Residence   Sausalito, California An urbane elegant home with a warm modern ambiance. The interiors are comfortable and playful, open to the expansive view of San Francisco Bay. The lot is a typical Sausalito hillside lot, small and sloping down from the street to the east. To the north is a sweeping view of Sausalito, looking much like a town on the Amalfi Coast of Italy. To the east and south an inspiring view sweeps from downtown San Francisco, across the Berkeley hills and Mount Diablo to Angel Island and Tiburon. The existing three-storey home was in a state of disrepair, and had been planned as a series of small dark rooms connected by a convoluted staircase. Our solution was to remove most of the interior walls through the use of structural steel, create a dramatic stair event, and open the exterior walls to the views.                       Dining area      Photos:Claudio Santini next