Case Study one:

Westview Drive, Claremont

Neighborhood, Berkeley

Living room with large arched windows and open doors leading to a balcony with a view of trees and hills in the distance. Contains wooden bench, cushioned sofa, and decorative items.
A Mediterranean-style house with tan stucco walls, red tile roof, and wooden garage doors, surrounded by greenery and tall trees 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

Living room with high barrel-vaulted ceiling, large arched steel-sash windows, cream sofas, white oak flooring, and an Atrium with a cast-in-place concrete spiral staircase and an exterior view-terrace beyond the steel-sash windows.

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.

Interior of a spacious, modern kitchen with maple cabinets and trim, a French Limestone kitchen island counter, a box-beam ceiling, and large windows, adjacent to a concrete spiral staircase with a curved mahogany handrail.

Atrium & Kitchen

Living Room & Atrium

Living room with large arched steel-sash windows, a cast-in-place concrete fireplace, white oak floors, an indonesian birthing chair, and antique vases and rugs. An exterior Terrace beyond the windows provides a Bay view.

Fireplace

A frontal view of a ochre colored Northern Italian styled villa in a leafy green garden setting. A Groin Vaulted Entry vestibule is visible beyond three arch-topped columns.