Case One: Westview, Claremont Neighborhood,

Berkeley Hills

Interior view of a living room with steel-sash French doors leading to a exterior terrace with stone columns overlooking a vast garden and views of San Francisco Bay.
Front view of an Italian Villa style home with a clay-tiled roof, groin-vaulted Entry Entry Portico, and mahogany garage doors, surrounded by greenery under a clear blue sky.

Terrace

Front

This project presented a challenge common to down-slope hillside homes: how to situate the mass of the building such that it presented the street with a substantial two-level facade, while avoiding planning code restrictions.

Related to that was the problem of placing the building Entry to avoid an onerous stair, either just outside the Entry, or in the Foyer. .

A perfect balance between these competing goals was found by creating an elevated front yard supported by a high concrete retaining wall below the front wall of the home.

Six years later, the owners needed to relocate and reluctantly sold the home for approximately twice their total investment in the property

Garden Frontage

Spacious living room with high barrel-vaulted ceiling, large steel-sash arched windows, white oak flooring, and elegant furnishings. In the background is an Atrium with cast-in-place concrete spiral staircase

Living Room & Atrium

This new home design envisioned a very large Tuscan Style Villa that embraced spectacular San Francisco Bay Views and accommodated a multi-generational family with both private and communal spaces, all sharing those views. All of that was to be placed on a steep down sloping site, while maintaining a two story street presence.

The resulting floor plan placed the grandmother in a Mezzanine-Level suite overlooking the Main Level and still capturing the Bay views. The broad and deep Main Level provided the Living, Dining and Kitchen spaces and an Atrium with a three-level spiral stair as well as the Master Suite, thus making one-level living possible for the owners later in life. Just beyond the Living Room a large Terrace provides an outdoor living space for taking in fresh air and the expansive vistas. Below the Main Level is the Bedroom level complete second master suite and several other bedrooms for children, guests and offices.

Bright, spacious kitchen with box-beam ceilings, maple cabinets, a French limestone counter-topped kitchen island, stainless steel appliances, sculpted kitchen hood and large windows.

Atrium & Kitchen

Living Room & Atrium

Living room with hardwood floor, white fireplace, built-in shelves, large patterned rug, wooden chair, decorative vases, and glass door leading to a balcony with outdoor view.

Fireplace

A view of a yellow house with terracotta roof tiles behind a large tree with green leaves. The house has multiple windows and a small balcony. There is a lush green hedge in the foreground.