This proposal is for a new two-story home on the vacant heavily wooded lot with an existing 150-foot-long driveway lined by several beautiful oak trees culminating in a behemoth 43-inch oak tree where the driveway meets the main lot. The far end of the driveway terminates in a grove of three 43/40/43-inch redwoods and at the very center of the vacant lot stands a gargantuan V-twin 59-inch redwood tree paired with a “small” 29-inch redwood tree. The owners want to build a beautiful contemporary-styled home for their family that fully enjoys and embraces the mature trees on their cozy 65-foot by 100-foot lot. As with all small, constrained lots, this project’s site design started first with meeting the relatively large parking and car maneuvering requirements. Menlo Park’s Department of Transportation typically requires side-facing garages to have 24-feet of backup space. So that they could give the largest feature redwood tree on site an added four feet (50%) of clearance outside of its critical root zone, the owners agreed to install a vehicle turntable at the end of their driveway to eliminate the extra four feet of space needed to back up and turnaround. This allowed them to pull their garage forward an additional four feet towards the front property line on the panhandle side, drastically reducing the rest of the home’s impact on the gargantuan V-Twin paired redwood tree at the center of the lot. One of the owners has mobility issues, and accordingly, they first sought to design a one-story floor plan that incorporated all their family’s needs including plenty of covered patio and deck space to enjoy our fantastic California weather. But that single-story footprint spread too far into the critical root zones of several of the redwood trees on site, even despite the use of the vehicle turntable. During my interview process with the owners, they made it clear to me that one of their primary concerns is ensuring that the largest trees on site would thrive and become features of their new home after construction is complete. The single-story designs that removed the grove of three huge redwood trees were non-starters, as was the skimpy 5x10 master bath I designed when trying to squeeze the whole house program into an overly compromised single-story design. It was therefore deemed necessary to go with a two-story design despite the owner’s mobility issues. This two-story design has a much more compact ground floor footprint and has no bedrooms downstairs, other than the detached ADU. The owners must give up the floor area and incur the costs to install a residential elevator to access their upstairs master suite. Our ground floor footprint is smaller due to the two-story design decision, and our foundation is pulled away from the trees thanks to the vehicle turntable. Yet, a tiny portion of the home’s ground floor footprint still encroaches into the critical root zones of the largest 59” redwood tree. Therefore, as outlined in the Arborist Report prepared by Aesculus Arboricultural Consulting, the structural engineers are incorporating an array of drilled piers and shallow-grade beams for the main home’s foundation and deck area nearest the redwood’s critical root zone. This drilled piers and grade beam foundation is a type of “bridging” foundation as outlined in Aesculus’ report to preserve the health of these trees that the property was designed around. The rest of the foundation will be constructed as an insulated slab-on-grade foundation to minimize the number of steps and ramps needed for the owners to enjoy their home and patio areas. Despite the owner’s desire to keep as many trees as possible on site, and despite the smaller ground floor footprint and the advantage of the vehicle turntable, the need for a 20x20-foot garage and 20x20/25-foot guest parking space on our panhandle lot requires the removal of two heritage trees in the required driveway, a 16” coast redwood, and a 17” coast redwood. An alternate design, such as swapping the garage and guest parking locations north-to-south, still requires the removal of these two trees for vehicle maneuvering but has the added disadvantage of cutting off the home’s sightlines to the behemoth 43” oak tree just outside the currently proposed front patio space and living room. Jim Redman of Elements Landscape is proposing 13 new trees be planted on site to replace the lost value of these two heritage coast redwood trees. This contemporary architectural design features clean lines, and an abundance of full-height windows and large skylights to best take in the immense trees on site. To blend in with the forest-like setting, the home boasts a mix of rich textures and features a color palette of natural wood tones contrasted with dark blue and black. Once through the new steel gate at the street and down the 150-foot tree-lined driveway, a large covered front patio becomes visible past the neighbor’s detached accessory structure. The covered patio is just across the driveway from the beautiful 43” behemoth coast live oak. The single plane of the covered patio roof is delicately supported by a pair of steel posts in a “V-twin” configuration much like the largest redwood trees that tower over the center of the lot and will still be visible above the new two-story home, even from the front yard. The patio is covered in a dark-colored standing seam roof, with steel C-channel fascias, and tongue-and-groove wood ceiling planks on the underside. Generously sized skylights on the patio roof and inside the living area allow for impressive views of the amazing oak canopy as well as precious natural light. Supporting the sloped covered patio on the other side is the two-car garage with a secondary bedroom suite stacked above the garage. This two-story volume is to be clad in vertical clear-coated redwood siding, to tie in with the grove of three 43-inch redwood trees just beyond. The garage door, and the bank of windows for Bedroom#2 above feature a steel fascia eyebrow header feature to provide shade and overhang protection, as we are not proposing a large overhang at this “redwood trunk”. The garage and bedroom volume are pulled 16 feet away from the side property line, instead of the minimum required setback of 6’-6”, thus leaving plenty of room for the redwood grove and existing mature pear tree to continue to thrive. This existing mature green screen in this 16-foot-wide side yard is a feature worth soaking in, which is why tall windows with low sill heights are proposed for both the stairs and the upstairs hallway. Though it may be infrequent to approve side-facing 2nd floor windows with sill heights as low as what we’re proposing, we are confident that the mature green screen and the over 16-foot-wide side yard are sufficient to provide for the continued privacy of our neighbor’s rear yard space, especially considering theses windows are in walkway zones. The covered patio at the front entry is also bound by the 10-foot-tall living room. The great room is clad in a dark blue brick veneer, which wraps around all three sides of the living room. Upon entering the home from the covered patio, you are immediately greeted with one of the most impressive features of the home’s design: a 10-foot-tall by 24-foot-wide set of sliding glass doors. From the entry, this huge opening gives merely an initial glimpse of the massive trunks of the gargantuan V-twin redwoods sitting at the center of the lot. All three sliding glass panels open directly out into the smaller partially covered deck in the rear. This roof overhang element matches the design of the front patio with a steel C-channel fascia and a large skylight. But the rear deck’s roof element is set flat at a ten-foot ceiling height so that the living room’s ceiling seems to float above and out beyond the expanse of full-height sliding doors, thus creating an indoor-outdoor living space that will feel much larger than the home’s actual footprint. This rear covered deck is smaller than the patio in the front and also has a mix of solid and open-slatted roofing to allow for more solar access for the relatively small amount of open sky available. The downstairs living room is open to the dining and kitchen areas, as well as the stair-and-elevator tower beyond. The stair tower is very open and glassy, and the stairs wind up and around the redwood-clad elevator tower. From certain perspectives in the 16-foot-wide side yard, it will almost seem as if the grove of three redwoods has a fourth tree that the house and the stairs were carefully built around. Other than the 3-foot-wide windows, the exterior walls of the stair tower, downstairs utility spaces, and Bedroom#3 above are finished in cement plaster, painted dark blue and black. The sloped roof over the stair-and-elevator tower continues cleanly over the area of upstairs Bedroom#3. This roof level is set by the side daylight plane and only yields an inside wall height of just under 6 feet in height. The owners are satisfied that the rest of this upstairs room has a nice vaulted ceiling to make up for the one short wall under the daylight plane. The rest of the ground floor adjacent to the stair tower consists of a small utility wing containing a half-bath, laundry, storage area, and an exterior alcove for the electric heat pump HVAC unit. This short wing also gives more accessible access to the rear yard deck, as well as a backdrop for an outdoor kitchen. The bright white stone backsplash for the outdoor kitchen provides contrast to the otherwise consistent use of cement plaster painted dark blue and black for the two-story wing closest to the detached ADU. Though Bedroom#3 is stacked directly above this small wing, it is relatively short to comply with the side daylight plane of this narrow lot. Still, to further help break up the scale of this wall, another steel fascia eyebrow element is set about 8 feet above the rear deck. The master suite sits centered above the ten-foot-tall great room. The master bedroom and its balcony, as well as the master bathtub area, have a commanding view of the central redwood trees and their impressive canopy, though the balcony is mostly recessed and should pose no privacy concerns to the neighbor’s rear yards. The master balcony parapet is clad in the same brick veneer continuing up from the living room below. A dark-painted metal rail makes up the rest of the open guardrail height. The entire length of the master balcony is comprised of 9-foot-tall sliding glass doors, but the area above the doors, as well as the area below the master bathroom windows, is accented with more redwood siding. The remainder of the master suite bathroom and walk-in closet is finished in cement plaster painted dark blue. The master bathroom has one side yard-facing window but will be frosted glass for both the owner’s and the neighbor’s privacy. The 2nd floor is capped under a simple gable roof design with one roof ridge and varying eave and rake overhangs depending on the 2nd-floor layout and solar orientation. Since these roof planes are quite difficult to see in the middle of the heavily wooded panhandle lot, we are proposing a white TPO roofing for these two upper roof planes as a more sustainable choice compared to more dark-colored roofing like the covered patios and detached ADU. The owners also wish to build a detached 292-square-foot Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) as an office and guest suite. For the ADU foundation to be situated outside the central redwood tree’s critical root zone, this relatively tiny structure takes advantage of the narrower 4-foot side and rear setbacks allowed for ADUs smaller than 800 square feet. The small L-shaped detached ADU frames a wonderful quasi-courtyard around the gargantuan V-twin redwoods at the center of the lot. The ADU shares a matching material palette consisting of cement plaster painted blue and black, vertical redwood siding and soffits, and thin brick veneer. The ADU also features large full-height windows. The only difference between the main home and the ADU material palette is that the roofing will be a dark composition shingle roofing since it will be quite visible from the master balcony.

Stone Veneer and Cantera Stone Turret Enryway with Brick Pavers
Inspiration for a huge mediterranean brick floor entryway remodel in Phoenix with brown walls and a dark wood front door

This proposal is for a new two-story home on the vacant heavily wooded lot with an existing 150-foot-long driveway lined by several beautiful oak trees culminating in a behemoth 43-inch oak tree where the driveway meets the main lot. The far end of the driveway terminates in a grove of three 43/40/43-inch redwoods and at the very center of the vacant lot stands a gargantuan V-twin 59-inch redwood tree paired with a “small” 29-inch redwood tree. The owners want to build a beautiful contemporary-styled home for their family that fully enjoys and embraces the mature trees on their cozy 65-foot by 100-foot lot. As with all small, constrained lots, this project’s site design started first with meeting the relatively large parking and car maneuvering requirements. Menlo Park’s Department of Transportation typically requires side-facing garages to have 24-feet of backup space. So that they could give the largest feature redwood tree on site an added four feet (50%) of clearance outside of its critical root zone, the owners agreed to install a vehicle turntable at the end of their driveway to eliminate the extra four feet of space needed to back up and turnaround. This allowed them to pull their garage forward an additional four feet towards the front property line on the panhandle side, drastically reducing the rest of the home’s impact on the gargantuan V-Twin paired redwood tree at the center of the lot. One of the owners has mobility issues, and accordingly, they first sought to design a one-story floor plan that incorporated all their family’s needs including plenty of covered patio and deck space to enjoy our fantastic California weather. But that single-story footprint spread too far into the critical root zones of several of the redwood trees on site, even despite the use of the vehicle turntable. During my interview process with the owners, they made it clear to me that one of their primary concerns is ensuring that the largest trees on site would thrive and become features of their new home after construction is complete. The single-story designs that removed the grove of three huge redwood trees were non-starters, as was the skimpy 5x10 master bath I designed when trying to squeeze the whole house program into an overly compromised single-story design. It was therefore deemed necessary to go with a two-story design despite the owner’s mobility issues. This two-story design has a much more compact ground floor footprint and has no bedrooms downstairs, other than the detached ADU. The owners must give up the floor area and incur the costs to install a residential elevator to access their upstairs master suite. Our ground floor footprint is smaller due to the two-story design decision, and our foundation is pulled away from the trees thanks to the vehicle turntable. Yet, a tiny portion of the home’s ground floor footprint still encroaches into the critical root zones of the largest 59” redwood tree. Therefore, as outlined in the Arborist Report prepared by Aesculus Arboricultural Consulting, the structural engineers are incorporating an array of drilled piers and shallow-grade beams for the main home’s foundation and deck area nearest the redwood’s critical root zone. This drilled piers and grade beam foundation is a type of “bridging” foundation as outlined in Aesculus’ report to preserve the health of these trees that the property was designed around. The rest of the foundation will be constructed as an insulated slab-on-grade foundation to minimize the number of steps and ramps needed for the owners to enjoy their home and patio areas. Despite the owner’s desire to keep as many trees as possible on site, and despite the smaller ground floor footprint and the advantage of the vehicle turntable, the need for a 20x20-foot garage and 20x20/25-foot guest parking space on our panhandle lot requires the removal of two heritage trees in the required driveway, a 16” coast redwood, and a 17” coast redwood. An alternate design, such as swapping the garage and guest parking locations north-to-south, still requires the removal of these two trees for vehicle maneuvering but has the added disadvantage of cutting off the home’s sightlines to the behemoth 43” oak tree just outside the currently proposed front patio space and living room. Jim Redman of Elements Landscape is proposing 13 new trees be planted on site to replace the lost value of these two heritage coast redwood trees. This contemporary architectural design features clean lines, and an abundance of full-height windows and large skylights to best take in the immense trees on site. To blend in with the forest-like setting, the home boasts a mix of rich textures and features a color palette of natural wood tones contrasted with dark blue and black. Once through the new steel gate at the street and down the 150-foot tree-lined driveway, a large covered front patio becomes visible past the neighbor’s detached accessory structure. The covered patio is just across the driveway from the beautiful 43” behemoth coast live oak. The single plane of the covered patio roof is delicately supported by a pair of steel posts in a “V-twin” configuration much like the largest redwood trees that tower over the center of the lot and will still be visible above the new two-story home, even from the front yard. The patio is covered in a dark-colored standing seam roof, with steel C-channel fascias, and tongue-and-groove wood ceiling planks on the underside. Generously sized skylights on the patio roof and inside the living area allow for impressive views of the amazing oak canopy as well as precious natural light. Supporting the sloped covered patio on the other side is the two-car garage with a secondary bedroom suite stacked above the garage. This two-story volume is to be clad in vertical clear-coated redwood siding, to tie in with the grove of three 43-inch redwood trees just beyond. The garage door, and the bank of windows for Bedroom#2 above feature a steel fascia eyebrow header feature to provide shade and overhang protection, as we are not proposing a large overhang at this “redwood trunk”. The garage and bedroom volume are pulled 16 feet away from the side property line, instead of the minimum required setback of 6’-6”, thus leaving plenty of room for the redwood grove and existing mature pear tree to continue to thrive. This existing mature green screen in this 16-foot-wide side yard is a feature worth soaking in, which is why tall windows with low sill heights are proposed for both the stairs and the upstairs hallway. Though it may be infrequent to approve side-facing 2nd floor windows with sill heights as low as what we’re proposing, we are confident that the mature green screen and the over 16-foot-wide side yard are sufficient to provide for the continued privacy of our neighbor’s rear yard space, especially considering theses windows are in walkway zones. The covered patio at the front entry is also bound by the 10-foot-tall living room. The great room is clad in a dark blue brick veneer, which wraps around all three sides of the living room. Upon entering the home from the covered patio, you are immediately greeted with one of the most impressive features of the home’s design: a 10-foot-tall by 24-foot-wide set of sliding glass doors. From the entry, this huge opening gives merely an initial glimpse of the massive trunks of the gargantuan V-twin redwoods sitting at the center of the lot. All three sliding glass panels open directly out into the smaller partially covered deck in the rear. This roof overhang element matches the design of the front patio with a steel C-channel fascia and a large skylight. But the rear deck’s roof element is set flat at a ten-foot ceiling height so that the living room’s ceiling seems to float above and out beyond the expanse of full-height sliding doors, thus creating an indoor-outdoor living space that will feel much larger than the home’s actual footprint. This rear covered deck is smaller than the patio in the front and also has a mix of solid and open-slatted roofing to allow for more solar access for the relatively small amount of open sky available. The downstairs living room is open to the dining and kitchen areas, as well as the stair-and-elevator tower beyond. The stair tower is very open and glassy, and the stairs wind up and around the redwood-clad elevator tower. From certain perspectives in the 16-foot-wide side yard, it will almost seem as if the grove of three redwoods has a fourth tree that the house and the stairs were carefully built around. Other than the 3-foot-wide windows, the exterior walls of the stair tower, downstairs utility spaces, and Bedroom#3 above are finished in cement plaster, painted dark blue and black. The sloped roof over the stair-and-elevator tower continues cleanly over the area of upstairs Bedroom#3. This roof level is set by the side daylight plane and only yields an inside wall height of just under 6 feet in height. The owners are satisfied that the rest of this upstairs room has a nice vaulted ceiling to make up for the one short wall under the daylight plane. The rest of the ground floor adjacent to the stair tower consists of a small utility wing containing a half-bath, laundry, storage area, and an exterior alcove for the electric heat pump HVAC unit. This short wing also gives more accessible access to the rear yard deck, as well as a backdrop for an outdoor kitchen. The bright white stone backsplash for the outdoor kitchen provides contrast to the otherwise consistent use of cement plaster painted dark blue and black for the two-story wing closest to the detached ADU. Though Bedroom#3 is stacked directly above this small wing, it is relatively short to comply with the side daylight plane of this narrow lot. Still, to further help break up the scale of this wall, another steel fascia eyebrow element is set about 8 feet above the rear deck. The master suite sits centered above the ten-foot-tall great room. The master bedroom and its balcony, as well as the master bathtub area, have a commanding view of the central redwood trees and their impressive canopy, though the balcony is mostly recessed and should pose no privacy concerns to the neighbor’s rear yards. The master balcony parapet is clad in the same brick veneer continuing up from the living room below. A dark-painted metal rail makes up the rest of the open guardrail height. The entire length of the master balcony is comprised of 9-foot-tall sliding glass doors, but the area above the doors, as well as the area below the master bathroom windows, is accented with more redwood siding. The remainder of the master suite bathroom and walk-in closet is finished in cement plaster painted dark blue. The master bathroom has one side yard-facing window but will be frosted glass for both the owner’s and the neighbor’s privacy. The 2nd floor is capped under a simple gable roof design with one roof ridge and varying eave and rake overhangs depending on the 2nd-floor layout and solar orientation. Since these roof planes are quite difficult to see in the middle of the heavily wooded panhandle lot, we are proposing a white TPO roofing for these two upper roof planes as a more sustainable choice compared to more dark-colored roofing like the covered patios and detached ADU. The owners also wish to build a detached 292-square-foot Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) as an office and guest suite. For the ADU foundation to be situated outside the central redwood tree’s critical root zone, this relatively tiny structure takes advantage of the narrower 4-foot side and rear setbacks allowed for ADUs smaller than 800 square feet. The small L-shaped detached ADU frames a wonderful quasi-courtyard around the gargantuan V-twin redwoods at the center of the lot. The ADU shares a matching material palette consisting of cement plaster painted blue and black, vertical redwood siding and soffits, and thin brick veneer. The ADU also features large full-height windows. The only difference between the main home and the ADU material palette is that the roofing will be a dark composition shingle roofing since it will be quite visible from the master balcony.

This large entry allows time for the person entering to really soak in the 360 degree waterfront views they are faced with the second they walk through the restored vintage door.. A 9 foot long live edge table invites you into the main living space and the silver birch branch continues the natural, rustic element of this otherwise very modern home. The view continues through the kitchen island seating and beyond to completely captivate the viewer.

This proposal is for a new two-story home on the vacant heavily wooded lot with an existing 150-foot-long driveway lined by several beautiful oak trees culminating in a behemoth 43-inch oak tree where the driveway meets the main lot. The far end of the driveway terminates in a grove of three 43/40/43-inch redwoods and at the very center of the vacant lot stands a gargantuan V-twin 59-inch redwood tree paired with a “small” 29-inch redwood tree. The owners want to build a beautiful contemporary-styled home for their family that fully enjoys and embraces the mature trees on their cozy 65-foot by 100-foot lot. As with all small, constrained lots, this project’s site design started first with meeting the relatively large parking and car maneuvering requirements. Menlo Park’s Department of Transportation typically requires side-facing garages to have 24-feet of backup space. So that they could give the largest feature redwood tree on site an added four feet (50%) of clearance outside of its critical root zone, the owners agreed to install a vehicle turntable at the end of their driveway to eliminate the extra four feet of space needed to back up and turnaround. This allowed them to pull their garage forward an additional four feet towards the front property line on the panhandle side, drastically reducing the rest of the home’s impact on the gargantuan V-Twin paired redwood tree at the center of the lot. One of the owners has mobility issues, and accordingly, they first sought to design a one-story floor plan that incorporated all their family’s needs including plenty of covered patio and deck space to enjoy our fantastic California weather. But that single-story footprint spread too far into the critical root zones of several of the redwood trees on site, even despite the use of the vehicle turntable. During my interview process with the owners, they made it clear to me that one of their primary concerns is ensuring that the largest trees on site would thrive and become features of their new home after construction is complete. The single-story designs that removed the grove of three huge redwood trees were non-starters, as was the skimpy 5x10 master bath I designed when trying to squeeze the whole house program into an overly compromised single-story design. It was therefore deemed necessary to go with a two-story design despite the owner’s mobility issues. This two-story design has a much more compact ground floor footprint and has no bedrooms downstairs, other than the detached ADU. The owners must give up the floor area and incur the costs to install a residential elevator to access their upstairs master suite. Our ground floor footprint is smaller due to the two-story design decision, and our foundation is pulled away from the trees thanks to the vehicle turntable. Yet, a tiny portion of the home’s ground floor footprint still encroaches into the critical root zones of the largest 59” redwood tree. Therefore, as outlined in the Arborist Report prepared by Aesculus Arboricultural Consulting, the structural engineers are incorporating an array of drilled piers and shallow-grade beams for the main home’s foundation and deck area nearest the redwood’s critical root zone. This drilled piers and grade beam foundation is a type of “bridging” foundation as outlined in Aesculus’ report to preserve the health of these trees that the property was designed around. The rest of the foundation will be constructed as an insulated slab-on-grade foundation to minimize the number of steps and ramps needed for the owners to enjoy their home and patio areas. Despite the owner’s desire to keep as many trees as possible on site, and despite the smaller ground floor footprint and the advantage of the vehicle turntable, the need for a 20x20-foot garage and 20x20/25-foot guest parking space on our panhandle lot requires the removal of two heritage trees in the required driveway, a 16” coast redwood, and a 17” coast redwood. An alternate design, such as swapping the garage and guest parking locations north-to-south, still requires the removal of these two trees for vehicle maneuvering but has the added disadvantage of cutting off the home’s sightlines to the behemoth 43” oak tree just outside the currently proposed front patio space and living room. Jim Redman of Elements Landscape is proposing 13 new trees be planted on site to replace the lost value of these two heritage coast redwood trees. This contemporary architectural design features clean lines, and an abundance of full-height windows and large skylights to best take in the immense trees on site. To blend in with the forest-like setting, the home boasts a mix of rich textures and features a color palette of natural wood tones contrasted with dark blue and black. Once through the new steel gate at the street and down the 150-foot tree-lined driveway, a large covered front patio becomes visible past the neighbor’s detached accessory structure. The covered patio is just across the driveway from the beautiful 43” behemoth coast live oak. The single plane of the covered patio roof is delicately supported by a pair of steel posts in a “V-twin” configuration much like the largest redwood trees that tower over the center of the lot and will still be visible above the new two-story home, even from the front yard. The patio is covered in a dark-colored standing seam roof, with steel C-channel fascias, and tongue-and-groove wood ceiling planks on the underside. Generously sized skylights on the patio roof and inside the living area allow for impressive views of the amazing oak canopy as well as precious natural light. Supporting the sloped covered patio on the other side is the two-car garage with a secondary bedroom suite stacked above the garage. This two-story volume is to be clad in vertical clear-coated redwood siding, to tie in with the grove of three 43-inch redwood trees just beyond. The garage door, and the bank of windows for Bedroom#2 above feature a steel fascia eyebrow header feature to provide shade and overhang protection, as we are not proposing a large overhang at this “redwood trunk”. The garage and bedroom volume are pulled 16 feet away from the side property line, instead of the minimum required setback of 6’-6”, thus leaving plenty of room for the redwood grove and existing mature pear tree to continue to thrive. This existing mature green screen in this 16-foot-wide side yard is a feature worth soaking in, which is why tall windows with low sill heights are proposed for both the stairs and the upstairs hallway. Though it may be infrequent to approve side-facing 2nd floor windows with sill heights as low as what we’re proposing, we are confident that the mature green screen and the over 16-foot-wide side yard are sufficient to provide for the continued privacy of our neighbor’s rear yard space, especially considering theses windows are in walkway zones. The covered patio at the front entry is also bound by the 10-foot-tall living room. The great room is clad in a dark blue brick veneer, which wraps around all three sides of the living room. Upon entering the home from the covered patio, you are immediately greeted with one of the most impressive features of the home’s design: a 10-foot-tall by 24-foot-wide set of sliding glass doors. From the entry, this huge opening gives merely an initial glimpse of the massive trunks of the gargantuan V-twin redwoods sitting at the center of the lot. All three sliding glass panels open directly out into the smaller partially covered deck in the rear. This roof overhang element matches the design of the front patio with a steel C-channel fascia and a large skylight. But the rear deck’s roof element is set flat at a ten-foot ceiling height so that the living room’s ceiling seems to float above and out beyond the expanse of full-height sliding doors, thus creating an indoor-outdoor living space that will feel much larger than the home’s actual footprint. This rear covered deck is smaller than the patio in the front and also has a mix of solid and open-slatted roofing to allow for more solar access for the relatively small amount of open sky available. The downstairs living room is open to the dining and kitchen areas, as well as the stair-and-elevator tower beyond. The stair tower is very open and glassy, and the stairs wind up and around the redwood-clad elevator tower. From certain perspectives in the 16-foot-wide side yard, it will almost seem as if the grove of three redwoods has a fourth tree that the house and the stairs were carefully built around. Other than the 3-foot-wide windows, the exterior walls of the stair tower, downstairs utility spaces, and Bedroom#3 above are finished in cement plaster, painted dark blue and black. The sloped roof over the stair-and-elevator tower continues cleanly over the area of upstairs Bedroom#3. This roof level is set by the side daylight plane and only yields an inside wall height of just under 6 feet in height. The owners are satisfied that the rest of this upstairs room has a nice vaulted ceiling to make up for the one short wall under the daylight plane. The rest of the ground floor adjacent to the stair tower consists of a small utility wing containing a half-bath, laundry, storage area, and an exterior alcove for the electric heat pump HVAC unit. This short wing also gives more accessible access to the rear yard deck, as well as a backdrop for an outdoor kitchen. The bright white stone backsplash for the outdoor kitchen provides contrast to the otherwise consistent use of cement plaster painted dark blue and black for the two-story wing closest to the detached ADU. Though Bedroom#3 is stacked directly above this small wing, it is relatively short to comply with the side daylight plane of this narrow lot. Still, to further help break up the scale of this wall, another steel fascia eyebrow element is set about 8 feet above the rear deck. The master suite sits centered above the ten-foot-tall great room. The master bedroom and its balcony, as well as the master bathtub area, have a commanding view of the central redwood trees and their impressive canopy, though the balcony is mostly recessed and should pose no privacy concerns to the neighbor’s rear yards. The master balcony parapet is clad in the same brick veneer continuing up from the living room below. A dark-painted metal rail makes up the rest of the open guardrail height. The entire length of the master balcony is comprised of 9-foot-tall sliding glass doors, but the area above the doors, as well as the area below the master bathroom windows, is accented with more redwood siding. The remainder of the master suite bathroom and walk-in closet is finished in cement plaster painted dark blue. The master bathroom has one side yard-facing window but will be frosted glass for both the owner’s and the neighbor’s privacy. The 2nd floor is capped under a simple gable roof design with one roof ridge and varying eave and rake overhangs depending on the 2nd-floor layout and solar orientation. Since these roof planes are quite difficult to see in the middle of the heavily wooded panhandle lot, we are proposing a white TPO roofing for these two upper roof planes as a more sustainable choice compared to more dark-colored roofing like the covered patios and detached ADU. The owners also wish to build a detached 292-square-foot Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) as an office and guest suite. For the ADU foundation to be situated outside the central redwood tree’s critical root zone, this relatively tiny structure takes advantage of the narrower 4-foot side and rear setbacks allowed for ADUs smaller than 800 square feet. The small L-shaped detached ADU frames a wonderful quasi-courtyard around the gargantuan V-twin redwoods at the center of the lot. The ADU shares a matching material palette consisting of cement plaster painted blue and black, vertical redwood siding and soffits, and thin brick veneer. The ADU also features large full-height windows. The only difference between the main home and the ADU material palette is that the roofing will be a dark composition shingle roofing since it will be quite visible from the master balcony.

This Craftsman exterior is highlighted with multiple front-facing gables and accented by arched windows. Front porch arches mirror the windows and columns provide definition. The front porch leads into a spacious foyer with coat closet and nearby, the study offers a full closet and adjacent bathroom. The two-story great room welcomes rear views and a fireplace and built-ins are instantly welcoming. A coffered ceiling tops the dining room and a column creates distinction from the open kitchen. A central island with sink simplifies meal prep and an over-sized walk-in pantry is just steps away. A multi-functional utility room and mudroom, with seating area and storage closet, provide much needed organization for busy households. After gardening or yard work, a side entry porch allows entry directly to the mudroom for easy cleanup. Completing the first floor is an opulent master suite with sitting room, dual walk-in closets, and a luxury bathroom. Rear porches, including a screened porch with fireplace and summer kitchen, bring the joy of indoor entertaining to the outdoors. Two sets of stairs provide access to the second floor.

New front door installation, brand new windows, stone and vinyl siding to complete the front face lift.
Inspiration for a mid-sized contemporary vinyl exterior home remodel in Phoenix

This proposal is for a new two-story home on the vacant heavily wooded lot with an existing 150-foot-long driveway lined by several beautiful oak trees culminating in a behemoth 43-inch oak tree where the driveway meets the main lot. The far end of the driveway terminates in a grove of three 43/40/43-inch redwoods and at the very center of the vacant lot stands a gargantuan V-twin 59-inch redwood tree paired with a “small” 29-inch redwood tree. The owners want to build a beautiful contemporary-styled home for their family that fully enjoys and embraces the mature trees on their cozy 65-foot by 100-foot lot. As with all small, constrained lots, this project’s site design started first with meeting the relatively large parking and car maneuvering requirements. Menlo Park’s Department of Transportation typically requires side-facing garages to have 24-feet of backup space. So that they could give the largest feature redwood tree on site an added four feet (50%) of clearance outside of its critical root zone, the owners agreed to install a vehicle turntable at the end of their driveway to eliminate the extra four feet of space needed to back up and turnaround. This allowed them to pull their garage forward an additional four feet towards the front property line on the panhandle side, drastically reducing the rest of the home’s impact on the gargantuan V-Twin paired redwood tree at the center of the lot. One of the owners has mobility issues, and accordingly, they first sought to design a one-story floor plan that incorporated all their family’s needs including plenty of covered patio and deck space to enjoy our fantastic California weather. But that single-story footprint spread too far into the critical root zones of several of the redwood trees on site, even despite the use of the vehicle turntable. During my interview process with the owners, they made it clear to me that one of their primary concerns is ensuring that the largest trees on site would thrive and become features of their new home after construction is complete. The single-story designs that removed the grove of three huge redwood trees were non-starters, as was the skimpy 5x10 master bath I designed when trying to squeeze the whole house program into an overly compromised single-story design. It was therefore deemed necessary to go with a two-story design despite the owner’s mobility issues. This two-story design has a much more compact ground floor footprint and has no bedrooms downstairs, other than the detached ADU. The owners must give up the floor area and incur the costs to install a residential elevator to access their upstairs master suite. Our ground floor footprint is smaller due to the two-story design decision, and our foundation is pulled away from the trees thanks to the vehicle turntable. Yet, a tiny portion of the home’s ground floor footprint still encroaches into the critical root zones of the largest 59” redwood tree. Therefore, as outlined in the Arborist Report prepared by Aesculus Arboricultural Consulting, the structural engineers are incorporating an array of drilled piers and shallow-grade beams for the main home’s foundation and deck area nearest the redwood’s critical root zone. This drilled piers and grade beam foundation is a type of “bridging” foundation as outlined in Aesculus’ report to preserve the health of these trees that the property was designed around. The rest of the foundation will be constructed as an insulated slab-on-grade foundation to minimize the number of steps and ramps needed for the owners to enjoy their home and patio areas. Despite the owner’s desire to keep as many trees as possible on site, and despite the smaller ground floor footprint and the advantage of the vehicle turntable, the need for a 20x20-foot garage and 20x20/25-foot guest parking space on our panhandle lot requires the removal of two heritage trees in the required driveway, a 16” coast redwood, and a 17” coast redwood. An alternate design, such as swapping the garage and guest parking locations north-to-south, still requires the removal of these two trees for vehicle maneuvering but has the added disadvantage of cutting off the home’s sightlines to the behemoth 43” oak tree just outside the currently proposed front patio space and living room. Jim Redman of Elements Landscape is proposing 13 new trees be planted on site to replace the lost value of these two heritage coast redwood trees. This contemporary architectural design features clean lines, and an abundance of full-height windows and large skylights to best take in the immense trees on site. To blend in with the forest-like setting, the home boasts a mix of rich textures and features a color palette of natural wood tones contrasted with dark blue and black. Once through the new steel gate at the street and down the 150-foot tree-lined driveway, a large covered front patio becomes visible past the neighbor’s detached accessory structure. The covered patio is just across the driveway from the beautiful 43” behemoth coast live oak. The single plane of the covered patio roof is delicately supported by a pair of steel posts in a “V-twin” configuration much like the largest redwood trees that tower over the center of the lot and will still be visible above the new two-story home, even from the front yard. The patio is covered in a dark-colored standing seam roof, with steel C-channel fascias, and tongue-and-groove wood ceiling planks on the underside. Generously sized skylights on the patio roof and inside the living area allow for impressive views of the amazing oak canopy as well as precious natural light. Supporting the sloped covered patio on the other side is the two-car garage with a secondary bedroom suite stacked above the garage. This two-story volume is to be clad in vertical clear-coated redwood siding, to tie in with the grove of three 43-inch redwood trees just beyond. The garage door, and the bank of windows for Bedroom#2 above feature a steel fascia eyebrow header feature to provide shade and overhang protection, as we are not proposing a large overhang at this “redwood trunk”. The garage and bedroom volume are pulled 16 feet away from the side property line, instead of the minimum required setback of 6’-6”, thus leaving plenty of room for the redwood grove and existing mature pear tree to continue to thrive. This existing mature green screen in this 16-foot-wide side yard is a feature worth soaking in, which is why tall windows with low sill heights are proposed for both the stairs and the upstairs hallway. Though it may be infrequent to approve side-facing 2nd floor windows with sill heights as low as what we’re proposing, we are confident that the mature green screen and the over 16-foot-wide side yard are sufficient to provide for the continued privacy of our neighbor’s rear yard space, especially considering theses windows are in walkway zones. The covered patio at the front entry is also bound by the 10-foot-tall living room. The great room is clad in a dark blue brick veneer, which wraps around all three sides of the living room. Upon entering the home from the covered patio, you are immediately greeted with one of the most impressive features of the home’s design: a 10-foot-tall by 24-foot-wide set of sliding glass doors. From the entry, this huge opening gives merely an initial glimpse of the massive trunks of the gargantuan V-twin redwoods sitting at the center of the lot. All three sliding glass panels open directly out into the smaller partially covered deck in the rear. This roof overhang element matches the design of the front patio with a steel C-channel fascia and a large skylight. But the rear deck’s roof element is set flat at a ten-foot ceiling height so that the living room’s ceiling seems to float above and out beyond the expanse of full-height sliding doors, thus creating an indoor-outdoor living space that will feel much larger than the home’s actual footprint. This rear covered deck is smaller than the patio in the front and also has a mix of solid and open-slatted roofing to allow for more solar access for the relatively small amount of open sky available. The downstairs living room is open to the dining and kitchen areas, as well as the stair-and-elevator tower beyond. The stair tower is very open and glassy, and the stairs wind up and around the redwood-clad elevator tower. From certain perspectives in the 16-foot-wide side yard, it will almost seem as if the grove of three redwoods has a fourth tree that the house and the stairs were carefully built around. Other than the 3-foot-wide windows, the exterior walls of the stair tower, downstairs utility spaces, and Bedroom#3 above are finished in cement plaster, painted dark blue and black. The sloped roof over the stair-and-elevator tower continues cleanly over the area of upstairs Bedroom#3. This roof level is set by the side daylight plane and only yields an inside wall height of just under 6 feet in height. The owners are satisfied that the rest of this upstairs room has a nice vaulted ceiling to make up for the one short wall under the daylight plane. The rest of the ground floor adjacent to the stair tower consists of a small utility wing containing a half-bath, laundry, storage area, and an exterior alcove for the electric heat pump HVAC unit. This short wing also gives more accessible access to the rear yard deck, as well as a backdrop for an outdoor kitchen. The bright white stone backsplash for the outdoor kitchen provides contrast to the otherwise consistent use of cement plaster painted dark blue and black for the two-story wing closest to the detached ADU. Though Bedroom#3 is stacked directly above this small wing, it is relatively short to comply with the side daylight plane of this narrow lot. Still, to further help break up the scale of this wall, another steel fascia eyebrow element is set about 8 feet above the rear deck. The master suite sits centered above the ten-foot-tall great room. The master bedroom and its balcony, as well as the master bathtub area, have a commanding view of the central redwood trees and their impressive canopy, though the balcony is mostly recessed and should pose no privacy concerns to the neighbor’s rear yards. The master balcony parapet is clad in the same brick veneer continuing up from the living room below. A dark-painted metal rail makes up the rest of the open guardrail height. The entire length of the master balcony is comprised of 9-foot-tall sliding glass doors, but the area above the doors, as well as the area below the master bathroom windows, is accented with more redwood siding. The remainder of the master suite bathroom and walk-in closet is finished in cement plaster painted dark blue. The master bathroom has one side yard-facing window but will be frosted glass for both the owner’s and the neighbor’s privacy. The 2nd floor is capped under a simple gable roof design with one roof ridge and varying eave and rake overhangs depending on the 2nd-floor layout and solar orientation. Since these roof planes are quite difficult to see in the middle of the heavily wooded panhandle lot, we are proposing a white TPO roofing for these two upper roof planes as a more sustainable choice compared to more dark-colored roofing like the covered patios and detached ADU. The owners also wish to build a detached 292-square-foot Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) as an office and guest suite. For the ADU foundation to be situated outside the central redwood tree’s critical root zone, this relatively tiny structure takes advantage of the narrower 4-foot side and rear setbacks allowed for ADUs smaller than 800 square feet. The small L-shaped detached ADU frames a wonderful quasi-courtyard around the gargantuan V-twin redwoods at the center of the lot. The ADU shares a matching material palette consisting of cement plaster painted blue and black, vertical redwood siding and soffits, and thin brick veneer. The ADU also features large full-height windows. The only difference between the main home and the ADU material palette is that the roofing will be a dark composition shingle roofing since it will be quite visible from the master balcony.

A major kitchen remodel to a spectacular mid-century residence in the Tucson foothills. Project scope included demo of the north facing walls and the roof. The roof was raised and picture windows were added to take advantage of the fantastic view. New terrazzo floors were poured in the renovated kitchen to match the existing floor throughout the home. Custom millwork was created by local craftsmen. Photo: David Olsen

The Un-Attractive ConcreteExterior Porch gets a Face-Lift too. Porcelain Tile with a Mosaic Tile inlay
Example of a large minimalist porcelain tile and multicolored floor entryway design in Houston with white walls and a black front door

For a family that loves hosting large gatherings, this expansive home is a dream; boasting two unique entertaining spaces, each expanding onto outdoor-living areas, that capture its magnificent views. The sheer size of the home allows for various ‘experiences’; from a rec room perfect for hosting game day and an eat-in wine room escape on the lower-level, to a calming 2-story family greatroom on the main. Floors are connected by freestanding stairs, framing a custom cascading-pendant light, backed by a stone accent wall, and facing a 3-story waterfall. A custom metal art installation, templated from a cherished tree on the property, both brings nature inside and showcases the immense vertical volume of the house. Photography: Paul Grdina

Batten Front Roman Shades - Featuring crisp pleats on the front face of the shade, our Batten Front Shades showcase exceptional tailoring for a truly custom look. A favorite amongst architects and designers.

This proposal is for a new two-story home on the vacant heavily wooded lot with an existing 150-foot-long driveway lined by several beautiful oak trees culminating in a behemoth 43-inch oak tree where the driveway meets the main lot. The far end of the driveway terminates in a grove of three 43/40/43-inch redwoods and at the very center of the vacant lot stands a gargantuan V-twin 59-inch redwood tree paired with a “small” 29-inch redwood tree. The owners want to build a beautiful contemporary-styled home for their family that fully enjoys and embraces the mature trees on their cozy 65-foot by 100-foot lot. As with all small, constrained lots, this project’s site design started first with meeting the relatively large parking and car maneuvering requirements. Menlo Park’s Department of Transportation typically requires side-facing garages to have 24-feet of backup space. So that they could give the largest feature redwood tree on site an added four feet (50%) of clearance outside of its critical root zone, the owners agreed to install a vehicle turntable at the end of their driveway to eliminate the extra four feet of space needed to back up and turnaround. This allowed them to pull their garage forward an additional four feet towards the front property line on the panhandle side, drastically reducing the rest of the home’s impact on the gargantuan V-Twin paired redwood tree at the center of the lot. One of the owners has mobility issues, and accordingly, they first sought to design a one-story floor plan that incorporated all their family’s needs including plenty of covered patio and deck space to enjoy our fantastic California weather. But that single-story footprint spread too far into the critical root zones of several of the redwood trees on site, even despite the use of the vehicle turntable. During my interview process with the owners, they made it clear to me that one of their primary concerns is ensuring that the largest trees on site would thrive and become features of their new home after construction is complete. The single-story designs that removed the grove of three huge redwood trees were non-starters, as was the skimpy 5x10 master bath I designed when trying to squeeze the whole house program into an overly compromised single-story design. It was therefore deemed necessary to go with a two-story design despite the owner’s mobility issues. This two-story design has a much more compact ground floor footprint and has no bedrooms downstairs, other than the detached ADU. The owners must give up the floor area and incur the costs to install a residential elevator to access their upstairs master suite. Our ground floor footprint is smaller due to the two-story design decision, and our foundation is pulled away from the trees thanks to the vehicle turntable. Yet, a tiny portion of the home’s ground floor footprint still encroaches into the critical root zones of the largest 59” redwood tree. Therefore, as outlined in the Arborist Report prepared by Aesculus Arboricultural Consulting, the structural engineers are incorporating an array of drilled piers and shallow-grade beams for the main home’s foundation and deck area nearest the redwood’s critical root zone. This drilled piers and grade beam foundation is a type of “bridging” foundation as outlined in Aesculus’ report to preserve the health of these trees that the property was designed around. The rest of the foundation will be constructed as an insulated slab-on-grade foundation to minimize the number of steps and ramps needed for the owners to enjoy their home and patio areas. Despite the owner’s desire to keep as many trees as possible on site, and despite the smaller ground floor footprint and the advantage of the vehicle turntable, the need for a 20x20-foot garage and 20x20/25-foot guest parking space on our panhandle lot requires the removal of two heritage trees in the required driveway, a 16” coast redwood, and a 17” coast redwood. An alternate design, such as swapping the garage and guest parking locations north-to-south, still requires the removal of these two trees for vehicle maneuvering but has the added disadvantage of cutting off the home’s sightlines to the behemoth 43” oak tree just outside the currently proposed front patio space and living room. Jim Redman of Elements Landscape is proposing 13 new trees be planted on site to replace the lost value of these two heritage coast redwood trees. This contemporary architectural design features clean lines, and an abundance of full-height windows and large skylights to best take in the immense trees on site. To blend in with the forest-like setting, the home boasts a mix of rich textures and features a color palette of natural wood tones contrasted with dark blue and black. Once through the new steel gate at the street and down the 150-foot tree-lined driveway, a large covered front patio becomes visible past the neighbor’s detached accessory structure. The covered patio is just across the driveway from the beautiful 43” behemoth coast live oak. The single plane of the covered patio roof is delicately supported by a pair of steel posts in a “V-twin” configuration much like the largest redwood trees that tower over the center of the lot and will still be visible above the new two-story home, even from the front yard. The patio is covered in a dark-colored standing seam roof, with steel C-channel fascias, and tongue-and-groove wood ceiling planks on the underside. Generously sized skylights on the patio roof and inside the living area allow for impressive views of the amazing oak canopy as well as precious natural light. Supporting the sloped covered patio on the other side is the two-car garage with a secondary bedroom suite stacked above the garage. This two-story volume is to be clad in vertical clear-coated redwood siding, to tie in with the grove of three 43-inch redwood trees just beyond. The garage door, and the bank of windows for Bedroom#2 above feature a steel fascia eyebrow header feature to provide shade and overhang protection, as we are not proposing a large overhang at this “redwood trunk”. The garage and bedroom volume are pulled 16 feet away from the side property line, instead of the minimum required setback of 6’-6”, thus leaving plenty of room for the redwood grove and existing mature pear tree to continue to thrive. This existing mature green screen in this 16-foot-wide side yard is a feature worth soaking in, which is why tall windows with low sill heights are proposed for both the stairs and the upstairs hallway. Though it may be infrequent to approve side-facing 2nd floor windows with sill heights as low as what we’re proposing, we are confident that the mature green screen and the over 16-foot-wide side yard are sufficient to provide for the continued privacy of our neighbor’s rear yard space, especially considering theses windows are in walkway zones. The covered patio at the front entry is also bound by the 10-foot-tall living room. The great room is clad in a dark blue brick veneer, which wraps around all three sides of the living room. Upon entering the home from the covered patio, you are immediately greeted with one of the most impressive features of the home’s design: a 10-foot-tall by 24-foot-wide set of sliding glass doors. From the entry, this huge opening gives merely an initial glimpse of the massive trunks of the gargantuan V-twin redwoods sitting at the center of the lot. All three sliding glass panels open directly out into the smaller partially covered deck in the rear. This roof overhang element matches the design of the front patio with a steel C-channel fascia and a large skylight. But the rear deck’s roof element is set flat at a ten-foot ceiling height so that the living room’s ceiling seems to float above and out beyond the expanse of full-height sliding doors, thus creating an indoor-outdoor living space that will feel much larger than the home’s actual footprint. This rear covered deck is smaller than the patio in the front and also has a mix of solid and open-slatted roofing to allow for more solar access for the relatively small amount of open sky available. The downstairs living room is open to the dining and kitchen areas, as well as the stair-and-elevator tower beyond. The stair tower is very open and glassy, and the stairs wind up and around the redwood-clad elevator tower. From certain perspectives in the 16-foot-wide side yard, it will almost seem as if the grove of three redwoods has a fourth tree that the house and the stairs were carefully built around. Other than the 3-foot-wide windows, the exterior walls of the stair tower, downstairs utility spaces, and Bedroom#3 above are finished in cement plaster, painted dark blue and black. The sloped roof over the stair-and-elevator tower continues cleanly over the area of upstairs Bedroom#3. This roof level is set by the side daylight plane and only yields an inside wall height of just under 6 feet in height. The owners are satisfied that the rest of this upstairs room has a nice vaulted ceiling to make up for the one short wall under the daylight plane. The rest of the ground floor adjacent to the stair tower consists of a small utility wing containing a half-bath, laundry, storage area, and an exterior alcove for the electric heat pump HVAC unit. This short wing also gives more accessible access to the rear yard deck, as well as a backdrop for an outdoor kitchen. The bright white stone backsplash for the outdoor kitchen provides contrast to the otherwise consistent use of cement plaster painted dark blue and black for the two-story wing closest to the detached ADU. Though Bedroom#3 is stacked directly above this small wing, it is relatively short to comply with the side daylight plane of this narrow lot. Still, to further help break up the scale of this wall, another steel fascia eyebrow element is set about 8 feet above the rear deck. The master suite sits centered above the ten-foot-tall great room. The master bedroom and its balcony, as well as the master bathtub area, have a commanding view of the central redwood trees and their impressive canopy, though the balcony is mostly recessed and should pose no privacy concerns to the neighbor’s rear yards. The master balcony parapet is clad in the same brick veneer continuing up from the living room below. A dark-painted metal rail makes up the rest of the open guardrail height. The entire length of the master balcony is comprised of 9-foot-tall sliding glass doors, but the area above the doors, as well as the area below the master bathroom windows, is accented with more redwood siding. The remainder of the master suite bathroom and walk-in closet is finished in cement plaster painted dark blue. The master bathroom has one side yard-facing window but will be frosted glass for both the owner’s and the neighbor’s privacy. The 2nd floor is capped under a simple gable roof design with one roof ridge and varying eave and rake overhangs depending on the 2nd-floor layout and solar orientation. Since these roof planes are quite difficult to see in the middle of the heavily wooded panhandle lot, we are proposing a white TPO roofing for these two upper roof planes as a more sustainable choice compared to more dark-colored roofing like the covered patios and detached ADU. The owners also wish to build a detached 292-square-foot Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) as an office and guest suite. For the ADU foundation to be situated outside the central redwood tree’s critical root zone, this relatively tiny structure takes advantage of the narrower 4-foot side and rear setbacks allowed for ADUs smaller than 800 square feet. The small L-shaped detached ADU frames a wonderful quasi-courtyard around the gargantuan V-twin redwoods at the center of the lot. The ADU shares a matching material palette consisting of cement plaster painted blue and black, vertical redwood siding and soffits, and thin brick veneer. The ADU also features large full-height windows. The only difference between the main home and the ADU material palette is that the roofing will be a dark composition shingle roofing since it will be quite visible from the master balcony.

Mid-sized entryway photo in San Francisco with white walls and a black front door

This proposal is for a new two-story home on the vacant heavily wooded lot with an existing 150-foot-long driveway lined by several beautiful oak trees culminating in a behemoth 43-inch oak tree where the driveway meets the main lot. The far end of the driveway terminates in a grove of three 43/40/43-inch redwoods and at the very center of the vacant lot stands a gargantuan V-twin 59-inch redwood tree paired with a “small” 29-inch redwood tree. The owners want to build a beautiful contemporary-styled home for their family that fully enjoys and embraces the mature trees on their cozy 65-foot by 100-foot lot. As with all small, constrained lots, this project’s site design started first with meeting the relatively large parking and car maneuvering requirements. Menlo Park’s Department of Transportation typically requires side-facing garages to have 24-feet of backup space. So that they could give the largest feature redwood tree on site an added four feet (50%) of clearance outside of its critical root zone, the owners agreed to install a vehicle turntable at the end of their driveway to eliminate the extra four feet of space needed to back up and turnaround. This allowed them to pull their garage forward an additional four feet towards the front property line on the panhandle side, drastically reducing the rest of the home’s impact on the gargantuan V-Twin paired redwood tree at the center of the lot. One of the owners has mobility issues, and accordingly, they first sought to design a one-story floor plan that incorporated all their family’s needs including plenty of covered patio and deck space to enjoy our fantastic California weather. But that single-story footprint spread too far into the critical root zones of several of the redwood trees on site, even despite the use of the vehicle turntable. During my interview process with the owners, they made it clear to me that one of their primary concerns is ensuring that the largest trees on site would thrive and become features of their new home after construction is complete. The single-story designs that removed the grove of three huge redwood trees were non-starters, as was the skimpy 5x10 master bath I designed when trying to squeeze the whole house program into an overly compromised single-story design. It was therefore deemed necessary to go with a two-story design despite the owner’s mobility issues. This two-story design has a much more compact ground floor footprint and has no bedrooms downstairs, other than the detached ADU. The owners must give up the floor area and incur the costs to install a residential elevator to access their upstairs master suite. Our ground floor footprint is smaller due to the two-story design decision, and our foundation is pulled away from the trees thanks to the vehicle turntable. Yet, a tiny portion of the home’s ground floor footprint still encroaches into the critical root zones of the largest 59” redwood tree. Therefore, as outlined in the Arborist Report prepared by Aesculus Arboricultural Consulting, the structural engineers are incorporating an array of drilled piers and shallow-grade beams for the main home’s foundation and deck area nearest the redwood’s critical root zone. This drilled piers and grade beam foundation is a type of “bridging” foundation as outlined in Aesculus’ report to preserve the health of these trees that the property was designed around. The rest of the foundation will be constructed as an insulated slab-on-grade foundation to minimize the number of steps and ramps needed for the owners to enjoy their home and patio areas. Despite the owner’s desire to keep as many trees as possible on site, and despite the smaller ground floor footprint and the advantage of the vehicle turntable, the need for a 20x20-foot garage and 20x20/25-foot guest parking space on our panhandle lot requires the removal of two heritage trees in the required driveway, a 16” coast redwood, and a 17” coast redwood. An alternate design, such as swapping the garage and guest parking locations north-to-south, still requires the removal of these two trees for vehicle maneuvering but has the added disadvantage of cutting off the home’s sightlines to the behemoth 43” oak tree just outside the currently proposed front patio space and living room. Jim Redman of Elements Landscape is proposing 13 new trees be planted on site to replace the lost value of these two heritage coast redwood trees. This contemporary architectural design features clean lines, and an abundance of full-height windows and large skylights to best take in the immense trees on site. To blend in with the forest-like setting, the home boasts a mix of rich textures and features a color palette of natural wood tones contrasted with dark blue and black. Once through the new steel gate at the street and down the 150-foot tree-lined driveway, a large covered front patio becomes visible past the neighbor’s detached accessory structure. The covered patio is just across the driveway from the beautiful 43” behemoth coast live oak. The single plane of the covered patio roof is delicately supported by a pair of steel posts in a “V-twin” configuration much like the largest redwood trees that tower over the center of the lot and will still be visible above the new two-story home, even from the front yard. The patio is covered in a dark-colored standing seam roof, with steel C-channel fascias, and tongue-and-groove wood ceiling planks on the underside. Generously sized skylights on the patio roof and inside the living area allow for impressive views of the amazing oak canopy as well as precious natural light. Supporting the sloped covered patio on the other side is the two-car garage with a secondary bedroom suite stacked above the garage. This two-story volume is to be clad in vertical clear-coated redwood siding, to tie in with the grove of three 43-inch redwood trees just beyond. The garage door, and the bank of windows for Bedroom#2 above feature a steel fascia eyebrow header feature to provide shade and overhang protection, as we are not proposing a large overhang at this “redwood trunk”. The garage and bedroom volume are pulled 16 feet away from the side property line, instead of the minimum required setback of 6’-6”, thus leaving plenty of room for the redwood grove and existing mature pear tree to continue to thrive. This existing mature green screen in this 16-foot-wide side yard is a feature worth soaking in, which is why tall windows with low sill heights are proposed for both the stairs and the upstairs hallway. Though it may be infrequent to approve side-facing 2nd floor windows with sill heights as low as what we’re proposing, we are confident that the mature green screen and the over 16-foot-wide side yard are sufficient to provide for the continued privacy of our neighbor’s rear yard space, especially considering theses windows are in walkway zones. The covered patio at the front entry is also bound by the 10-foot-tall living room. The great room is clad in a dark blue brick veneer, which wraps around all three sides of the living room. Upon entering the home from the covered patio, you are immediately greeted with one of the most impressive features of the home’s design: a 10-foot-tall by 24-foot-wide set of sliding glass doors. From the entry, this huge opening gives merely an initial glimpse of the massive trunks of the gargantuan V-twin redwoods sitting at the center of the lot. All three sliding glass panels open directly out into the smaller partially covered deck in the rear. This roof overhang element matches the design of the front patio with a steel C-channel fascia and a large skylight. But the rear deck’s roof element is set flat at a ten-foot ceiling height so that the living room’s ceiling seems to float above and out beyond the expanse of full-height sliding doors, thus creating an indoor-outdoor living space that will feel much larger than the home’s actual footprint. This rear covered deck is smaller than the patio in the front and also has a mix of solid and open-slatted roofing to allow for more solar access for the relatively small amount of open sky available. The downstairs living room is open to the dining and kitchen areas, as well as the stair-and-elevator tower beyond. The stair tower is very open and glassy, and the stairs wind up and around the redwood-clad elevator tower. From certain perspectives in the 16-foot-wide side yard, it will almost seem as if the grove of three redwoods has a fourth tree that the house and the stairs were carefully built around. Other than the 3-foot-wide windows, the exterior walls of the stair tower, downstairs utility spaces, and Bedroom#3 above are finished in cement plaster, painted dark blue and black. The sloped roof over the stair-and-elevator tower continues cleanly over the area of upstairs Bedroom#3. This roof level is set by the side daylight plane and only yields an inside wall height of just under 6 feet in height. The owners are satisfied that the rest of this upstairs room has a nice vaulted ceiling to make up for the one short wall under the daylight plane. The rest of the ground floor adjacent to the stair tower consists of a small utility wing containing a half-bath, laundry, storage area, and an exterior alcove for the electric heat pump HVAC unit. This short wing also gives more accessible access to the rear yard deck, as well as a backdrop for an outdoor kitchen. The bright white stone backsplash for the outdoor kitchen provides contrast to the otherwise consistent use of cement plaster painted dark blue and black for the two-story wing closest to the detached ADU. Though Bedroom#3 is stacked directly above this small wing, it is relatively short to comply with the side daylight plane of this narrow lot. Still, to further help break up the scale of this wall, another steel fascia eyebrow element is set about 8 feet above the rear deck. The master suite sits centered above the ten-foot-tall great room. The master bedroom and its balcony, as well as the master bathtub area, have a commanding view of the central redwood trees and their impressive canopy, though the balcony is mostly recessed and should pose no privacy concerns to the neighbor’s rear yards. The master balcony parapet is clad in the same brick veneer continuing up from the living room below. A dark-painted metal rail makes up the rest of the open guardrail height. The entire length of the master balcony is comprised of 9-foot-tall sliding glass doors, but the area above the doors, as well as the area below the master bathroom windows, is accented with more redwood siding. The remainder of the master suite bathroom and walk-in closet is finished in cement plaster painted dark blue. The master bathroom has one side yard-facing window but will be frosted glass for both the owner’s and the neighbor’s privacy. The 2nd floor is capped under a simple gable roof design with one roof ridge and varying eave and rake overhangs depending on the 2nd-floor layout and solar orientation. Since these roof planes are quite difficult to see in the middle of the heavily wooded panhandle lot, we are proposing a white TPO roofing for these two upper roof planes as a more sustainable choice compared to more dark-colored roofing like the covered patios and detached ADU. The owners also wish to build a detached 292-square-foot Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) as an office and guest suite. For the ADU foundation to be situated outside the central redwood tree’s critical root zone, this relatively tiny structure takes advantage of the narrower 4-foot side and rear setbacks allowed for ADUs smaller than 800 square feet. The small L-shaped detached ADU frames a wonderful quasi-courtyard around the gargantuan V-twin redwoods at the center of the lot. The ADU shares a matching material palette consisting of cement plaster painted blue and black, vertical redwood siding and soffits, and thin brick veneer. The ADU also features large full-height windows. The only difference between the main home and the ADU material palette is that the roofing will be a dark composition shingle roofing since it will be quite visible from the master balcony.

For a family that loves hosting large gatherings, this expansive home is a dream; boasting two unique entertaining spaces, each expanding onto outdoor-living areas, that capture its magnificent views. The sheer size of the home allows for various ‘experiences’; from a rec room perfect for hosting game day and an eat-in wine room escape on the lower-level, to a calming 2-story family greatroom on the main. Floors are connected by freestanding stairs, framing a custom cascading-pendant light, backed by a stone accent wall, and facing a 3-story waterfall. A custom metal art installation, templated from a cherished tree on the property, both brings nature inside and showcases the immense vertical volume of the house. Photography: Paul Grdina

This gorgeous contemporary glass front custom wine cellar in Corona Del Mar, Newport Beach, California is an eye catcher. The sleek, glass ultra modern wine room was a unique and exciting project for our team here at Vintage Cellars. The stone bar extends into the wine cellar itself, but due to mechanical, cooling, and condensation concerns, our expert custom wine cellar team knew that extra measures needed to be taken to ensure the end quality remained top notch. The bar itself was divided into two sections, one cut section outside to make up the main seating area and the other inside the glass wine room. The stone bar, which is porous, takes up a good portion of the front facing glass panel. Had the bar simply extended into the wine cellar and been sealed off at the joints, the stone would have eventually transferred in enough heat and moisture to cause condensation. Proper wine cellar design and planning enabled this wine cellar to not only look fantastic, but function perfectly as well. One interesting unique feature in this Corona Del Mar, Newport Beach, Orange County, California glass and metal wine cellar is an extension of floor to ceiling frames mounted to the backside of the stone bar. This feature was made to seamlessly show consistency in floor to ceiling vintageview frames throughout. Corona Del Mar, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach, Newport Coast, Ladera Ranch, Coto De Caza, Laguna Hills, San Clemente, Dana Point, Seal Beach, Laguna Niguel still remain the areas in Orange County that we build wine cellars most often. Contemporary wine cellars such as this are becoming more and more popular in modern design trends. Interior Design, Architecture, and Construction all play a part in ensuring that the client’s vision comes to reality. This project was no different. Working closely with David Close Homes, Vintage Cellars was able to meet with the client and team involved, determine the ultimate wine cellar wine room wine closet goals, and see them to the finish. Upon walking into this glass and metal modern contemporary wine cellar, you become quickly surrounded with triple deep bottles from many of the world’s best wineries. On the left below the countertop is a black stained poplar wine racking system for single 750ml bottles. Above lies room for display case storage, room for large format bottles, and label forward vintageview design racking to the ceiling. On the middle wall of this wine room is room for case storage below, similarly with triple deep vintageview floor to ceiling frames dying into more case storage above. On the right side of this wall lies a vertical space for single large format case storage. Ultra Modern wine cellars such as this are all the rage in contemporary homes in San Diego, Orange County, and Los Angeles. This glass enclosed wine cellar with a sleek modern contemporary racking system is truly a showpiece in this home in Corona Del Mar, Newport Beach, California. Wine Racking, Wine Cellar Cooling, Wine Cellar design, Wine Cellar Build out and Wine Cellar Installation is what Vintage Cellars does best. Timeless Luxury.

This proposal is for a new two-story home on the vacant heavily wooded lot with an existing 150-foot-long driveway lined by several beautiful oak trees culminating in a behemoth 43-inch oak tree where the driveway meets the main lot. The far end of the driveway terminates in a grove of three 43/40/43-inch redwoods and at the very center of the vacant lot stands a gargantuan V-twin 59-inch redwood tree paired with a “small” 29-inch redwood tree. The owners want to build a beautiful contemporary-styled home for their family that fully enjoys and embraces the mature trees on their cozy 65-foot by 100-foot lot. As with all small, constrained lots, this project’s site design started first with meeting the relatively large parking and car maneuvering requirements. Menlo Park’s Department of Transportation typically requires side-facing garages to have 24-feet of backup space. So that they could give the largest feature redwood tree on site an added four feet (50%) of clearance outside of its critical root zone, the owners agreed to install a vehicle turntable at the end of their driveway to eliminate the extra four feet of space needed to back up and turnaround. This allowed them to pull their garage forward an additional four feet towards the front property line on the panhandle side, drastically reducing the rest of the home’s impact on the gargantuan V-Twin paired redwood tree at the center of the lot. One of the owners has mobility issues, and accordingly, they first sought to design a one-story floor plan that incorporated all their family’s needs including plenty of covered patio and deck space to enjoy our fantastic California weather. But that single-story footprint spread too far into the critical root zones of several of the redwood trees on site, even despite the use of the vehicle turntable. During my interview process with the owners, they made it clear to me that one of their primary concerns is ensuring that the largest trees on site would thrive and become features of their new home after construction is complete. The single-story designs that removed the grove of three huge redwood trees were non-starters, as was the skimpy 5x10 master bath I designed when trying to squeeze the whole house program into an overly compromised single-story design. It was therefore deemed necessary to go with a two-story design despite the owner’s mobility issues. This two-story design has a much more compact ground floor footprint and has no bedrooms downstairs, other than the detached ADU. The owners must give up the floor area and incur the costs to install a residential elevator to access their upstairs master suite. Our ground floor footprint is smaller due to the two-story design decision, and our foundation is pulled away from the trees thanks to the vehicle turntable. Yet, a tiny portion of the home’s ground floor footprint still encroaches into the critical root zones of the largest 59” redwood tree. Therefore, as outlined in the Arborist Report prepared by Aesculus Arboricultural Consulting, the structural engineers are incorporating an array of drilled piers and shallow-grade beams for the main home’s foundation and deck area nearest the redwood’s critical root zone. This drilled piers and grade beam foundation is a type of “bridging” foundation as outlined in Aesculus’ report to preserve the health of these trees that the property was designed around. The rest of the foundation will be constructed as an insulated slab-on-grade foundation to minimize the number of steps and ramps needed for the owners to enjoy their home and patio areas. Despite the owner’s desire to keep as many trees as possible on site, and despite the smaller ground floor footprint and the advantage of the vehicle turntable, the need for a 20x20-foot garage and 20x20/25-foot guest parking space on our panhandle lot requires the removal of two heritage trees in the required driveway, a 16” coast redwood, and a 17” coast redwood. An alternate design, such as swapping the garage and guest parking locations north-to-south, still requires the removal of these two trees for vehicle maneuvering but has the added disadvantage of cutting off the home’s sightlines to the behemoth 43” oak tree just outside the currently proposed front patio space and living room. Jim Redman of Elements Landscape is proposing 13 new trees be planted on site to replace the lost value of these two heritage coast redwood trees. This contemporary architectural design features clean lines, and an abundance of full-height windows and large skylights to best take in the immense trees on site. To blend in with the forest-like setting, the home boasts a mix of rich textures and features a color palette of natural wood tones contrasted with dark blue and black. Once through the new steel gate at the street and down the 150-foot tree-lined driveway, a large covered front patio becomes visible past the neighbor’s detached accessory structure. The covered patio is just across the driveway from the beautiful 43” behemoth coast live oak. The single plane of the covered patio roof is delicately supported by a pair of steel posts in a “V-twin” configuration much like the largest redwood trees that tower over the center of the lot and will still be visible above the new two-story home, even from the front yard. The patio is covered in a dark-colored standing seam roof, with steel C-channel fascias, and tongue-and-groove wood ceiling planks on the underside. Generously sized skylights on the patio roof and inside the living area allow for impressive views of the amazing oak canopy as well as precious natural light. Supporting the sloped covered patio on the other side is the two-car garage with a secondary bedroom suite stacked above the garage. This two-story volume is to be clad in vertical clear-coated redwood siding, to tie in with the grove of three 43-inch redwood trees just beyond. The garage door, and the bank of windows for Bedroom#2 above feature a steel fascia eyebrow header feature to provide shade and overhang protection, as we are not proposing a large overhang at this “redwood trunk”. The garage and bedroom volume are pulled 16 feet away from the side property line, instead of the minimum required setback of 6’-6”, thus leaving plenty of room for the redwood grove and existing mature pear tree to continue to thrive. This existing mature green screen in this 16-foot-wide side yard is a feature worth soaking in, which is why tall windows with low sill heights are proposed for both the stairs and the upstairs hallway. Though it may be infrequent to approve side-facing 2nd floor windows with sill heights as low as what we’re proposing, we are confident that the mature green screen and the over 16-foot-wide side yard are sufficient to provide for the continued privacy of our neighbor’s rear yard space, especially considering theses windows are in walkway zones. The covered patio at the front entry is also bound by the 10-foot-tall living room. The great room is clad in a dark blue brick veneer, which wraps around all three sides of the living room. Upon entering the home from the covered patio, you are immediately greeted with one of the most impressive features of the home’s design: a 10-foot-tall by 24-foot-wide set of sliding glass doors. From the entry, this huge opening gives merely an initial glimpse of the massive trunks of the gargantuan V-twin redwoods sitting at the center of the lot. All three sliding glass panels open directly out into the smaller partially covered deck in the rear. This roof overhang element matches the design of the front patio with a steel C-channel fascia and a large skylight. But the rear deck’s roof element is set flat at a ten-foot ceiling height so that the living room’s ceiling seems to float above and out beyond the expanse of full-height sliding doors, thus creating an indoor-outdoor living space that will feel much larger than the home’s actual footprint. This rear covered deck is smaller than the patio in the front and also has a mix of solid and open-slatted roofing to allow for more solar access for the relatively small amount of open sky available. The downstairs living room is open to the dining and kitchen areas, as well as the stair-and-elevator tower beyond. The stair tower is very open and glassy, and the stairs wind up and around the redwood-clad elevator tower. From certain perspectives in the 16-foot-wide side yard, it will almost seem as if the grove of three redwoods has a fourth tree that the house and the stairs were carefully built around. Other than the 3-foot-wide windows, the exterior walls of the stair tower, downstairs utility spaces, and Bedroom#3 above are finished in cement plaster, painted dark blue and black. The sloped roof over the stair-and-elevator tower continues cleanly over the area of upstairs Bedroom#3. This roof level is set by the side daylight plane and only yields an inside wall height of just under 6 feet in height. The owners are satisfied that the rest of this upstairs room has a nice vaulted ceiling to make up for the one short wall under the daylight plane. The rest of the ground floor adjacent to the stair tower consists of a small utility wing containing a half-bath, laundry, storage area, and an exterior alcove for the electric heat pump HVAC unit. This short wing also gives more accessible access to the rear yard deck, as well as a backdrop for an outdoor kitchen. The bright white stone backsplash for the outdoor kitchen provides contrast to the otherwise consistent use of cement plaster painted dark blue and black for the two-story wing closest to the detached ADU. Though Bedroom#3 is stacked directly above this small wing, it is relatively short to comply with the side daylight plane of this narrow lot. Still, to further help break up the scale of this wall, another steel fascia eyebrow element is set about 8 feet above the rear deck. The master suite sits centered above the ten-foot-tall great room. The master bedroom and its balcony, as well as the master bathtub area, have a commanding view of the central redwood trees and their impressive canopy, though the balcony is mostly recessed and should pose no privacy concerns to the neighbor’s rear yards. The master balcony parapet is clad in the same brick veneer continuing up from the living room below. A dark-painted metal rail makes up the rest of the open guardrail height. The entire length of the master balcony is comprised of 9-foot-tall sliding glass doors, but the area above the doors, as well as the area below the master bathroom windows, is accented with more redwood siding. The remainder of the master suite bathroom and walk-in closet is finished in cement plaster painted dark blue. The master bathroom has one side yard-facing window but will be frosted glass for both the owner’s and the neighbor’s privacy. The 2nd floor is capped under a simple gable roof design with one roof ridge and varying eave and rake overhangs depending on the 2nd-floor layout and solar orientation. Since these roof planes are quite difficult to see in the middle of the heavily wooded panhandle lot, we are proposing a white TPO roofing for these two upper roof planes as a more sustainable choice compared to more dark-colored roofing like the covered patios and detached ADU. The owners also wish to build a detached 292-square-foot Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) as an office and guest suite. For the ADU foundation to be situated outside the central redwood tree’s critical root zone, this relatively tiny structure takes advantage of the narrower 4-foot side and rear setbacks allowed for ADUs smaller than 800 square feet. The small L-shaped detached ADU frames a wonderful quasi-courtyard around the gargantuan V-twin redwoods at the center of the lot. The ADU shares a matching material palette consisting of cement plaster painted blue and black, vertical redwood siding and soffits, and thin brick veneer. The ADU also features large full-height windows. The only difference between the main home and the ADU material palette is that the roofing will be a dark composition shingle roofing since it will be quite visible from the master balcony.

This proposal is for a new two-story home on the vacant heavily wooded lot with an existing 150-foot-long driveway lined by several beautiful oak trees culminating in a behemoth 43-inch oak tree where the driveway meets the main lot. The far end of the driveway terminates in a grove of three 43/40/43-inch redwoods and at the very center of the vacant lot stands a gargantuan V-twin 59-inch redwood tree paired with a “small” 29-inch redwood tree. The owners want to build a beautiful contemporary-styled home for their family that fully enjoys and embraces the mature trees on their cozy 65-foot by 100-foot lot. As with all small, constrained lots, this project’s site design started first with meeting the relatively large parking and car maneuvering requirements. Menlo Park’s Department of Transportation typically requires side-facing garages to have 24-feet of backup space. So that they could give the largest feature redwood tree on site an added four feet (50%) of clearance outside of its critical root zone, the owners agreed to install a vehicle turntable at the end of their driveway to eliminate the extra four feet of space needed to back up and turnaround. This allowed them to pull their garage forward an additional four feet towards the front property line on the panhandle side, drastically reducing the rest of the home’s impact on the gargantuan V-Twin paired redwood tree at the center of the lot. One of the owners has mobility issues, and accordingly, they first sought to design a one-story floor plan that incorporated all their family’s needs including plenty of covered patio and deck space to enjoy our fantastic California weather. But that single-story footprint spread too far into the critical root zones of several of the redwood trees on site, even despite the use of the vehicle turntable. During my interview process with the owners, they made it clear to me that one of their primary concerns is ensuring that the largest trees on site would thrive and become features of their new home after construction is complete. The single-story designs that removed the grove of three huge redwood trees were non-starters, as was the skimpy 5x10 master bath I designed when trying to squeeze the whole house program into an overly compromised single-story design. It was therefore deemed necessary to go with a two-story design despite the owner’s mobility issues. This two-story design has a much more compact ground floor footprint and has no bedrooms downstairs, other than the detached ADU. The owners must give up the floor area and incur the costs to install a residential elevator to access their upstairs master suite. Our ground floor footprint is smaller due to the two-story design decision, and our foundation is pulled away from the trees thanks to the vehicle turntable. Yet, a tiny portion of the home’s ground floor footprint still encroaches into the critical root zones of the largest 59” redwood tree. Therefore, as outlined in the Arborist Report prepared by Aesculus Arboricultural Consulting, the structural engineers are incorporating an array of drilled piers and shallow-grade beams for the main home’s foundation and deck area nearest the redwood’s critical root zone. This drilled piers and grade beam foundation is a type of “bridging” foundation as outlined in Aesculus’ report to preserve the health of these trees that the property was designed around. The rest of the foundation will be constructed as an insulated slab-on-grade foundation to minimize the number of steps and ramps needed for the owners to enjoy their home and patio areas. Despite the owner’s desire to keep as many trees as possible on site, and despite the smaller ground floor footprint and the advantage of the vehicle turntable, the need for a 20x20-foot garage and 20x20/25-foot guest parking space on our panhandle lot requires the removal of two heritage trees in the required driveway, a 16” coast redwood, and a 17” coast redwood. An alternate design, such as swapping the garage and guest parking locations north-to-south, still requires the removal of these two trees for vehicle maneuvering but has the added disadvantage of cutting off the home’s sightlines to the behemoth 43” oak tree just outside the currently proposed front patio space and living room. Jim Redman of Elements Landscape is proposing 13 new trees be planted on site to replace the lost value of these two heritage coast redwood trees. This contemporary architectural design features clean lines, and an abundance of full-height windows and large skylights to best take in the immense trees on site. To blend in with the forest-like setting, the home boasts a mix of rich textures and features a color palette of natural wood tones contrasted with dark blue and black. Once through the new steel gate at the street and down the 150-foot tree-lined driveway, a large covered front patio becomes visible past the neighbor’s detached accessory structure. The covered patio is just across the driveway from the beautiful 43” behemoth coast live oak. The single plane of the covered patio roof is delicately supported by a pair of steel posts in a “V-twin” configuration much like the largest redwood trees that tower over the center of the lot and will still be visible above the new two-story home, even from the front yard. The patio is covered in a dark-colored standing seam roof, with steel C-channel fascias, and tongue-and-groove wood ceiling planks on the underside. Generously sized skylights on the patio roof and inside the living area allow for impressive views of the amazing oak canopy as well as precious natural light. Supporting the sloped covered patio on the other side is the two-car garage with a secondary bedroom suite stacked above the garage. This two-story volume is to be clad in vertical clear-coated redwood siding, to tie in with the grove of three 43-inch redwood trees just beyond. The garage door, and the bank of windows for Bedroom#2 above feature a steel fascia eyebrow header feature to provide shade and overhang protection, as we are not proposing a large overhang at this “redwood trunk”. The garage and bedroom volume are pulled 16 feet away from the side property line, instead of the minimum required setback of 6’-6”, thus leaving plenty of room for the redwood grove and existing mature pear tree to continue to thrive. This existing mature green screen in this 16-foot-wide side yard is a feature worth soaking in, which is why tall windows with low sill heights are proposed for both the stairs and the upstairs hallway. Though it may be infrequent to approve side-facing 2nd floor windows with sill heights as low as what we’re proposing, we are confident that the mature green screen and the over 16-foot-wide side yard are sufficient to provide for the continued privacy of our neighbor’s rear yard space, especially considering theses windows are in walkway zones. The covered patio at the front entry is also bound by the 10-foot-tall living room. The great room is clad in a dark blue brick veneer, which wraps around all three sides of the living room. Upon entering the home from the covered patio, you are immediately greeted with one of the most impressive features of the home’s design: a 10-foot-tall by 24-foot-wide set of sliding glass doors. From the entry, this huge opening gives merely an initial glimpse of the massive trunks of the gargantuan V-twin redwoods sitting at the center of the lot. All three sliding glass panels open directly out into the smaller partially covered deck in the rear. This roof overhang element matches the design of the front patio with a steel C-channel fascia and a large skylight. But the rear deck’s roof element is set flat at a ten-foot ceiling height so that the living room’s ceiling seems to float above and out beyond the expanse of full-height sliding doors, thus creating an indoor-outdoor living space that will feel much larger than the home’s actual footprint. This rear covered deck is smaller than the patio in the front and also has a mix of solid and open-slatted roofing to allow for more solar access for the relatively small amount of open sky available. The downstairs living room is open to the dining and kitchen areas, as well as the stair-and-elevator tower beyond. The stair tower is very open and glassy, and the stairs wind up and around the redwood-clad elevator tower. From certain perspectives in the 16-foot-wide side yard, it will almost seem as if the grove of three redwoods has a fourth tree that the house and the stairs were carefully built around. Other than the 3-foot-wide windows, the exterior walls of the stair tower, downstairs utility spaces, and Bedroom#3 above are finished in cement plaster, painted dark blue and black. The sloped roof over the stair-and-elevator tower continues cleanly over the area of upstairs Bedroom#3. This roof level is set by the side daylight plane and only yields an inside wall height of just under 6 feet in height. The owners are satisfied that the rest of this upstairs room has a nice vaulted ceiling to make up for the one short wall under the daylight plane. The rest of the ground floor adjacent to the stair tower consists of a small utility wing containing a half-bath, laundry, storage area, and an exterior alcove for the electric heat pump HVAC unit. This short wing also gives more accessible access to the rear yard deck, as well as a backdrop for an outdoor kitchen. The bright white stone backsplash for the outdoor kitchen provides contrast to the otherwise consistent use of cement plaster painted dark blue and black for the two-story wing closest to the detached ADU. Though Bedroom#3 is stacked directly above this small wing, it is relatively short to comply with the side daylight plane of this narrow lot. Still, to further help break up the scale of this wall, another steel fascia eyebrow element is set about 8 feet above the rear deck. The master suite sits centered above the ten-foot-tall great room. The master bedroom and its balcony, as well as the master bathtub area, have a commanding view of the central redwood trees and their impressive canopy, though the balcony is mostly recessed and should pose no privacy concerns to the neighbor’s rear yards. The master balcony parapet is clad in the same brick veneer continuing up from the living room below. A dark-painted metal rail makes up the rest of the open guardrail height. The entire length of the master balcony is comprised of 9-foot-tall sliding glass doors, but the area above the doors, as well as the area below the master bathroom windows, is accented with more redwood siding. The remainder of the master suite bathroom and walk-in closet is finished in cement plaster painted dark blue. The master bathroom has one side yard-facing window but will be frosted glass for both the owner’s and the neighbor’s privacy. The 2nd floor is capped under a simple gable roof design with one roof ridge and varying eave and rake overhangs depending on the 2nd-floor layout and solar orientation. Since these roof planes are quite difficult to see in the middle of the heavily wooded panhandle lot, we are proposing a white TPO roofing for these two upper roof planes as a more sustainable choice compared to more dark-colored roofing like the covered patios and detached ADU. The owners also wish to build a detached 292-square-foot Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) as an office and guest suite. For the ADU foundation to be situated outside the central redwood tree’s critical root zone, this relatively tiny structure takes advantage of the narrower 4-foot side and rear setbacks allowed for ADUs smaller than 800 square feet. The small L-shaped detached ADU frames a wonderful quasi-courtyard around the gargantuan V-twin redwoods at the center of the lot. The ADU shares a matching material palette consisting of cement plaster painted blue and black, vertical redwood siding and soffits, and thin brick veneer. The ADU also features large full-height windows. The only difference between the main home and the ADU material palette is that the roofing will be a dark composition shingle roofing since it will be quite visible from the master balcony.