This 6,800 square foot single story home is located in Los Altos Hills, California, high above the southern end of the San Francisco Bay. Located on a 12-acre site, the project represents a substantial expansion and remodel of an important modern house designed in the mid-1950?s by John Funk and featured in Sally Woodbridge?s Bay Area Houses. The house had been defaced over recent years and had fallen into disrepair. The design preserves all primary steel structure and window frames, the principal ceiling plane, and the original thermal concrete floor slab which ran throughout the original house. Principal materials in the house are stacked desert flagstone for all hearths and fireplaces, custom wood millwork in quartersawn North American maple and macassar ebony and hand-finished and colored radiant concrete floor. Wall finishes are steel troweled sandless plaster, with new skylight monitors lined in maple with north-facing clear plate glass. Glass mosaic tile, natural cork wallcovering and stainless steel hardware and fittings describe the environment which is both natural and durable.
Rutherford Residence
This 4,200 square foot single story home is located in the Napa Valley. The house sits on the upper portion of a 42-acre site accessed by a private road with a vineyard at the lower end of the site. The house has been designed as a weekend home and office for a couple, as well as a place for entertaining and overseeing a new winery venture. The design concept is a highly ordered series of rectilinear volumes clad in precisely finished steel panels. The house is designed to be an integrated part of its natural surroundings with elements such as a central living space composed of glass walls that provide a uniquely framed view out to the landscape beyond and slender steel columns which support exposed wood soffits, mirroring the many existing trees on the site.
The interior material palette ranges from the simplicity of plywood ceilings and polished concrete floors to the rich texture of cleft quartzite stone stairs and Mexican glass mosaic tiled floors and walls. Interior walls are veneered in plaster in subtle colors. Living spaces are further defined by maple-veneered ceilings that are suspended beneath exposed wood roof joists. Millwork elements are custom designed and composed of ebonized and stained maple veneers, brushed stainless steel and silver travertine. The landscape design includes stepped terraces, a lap pool, spa, barbecue and an exterior fireplace set within the natural surroundings of boulders and native oak trees.
Larchmont Townhouse
This three-story urban townhouse has been designed and built on a commercial street in central Los Angeles. In a neighborhood which is completely zoned for commercial use, the former commercial building was demolished and replaced with a residence under the municipal zoning code?s allowance for as-of-right downzoning, in this case, to a residential use. The client and family wished to live within walking distance of commercial services, within a mixed-use urban environment, and reduce automobile use in Los Angeles, a predominantly suburban region.
The ground floor provides space for laundry, housekeeper, utilities, and a large area used by the children as a studio and electronic music room. Under the elevated slab of the second floor above, there is shelter for automobiles, and small urban gardens exist to the front and rear of the house, flower and kitchen garden to the rear, outdoor room with canopy trees and hedgerow wall to the front. The second floor is the primary activity floor, with living and dining rooms, kitchen, private patio and swimming pool, and master bedroom suite. The third, and top, floor comprises a library, and children?s bedrooms. With the exception of individual bedrooms, all rooms interconnect horizontally and vertically in a spatially complex way which blurs specific functions and endows movement through the house with a kind of public quality.
St. Helena Residence
This house on White Sulphur Springs Road is six miles west of Main Street, Saint Helena in the heart of the Napa Valley. Located 500 feet above the valley floor, the house sits on sixty acres of wilderness which borders California State parkland and Iron Mine Creek. The house is sited immediately above a hillside vineyard on a long, narrow spit of land which is accessed from the west and looks out over a small vineyard easterly to the valley. The driveway is located in a grove of native oaks, and the entrance of the house is defined by a 200 foot long uninterrupted wall bisecting the house beyond.
Beginning at the driveway, the wall passes through the entrance and down into a central gallery, culminating in a living room defined by three walls of glass and two flanking fireplaces. Circulation throughout the house is defined by a series of stone steps and landings which mirror the descent of the hill and form the basis of the plan. Over the length of the house, four glazed thresholds separate the longitudinal procession of the building with alternating bands of glass at floor and ceiling, giving slivered views of the landscape right and left. The wall further defines the house by separating private spaces (bedroom and baths) and communal spaces (gallery, kitchen, dining, studio, and living area).
During the past 20 years of professional experience in the United States and overseas, Johnson Fain, a California Corporation, has established itself as an architecture, interior design and planning office known for its creative approach to the built environment. Scott Johnson, FAIA, Design Partner, and William H. Fain, Jr., FAIA, Partner for Urban Design and Planning, lead a diversified office of 85 professionals. The firm has received many awards for design excellence.
Each project is carefully designed to specific client needs, program, technical requirements and budget. Every assignment presents the opportunity to develop a uniquely appropriate design solution. This philosophy is fundamental to the firm. Our primary design objective is to identify and resolve the specific issues posted by each assignment. Particular emphasis is placed upon defining not only project scope and intent, but also budget and schedule at the inception of the design process. Attention to all levels of detail and close client communication continue throughout the duration of the project to ensure the best possible match of client needs, design intent and cost effectiveness.
