office, retains a more intimate character.
"Pulling the buildings apart allows what is not a big house to feel really big," says architect Jonathan Feldman of the sustainable retirement home he built for a couple in California. "Because of the ways it opens up, it feels much more expansive than it really is."
One of the main goals of the construction was to do as little harm as possible to the existing environment, which includes waterways that salmon depend upon. Herrin and his team created a garden roof that covers the full extent of the home to meet this objective. “This helps control storm water runoff and also replaces lost insect habitat—insects being a critical food source for juvenile salmon,” he says.
A sofa from Design Within Reach opposes a Hi Turn chair by Bensen in the living room.
The Tinbeerwah house and studio keep a low profile among the site’s eucalyptus trees.
Built in 1953, the Wiley House is made up of a single glass-and-wood rectangular pavilion that’s perched on top of a rectangular box made of stone and concrete. Johnson chose the six-acre plot of land himself and was particularly fond of the natural slopes of the site, which is surrounded by hickory trees.
After finding paradise on a Hawaiian papaya farm, filmmaker Jess Bianchi and jewelry designer Malia Grace Mau tapped San Francisco artist Jay Nelson to design and build their dream home in just five weeks. Located just one block from the beach, the home takes inspiration from laid-back surf shacks and is mainly built with reclaimed wood.
Mechanical engineer Jan Moolsintong and industrial designer Peter Russell-Clarke get epic views of San Francisco from their 1,800-square-foot house overlooking the Mission District. On warm nights, they eat dinner perched on Eiffel side chairs by Charles and Ray Eames around a table from Room & Board. The distinctive facade has operable porthole windows and a slatted garage door custom-built by Raimundo Ferreira.