We were asked by the homeowners to design a new home for this site to replace the existing one story ranch style house that existed on the site. This neighborhood in Los Altos had been going through rapid change and two story homes were becoming very controversial. The owners wanted to design a bigger three bedroom house with all of the bedrooms on a second level. Working very closely with the planning department, we designed a two story house that showed very little of the bulk of the second floor on the street facing side of the house. Since the footprint of the house was minimized we were able to maintain a very large rear yard space for family activities. On the street side of the house we created a horizontal ranch home appearance. The two stories of the new house was allowed to opened up the the rear yard creating an opportunity for larger openings to bring in more natural light and creating a direct connection to the outdoor areas.