On a sloping hillside overlooking the Pacific in Muir Beach, CA, this project started only as a swimming pool adjacent to an existing 1970’s residence for a family of two adults, four children of varying ages, their friends and extended relations. The project grew in increments to encompass eight phases of addition and remodeling including swimming pool, cabana, four bedrooms, redesign of the existing residence exterior, new kitchen, new master bedroom and bath, redesign of lower bedroom and bath, and garage and landscaping.
There never was an overall design program to begin the project. Each phase was started without knowing there were going to be subsequent phases to design. Near the completion of each phase, the owners considered and approved a subsequent phase. Each phase was a separate permitting process. In the final phases, the existing residence was remodeled to tie together the new addition with the existing site. Further site planning was done to include a garage addition, new driveway and landscaped paths to the residence from the street level.
Design Objectives
The swimming pool was sited to fit into the hillside adjacent to the existing residence. Nearing completion, the cabana was incorporated as a visual bookend to provide privacy as well as a children’s play area.
The bedroom addition was designed as an arm of living space reaching across the contour of the site to overlook the pool and cabana areas. There was only one logical place to break through from the existing residence and that was used as a departure point for the addition. Since it was possible to move horizontally across the parcel, each bedroom was stepped back as it crossed to give a view forward to the ocean and to the side looking back at the pool, providing more than one direction for views, light and air.
As construction of the addition was underway with foundations poured, two of the four planned bedrooms were eliminated in the new addition. The space where these two bedrooms were planned and then removed created the family triangle room at the end of the addition and opened up the wall to the triangular terrace overlooking the pool area. The entire bedroom walkway was designed as a glass enclosed gallery connecting the existing to the new. The roof was broken into levels to provide a play of light and shadows throughout the day.
Design Solutions
While the addition was nearing completion, the existing residence was redesigned, to include a new kitchen, master bedroom and guest’s suites. The out-of-scale roof projection over the upstairs bathroom was removed to bring the existing roof in a calmer scale with the new addition. The existing shell was kept but the cramped and dark spaces within were changed. A new stair tower was incorporated into the entry to replace the narrow existing stair to the upper level. This stair element pulled light into the entry, through the glass stair treads and into the interior landscaping below. The upper storage area off the master bedroom was opened to a light filled loft area that looks into the addition as well as the living room below. The existing roof was sliced from eave to eave in a long linear ribbon of glass so the colors of the day would be reflected inside. The clouds and ever changing sky can be visible throughout the living and upper loft areas.
The existing kitchen was redesigned and a window wall was created to look back into the planted illuminated hillside. Materials of stainless, blackened steel and plaster were used for new fireplaces and walls. The roof of the addition holds flat solar panels providing on-site renewable energy. A bank of panels holding an active solar water heating system heats the swimming pool.
The entire project opened the views and brought natural light deep into the spaces while providing multiple living and recreational uses both indoors and out. The angled forms were integrated into the landscape and the landscape was redesigned as an extension of the forms. Without the benefit of a single master plan at the beginning, each phase became a form to be integrated into the whole.
Material Used:
1. Copper Panels and Colored Cement Plasted Cladding
2. Blomberg Windows
3. Progress Glass, Glass Floors and Glass Stairway
4. Fleetwood Slidig Doors
5. Spark Fireplace
6. Bisazza Tile
7. Stainless Steel Railings
8. Knoll and Cassina Furnishings
9. Custom Cabinetry Throughout
