City by the Bay

The Sub-Zero beverage chiller sits in easy proximity to the lounge area adjacent to the kitchen. Risom lounge chairs were rewoven with cat claw–proof leather strapping after the originals were shredded.

The Exploratorium museum, housed within the original bulkhead at Pier 15, accommodates four spacious galleries. The glass-and-steel Bay Observatory—the only new structure on the site—unites the Embarcadero with the bay. Photo by: Bruce Damonte. Original architects: G.A. Wood, H.B. Fisher, A.W. Nordwell (1930s) Contemporary architect: EHDD (2013) Preservation architect: Page & Turnbull 2013

The former Jessie Street Substation, with its elegant neoclassical design, took on a radically new dimension in 2008 with the completion of Daniel Liebeskind’s Contemporary Jewish Museum, a lustrous blue cubic structure which transects the historic brick facade. These geometries and materials—stainless steel against traditional masonry—amplify the contrast between old and new. Photo by: Jeremy Blakeslee. Original architect: Willis Polk (1905–1909) Contemporary architect: Daniel Liebeskind (2008)

Graphite drawing by Ewan Gibbs depicting San Francisco's Victorians. (2009) Commissioned by the SFMoMA. On display as part of the SFMoMA's 75 Years of Looking Forward: Ewan Gibbs: San Francisco exhibit, on view through June 27, 2010.

A CNC-milled map of San Francisco by artist Dave Marcoulier hangs behind a communal table. The red star denotes the cafe's location. As a local company, Peet's sought to reflect the neighborhood and orient the design to its surroundings.

Children streaming in for a workshop are greeted by an Eichler-inspired playhouse (dubbed the “Tikeler”) designed and built by The Butterfly Joint’s founder, Danny Montoya.

The 1940s-era building was scheduled for demolition before the Sands purchased it in the early aughts and transformed it into their workshop, offices, and home. The space was nearly in ruins when the couple bought it and they used recycled or salvaged materials wherever possible in the renovation and even fabricated the metal work in the first-floor shop.

In contrast with the closed street-facing facade, the East-facing facade dramatically opens to expansive views of the Bay.

This past spring, Hatch invited California College of the Arts graphic design professor Jennifer Morla to create textiles.

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.

“The house was designed to complement the challenging triangular corner site and its context.” —George Bradley, architect.

During the historical review period of the permitting process, Curtiss learned the house was previously owned by three generations of the same family — a fact that deeply informed how she approached the remodel. “We wanted [the family] to drive by and feel like, ‘Oh cool, look what they did to our old house,’” she said, explaining her decision to preserve the house’s original shape. As a reminder of its previous life, workers sandblasted the original floorplate and left it exposed to reveal “the history of little conduit holes drilled before.” They also utilized old framing members when molding the concrete retaining walls in the yard, literally “imprinting the building’s history into the walkways.”

Made of black anodized aluminum with stainless steel hinges, the home’s warehouse-style windows are designed to withstand corrosion. No wood was used on the exterior except for the dock, called a finger pier, which allows access to the front door and the couple’s boat. The home looks out onto downtown San Francisco, with AT&T Park visible from the main deck.

Farnham walks the couple’s Vizsla, Kasia, down the sloped alley upon which the house sits. Hill’s renovation maintains some Victorian character in the decorative eaves and scaling, but the home is largely an anomaly for San Francisco.

Architect George Bradley and his husband, Eddie Baba, renovated a 1941 house in San Francisco. A painting by Richard Wright and a sofa by Paolo Piva for B&B Italia dominate the family room.

A maple tree grows through an ipe deck in this garden that Mary Barensfeld designed for a family in Berkeley, California. A reflecting pool separates it from a granite patio, which is furnished with a Petal dining table by Richard Schultz and chairs by Mario Bellini. The 1,150-square-foot garden serves as an elegant transition from the couple’s 1964 Japanese-style town house to a small, elevated terrace with views of San Francisco Bay. Filigreed Cor-Ten steel fence screens—perforated with a water-jet cutter to cast dappled shadows on a bench and the ground below—and zigzagging board-formed concrete retaining walls are examples.