Less than a year after moving back into their newly renovated house, Ligaya Tichy and Russel Simmons found themselves spending a lot more time there than usual. In March, San Francisco’s stay-at-home order transformed it into a combination domicile, workplace, and preschool for the couple and their three-year-old daughter, Skye.

It was then that Ligaya and Russel began to truly appreciate the effects of the renovation. Formerly dark and inward looking, the ’60s-era structure is now light, airy, and open. “It’s calming to look out at the trees, the water, and the hills beyond,” says Ligaya, “and to have all this beautiful light streaming in.”

Ligaya, who heads Wild Child, an arts education organization focused on hands-on experiences for children, and Russel, a cofounder of Yelp, met with architect Anne Fougeron in 2014, initially to remove a fireplace and integrate their isolated kitchen. As issues began to snowball (seismic upgrading, for starters), it wasn’t a giant leap to take the house down to the studs.

“Anywhere but in San Francisco, it would have been easier and cheaper to start over,” says Fougeron, “but because of the city’s labyrinthine demolition code, sixty percent of the original structure had to remain.” Still, the home’s unique situation made it worth the effort.

The rare double lot perches on a bluff in one of the city’s sunnier neighborhoods and is bordered by a community garden and park, with a bonus parcel of overgrown land a few steps down from the backyard.

Fougeron gained space by filling in the unused swimming pool, a move that made room for a new glass pavilion to extend into the yard, where a pair of palm trees holds court—“Our little slice of Los Angeles,” jokes Russel. The pavilion contains a family room and dining area that flow into the large new kitchen.

On the other side of the house, where the kitchen used to be, there’s a playroom, and in the center is an open living area. For the pavilion’s walls and windows, Fougeron chose a frameless sliding system from Sky-Frame to create the porous borders between inside and out.

With the sliders pushed open, the house and yard become one. And even when they’re closed, light, shadows, and reflections from the trees continuously animate the interior.

“I’m very influenced by the West Coast minimalists,” says Fougeron. “Artists like Turrell, Irwin, and Wheeler explore issues of light and space, translucence and reflection, which in turn makes me think about the psychological effects light and air can have on our daily lives.”

The old and new parts of the opened-up house are knitted together, with sight lines from the front door to the backyard and diagonally from the kitchen across the living room to the playroom, allowing Russel and Ligaya to keep an eye on Skye.

The general layout remains the same, with a guest room on the first floor, and the principal suite, Skye’s bedroom, and Russel’s study on the second floor of the now 4,000-square-foot home. The two levels are connected by stairs and a bridge made of smoke-colored glass that appears solid one moment and shimmering the next, as the sun emerges from behind a cloud.

Of course, homes also need to convey a sense of solidity and shelter. The kitchen’s eating nook is lined in green felt and can be closed off with sliding panels. Window shades descend at the touch of a button, creating enough darkness to watch movies at noon. And the entire house is designed with a system of aluminum and cedar trellises that clad, surround, and overhang it—between that and the cross breezes, there is no need for air-conditioning, even with all the glass.

“I loved the idea of getting a stair in the living room that was completely transparent—there but not there—so it mitigated any feeling of heaviness.”
—Anne Fougeron, architect

During most months, solar panels generate enough electricity to feed the grid. Statement additions such as the crocheted pendants in the entryway and a digitally printed hide on the living room floor help ground the interior. “Before we put down that rug, nobody wanted to hang out here, and now it’s like a magnet,” says Ligaya.

While there was no way to alter the original architecture’s linearity, Fougeron devised ways to soften it from within, inserting elements—such as a blue circular coat closet—that read like crafted objects. A fire pole contained within a padded column descends from a secret passageway in Skye’s bathroom down to her playroom. And the shower in the principal bath is surrounded by an oval glass enclosure that sits half indoors and half on a deck—flooded with light but shielded from the street by a cedar wall.

“We’re comfortable and sheltered but also more connected to nature,” says Ligaya. “With the views and all the beautiful shadows, there’s a real softening between inside and out.” And there are daily rainbows, which Skye delights in chasing around the house.

“The beveled glass edges become prisms when the sun hits them just so,” says Russel. “They only last a few moments, which makes it all the more magical.”

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Fougeron Architecture

General Contractor: Young & Burton Inc.

Structural Engineering: Endres Studio / @endrestudio

Civil Engineering: Lea & Braze Engineering Inc.

Landscape Design: Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture / @andreacochranlandscape

Stylist: Sara Haag

Painting: ColourStudio / @colourstudioinc

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