Splitting the project into two structures and keeping the building footprints small helps maintain privacy and a sense of spaciousness for residents and neighbors, despite the 25’ X 100’ lot dimensions and minimal setbacks. The central courtyard between the buildings also provides more opportunities for natural light, natural ventilation, and on-site storm water infiltration—all benefits for the environment as well as the residents and neighbors.

This hillside home in Piedmont, CA was remodeled to change the style from a 1940's rancher with eight foot ceilings and dark interiors, into a modern geometric composition with vast white interiors for casual living and generous daylighting for displaying the artist-owner's works. In a city known for rigorous and difficult design review, an addition, two variances, and a full stylistic change were unanimously approved on the first round. All sloped roofs and attics were eliminated and replaced by a series of stacked and overlapping flat roofs. This made the house taller on the inside and shorter on the outside, which helped earn design review cooperation in the community. Windows were concentrated toward the rear yard views or moved up high on the side walls for daylight and privacy, benefitting the owners as well as the neighbors. At the start, the owner husband was so enthusiastic and engaged in transforming his house into something modern that he presented the architect with a scaled foamcore model, rather than the usual magazine clippings and wish list. He participated in the design decisions throughout the process. The owner wife is the artist who did all the artwork in the house. She had been craving a display space with large walls and good natural light. Both of them loved the location and great views. The project was an opportunity to transform the style of an older traditional home into a modern one, while solving numerous problems. By rebuilding the 1800 ft2 top of the 3-story home it was possible to change the style of the whole building, since the lower floors were a neutral base, and also to change the lifestyle of the owners, who wanted to move their master suite upstairs and live primarily on the top floor as empty nesters. Going into the project, the architect knew there were multiple encroachments into the setbacks and potential privacy issues with close by neighbors. He approached this as a complex puzzle made up of architectural and political pieces which all had to fit together elegantly. It took many careful moves, small and large, to arrive at a serene and cohesive result that tied old and new together seamlessly. The design-build contractor worked closely with the owners and handled all of the construction phase documents and design adjustments, adding ideas of their own to make the project really sing. The project was a collaboration in three acts. The owner had a strong design concept from the start. The architect developed it into a realistic project and garnered the design approvals. Then the contractor executed brilliantly.

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The property is located on the hill from where the view stretches over Sečovlje Salina. In the East, South and West it borders with the neighboring properties, meanwhile the Nord side of the garden is open to surrounding landscape. To keep intimacy in the garden the views has been screened towards the neighboring houses, but not to the surrounding cultural landscape. In this way the garden includes the external views into its own scenery. The selection of plants limited just to the native Mediterranean species blurs the border line between the garden and the surrounding landscape. So the garden visually does not stop at its border line, but opens the view until the eyes can reach. There are two weekend houses that has been placed in the property. Each of them has been provided with its own terrace which ensures its own piece of the garden. The vegetation has been placed in a way that helps to subdivide a larger garden space to smaller sub-spaces. The plants also screen the views from one terrace to another to ensure the intimacy of its user. The Garden consists of four subspaces: the parking plot, the entrance garden which connects the main entries to houses, the intimate garden with the terraces and the herb - the vegetable garden. The pool has been placed in the entrance garden. Next to the pool one can find two stone benches and an outdoor shower. The area has been designed as a social space, where the users can meet and gather around. In case when one prefers some private time he can move to the intimate garden.

The new owners of this home were looking to add privacy and frame out the side of their yard adjoined to the neighbors. The result is a rolling line of 6' tall heavy-duty White PVC Fence, that spills down the hill, splits the trees, and frames the property line with a clean backdrop that makes green shrubs pop and neighbors disappear.

This is a premium-grade PVC / Vinyl fence, mostly in 4' height, but there is a section where it transitions up to 6' for the neighbors privacy. The home owner is an active dog-rescue host, and in the summer, is known for his rescue dog parties. The new fence completely spans his massive yard, providing a contained perimeter that keeps dogs in, curb-appeal high, and neighbor's thumbs up.

The project called for a semi-detached dwelling to be completely rebuilt, while also remaining attached to the neighbouring house in midtown Toronto. The new building was designed to support the neighbouring one, both during and after construction, with a series of steel moment frames.

The architect’s plans had a single island with large windows on both main walls. The one window overlooked the unattractive side of a neighbor’s house while the other was not large enough to see the beautiful large back yard. The kitchen entry location made the mudroom extremely small and left only a few design options for the kitchen layout. The almost 14’ high ceilings also gave lots of opportunities for a unique design, but care had to be taken to still make the space feel warm and cozy. After drawing four design options, one was chosen that relocated the entry from the mudroom, making the mudroom a lot more accessible. A prep island across from the range and an entertaining island were included. The entertaining island included a beverage refrigerator for guests to congregate around and to help them stay out of the kitchen work areas. The small island appeared to be floating on legs and incorporates a sink and single dishwasher drawer for easy clean up of pots and pans.

These homeowners came to us wanting to update their property with new plantings at the street, which matched the existing landscaping of the neighborhood, as well as update the various beds around their foundation. The existing beds throughout the property became overgrown and needed a bit of breathing room to allow space for the new plants to fill in. The old vegetation was ripped out and replaced with both native, and adapted plants. The wooded area in the backyard was rid of debris, and a drainage system was added using the rocks that were in their previous landscape design. Not only were the materials able to be recycled, they are now used to help prevent continued erosion of the hillside by taking the water from the sloped driveway and giving it a path toward the woods. Limestone was the chosen replacement because it is cohesive with the neighbor’s landscaping and the pre-existing stairs in the backyard. Blocks of limestone were used to line the new beds and build a new fire pit to accessorize the beautiful view!

This Gold-LEED home, selected for Domus Best Houses award and nominated for Frame House of the Year Award, it is called Cocoon because its round walls form a Cocoon shape towards northern and western neighbors. This rounded enclosed half of the house provides shelter and privacy. The other glass side of the house, facing south, takes in ocean breezes and open views. The cedar shingle cladding blends in with the historic neighborhood and benefits from local craft traditions. By tuning in to given site conditions, and with the help of environmental technologies such as photovoltaic panels and reflecting rainwater cistern, architectural design serves both the environment and wellbeing.

This project is a story of how buildings and relationships evolve over time, and how the two are intertwined in the making of architecture. The client, a single man, had just purchased a classic Edwardian flat on San Francisco’s Liberty Street, known for its historic homes and famous neighbors like Tracy Chapman, when his realtor connected him with LLA. The initial brief was to integrate a modern, minimalist kitchen and bathroom with the apartment's traditional aesthetic. The existing condition was a series of cramped rooms and a long hallway that divided the apartment into many separate spaces, some without natural light. The solution was to remove most of the walls in the middle of the flat, with extensive structural work hidden from view. This created an open connection between the living, dining and kitchen areas that flooded the formerly dark core of the apartment with light. Midway through the design process, the client and his partner, and avid cook, decided it was time to move in together. The project evolved further and LLA found inventive ways to pack more features and amenities into a design that was fundamentally about simplicity. The result of this creative tension is a large open kitchen with deceptively simple forms- a long back counter with three rows of drawers below, an island with a central cooktop and double cantilevers for seating, and a slightly mysterious wood box at the back. The box conceals the refrigerator, storage, linens, and laundry, and through a secret door, a large walk-in pantry. The bathroom evolved into a mini-spa, with a walk-through shower and Japanese-style soaking tub. The space shares light with the kitchen through a floor-to-ceiling translucent glass panel. Each client has a large dog, and so a small sliver of space under the upstairs neighbor's stair was turned into the perfect doggie den, complete with period correct doorway. The newly blended family moved in together when the project was completed. A poignant footnote, Maverick, the blonder, fluffier dog in the photos, was very old and sadly passed away shortly after they moved in. It made the photoshoot feel like a special event that honored and preserved his memory in pictures. Like all families, theirs continues to evolve and change, just as their home has over its 90 year life.

This is a premium-grade PVC / Vinyl fence, mostly in 4' height, but there is a section where it transitions up to 6' for the neighbors privacy. The home owner is an active dog-rescue host, and in the summer, is known for his rescue dog parties. The new fence completely spans his massive yard, providing a contained perimeter that keeps dogs in, curb-appeal high, and neighbor's thumbs up.

2011 NATIONAL NARI COTY SOUTHEAST REGIONAL AWARD Baby boomers residing in single family colonial in Mclean were tired of their old ragged wood deck and wanted major changes to their outdoor facilities. The backyard was consist of big hill from left neighboring yard that took most of their backyard and create a huge run off and were never able to grow any lawn or plant. They also never got to enjoy their backyard and letting their grand kids and dog out. We Excavate the entire yard to a flat level, Designed and built a 5’x 40’ retaining wall covered with ledger stone between their yards and neighbor yard. Put in place underground drain system to get all most water runoff away from patio Install new shrubbery, plants and lawn tastefully in parameter of new patio. Poured in concrete slab and covered with Flagstone patio in backyard and under deck installed all new Synthetic material deck system with matching railing with larger footsteps than old deck. Connection stairway to back patio. Installed a 12’x18’ screen porch with maintenance free materials, cedar beaded ceiling panels and connection French doors into dining room All siding has been changes along with gutters and down spouts.

This Gold-LEED home, selected for Domus Best Houses award and nominated for Frame House of the Year Award, it is called Cocoon because its round walls form a Cocoon shape towards northern and western neighbors. This rounded enclosed half of the house provides shelter and privacy. The other glass side of the house, facing south, takes in ocean breezes and open views. The cedar shingle cladding blends in with the historic neighborhood and benefits from local craft traditions. By tuning in to given site conditions, and with the help of environmental technologies such as photovoltaic panels and reflecting rainwater cistern, architectural design serves both the environment and wellbeing.

The million dollar view. Bringing the inside out to this spacious 200 SF patio deck. Second living room and dining room in one. Best to fill up with as many plants as possible. Add a water feature for white noise from the street below and the neighbors above. A little lattice to add more separation to the adjacent neighbors. The trellis above can hold typical canvas or cloth sails. Be sure to ask the HOA for permission before physically attaching anything to the structure.

The homeowner loves to cook and really wanted a space that would give her exactly what she needed. The entire layout was changed and a window overlooking the neighbor’s side wall was removed to create a gorgeous range hood focal point. A peninsula was removed to allow a more open space between the living areas and kitchen. Moving the location of the appliances also allowed for the addition of a beautiful, large center island featuring Calacatta Dorado Nouvo Quartz. The original entry to the house from the garage was tight with too many doors leading to the half bath, laundry closet and kitchen. Steller was able to extend the space into the garage (while still leaving enough room for a car to park) to give this home a brand-new laundry room. The original laundry location was then turned into a cute coffee bar with open shelving.

This is a premium-grade PVC / Vinyl fence, mostly in 4' height, but there is a section where it transitions up to 6' for the neighbors privacy. The home owner is an active dog-rescue host, and in the summer, is known for his rescue dog parties. The new fence completely spans his massive yard, providing a contained perimeter that keeps dogs in, curb-appeal high, and neighbor's thumbs up.

The intention behind the canyon is to create community - a place for people to walk, hang out, and visit with neighbors. The canyon, separating the 7 homes, ranges from 10 to nearly 18 feet wide, and is oriented north south, with a spur to the west. This orientation permits people to walk in from either 19th Avenue or E. Pine Street, or in from their car, which is discreetly tucked at the edge of the site. Here, the auto knows its place, and neighbors have a chance to interact in an informal setting. The canyon's orientation allows for southern light and air to reach all of the units and penetrate the site. Entries are accessed from the pedestrian canyon. The massing allows roof decks with views back into the canyon and to the Cascade Mountains to the east for all homes. Parking is covered under a trellis. Urban Canyon was selected as a Future Shack Award Winner by AIA Seattle in 2010 and a Project of the Month by AIA Seattle in 2009.

2011 NATIONAL NARI COTY SOUTHEAST REGIONAL AWARD Baby boomers residing in single family colonial in Mclean were tired of their old ragged wood deck and wanted major changes to their outdoor facilities. The backyard was consist of big hill from left neighboring yard that took most of their backyard and create a huge run off and were never able to grow any lawn or plant. They also never got to enjoy their backyard and letting their grand kids and dog out. We Excavate the entire yard to a flat level, Designed and built a 5’x 40’ retaining wall covered with ledger stone between their yards and neighbor yard. Put in place underground drain system to get all most water runoff away from patio Install new shrubbery, plants and lawn tastefully in parameter of new patio. Poured in concrete slab and covered with Flagstone patio in backyard and under deck installed all new Synthetic material deck system with matching railing with larger footsteps than old deck. Connection stairway to back patio. Installed a 12’x18’ screen porch with maintenance free materials, cedar beaded ceiling panels and connection French doors into dining room All siding has been changes along with gutters and down spouts.