An extraordinary wooded setting high in the Berkeley Hills inspired spaces that reach up to gather sunlight through high clerestory windows, bringing life and color into this home.

The existing house was almost doubled with a new entry hall, home office, master suite, and new larger kitchen. The 1940’s Eichler-style house was low, horizontal, and built of dark wood siding outside and dark plywood paneling inside. We respected the horizontal gesture of the existing beam and wood plank structural system in the addition, but raised the ceiling height in several places to create light monitors – tall spaces that bring in the morning sun rising over Tilden Park and the waning evening light of a sun that sets at this site hours before it goes down for the rest of the Bay Area since this site is located just on the east side of the crest of the Berkeley Hills.

The new entry is a small space but feels gracious and grand due to its height and openness. A ribbed Plexiglas awning above the Trex stoop shields the eight-foot-high entry door from rain without blocking the sun.

The exterior’s rich golds and greens harmonize with the surrounding woods and help ground the building.