A couple enlist Butler Armsden Architects and Leverone Design to reimagine their home as a multigenerational meeting point. In 1963, landscape designer Lawrence Halprin devised a master plan for a community that would live in harmony with the natural environment. The resulting Sea Ranch, which stretches 10 miles along the Pacific coastline in Sonoma County, California, is characterized by timber-frame, wood-clad structures that are in dialogue with the local climate and terrain. Sited on a bluff within this pioneering community is the vacation home of a lawyer couple. After purchasing the residence in 2007, they lived in the home as it was for four years, even keeping the previous owners’ furniture. Envisioning a retreat that would accommodate their extended family and guests, they then recruited Butler Armsden Architects and Leverone Design to help guide the project.

Sleeping nooks that look like the grooves in a block of cheese.

A passage between the walls for hide and seek.

Architect: YAMAMAR Design, Location: San Francisco, California

Tasked with creating a multi-use guest pavilion on a relatively small Northern California vineyard lot that could also host sit down dinners for up to 60 people, designers at Anderson Architects started by asking the key questions: “Where should it be within the property?” “How much floor area do we need for a 60 person dinner?” “How much volume do we need for a basketball court?” “We also always tell ourselves to look at the landscape first, let it dominate and lead it through. The building took the form of a large Napa Valley barn.

Walsh and Strongin's living room strikes a more rustic note.

The master bedroom in Holden Shannon’s unit in Houston’s Row on 25th development features a Nook bed from Blu Dot, a pair of Base table lights by Tom Dixon, and a painting by artist Elva Stewart.

The dresser at the other end of the bedroom is by Paul Frankl; the plywood lounge chair is by Ib Kofod-Larsen; and the huge cork-based floor lamp is from Reeves Antiques.

A pair of mid-century perches by Kofod-Larsen sit beneath a print by Andy Warhol in an upstairs bedroom.

The addition’s two stories of cedar-framed sliding doors and window provide generous views of the house’s prized jacaranda tree. The addition’s polished concrete floor and white cladding extend into the garden, drawing occupants to the serene rear porch. There, they can relax on stools designed by Alvar Aalto and Charles Wilson while admiring the luscious greenery.

A small dining space and kitchen area blend into the expansive wood paneling used throughout The Barn.

Wave, by Robert Longo

Emigre No. 70, cover

Rings, by Sarah Morris

Plan drawing of Screenplay.

Orgy by Mike Perry.

Shapes by Mike Perry.

Elevation drawing of Screenplay.

Circle by Mike Perry.

I was intent on keeping the original stove, incorporating it into the cabinetry. I created a backsplash using inexpensive aluminum flashing that I texturized with a ball pein hammer.