26th Street Residence

This project was a retrofit and expansion of an existing house in San Francisco's Noe Valley Neighborhood. The original house, built in 1910, had been insensitively remodeled in the 1950’s to mimic the Spanish Mediterranean style. Located on a typical narrow San Francisco lot, the interior of the existing house consisted of a series of disconnected rooms, lacking daylight and lacked daylight and open “flow”. The homeowners had lived in the house for nearly 20 years, becoming familiar with its shortcomings, and wanted to overhaul the majority of the building. The new design includes an enlarged 2 car garage and garden master bedroom suite on the ground level, and a 400 square foot addition with two bedrooms and a full bath at the third floor. While enlarging the home the new design strategically incorporates several small courtyard spaces which are carved into the footprint to bring daylight and views to all areas of the house. These spaces create much needed relief to the interior of the long narrow footprint so that every space has a connection, actual or visual, to the outside. The narrow driveway at the front of the house was widened and repurposed to incorporate a covered front walkway to the elevated porch. The original entrance was trapped along the side of the house opening to a long narrow hallway. The new entrance has been relocated allowing one to enter at the center of the house rather than the corner. The new entrance opens to an implied vestibule that is contiguous with the dining and living areas. The glazing at the entry brings daylight to the interior and allows occupants visual access to the porch, sidewalk and street beyond, adding a degree of security. The mid garden court defines the boundary between the formal living areas to toward the front and the kitchen at the heart of the house. Hallways are eliminated in the new open plan replaced by a central circulation zone that terminates at the through the windows in the raised Media room at the rear. The high wall of the stair tower forms the south facing edge of the garden court, and faced in light colored stucco, reflects light into the formal living areas. The stairway walls are perforated by large translucent vertical widows bringing diffuse illumination as a backdrop to the adjacent kitchen. The stairway wraps lightly through the space around a pedestal altar-like drybar. This creates a bridge from the kitchen into the core of the circulation space which bridges spatially to the new living levels above and below. The slightly raised floor of the Media Room with its built-in window seat, and access to a private deck provide a greater sense of intimacy and create a comfortable transition zone facing the rear yard. Windows at the rear wall are strategically placed to provide “snapshot” views and to screen out the less desirable views of the neighboring buildings to the sides and rear. photography by: Cesar Rubio