One of the most significant challenges was designing to accommodate and celebrate a 100-year old heritage tree that was centrally located on the site. Finding a way to preserve this 60’ tall and 50’ wide Coast Live Oak while creating four new housing units was no small feat. According to Young, “One of the biggest fears expressed by the neighbors was that the heritage tree would be removed. To preserve it, we broke the massing of the four units into two separate buildings. We wanted the front building and single-family home to nestle under the limbs so one of the first things we did was build a 3D model of the tree and its major limbs and branches. By working with the arborist to prune some of the secondary branches, we were able to open up the canopy to bring more light to the yard and tuck the single-family home and the 3rd floor terrace under the primary limbs.”