Sanfrancisco

When the owners initially purchased a modest turn-of-the-century house in Noe Valley, the plan was to clean up and restore the existing home to bring it up to modern standards for their family of four. It soon became clear that the home was in much worse shape than expected, and as the list of necessary repairs grew lengthy and expensive, it soon made far more sense to start over. The owners seized this rare opportunity to design a new ground-up house in San Francisco.    Studio VARA’s design takes advantage of the down-sloping lot and a vertical arrangement of spaces to achieve both intimacy and generosity. By maxing out the allowable envelope, three levels of living space with 11-foot ceilings achieve an airy, spacial lu... More

A top-end transformation with world-class views.When San Francisco’s Taylor Lombardo Architects redesigned a Spanish Revival home in the city’s upscale Pacific Heights neighborhood, it turned to Western Window Systems to let in the light and provide breathtaking views of Alcatraz and the San Francisco Bay.On three levels of the four-story, 7,100-square-foot home at 2040 Jackson Street, Western Window Systems’ large sliding and folding doors merge indoor and outdoor living in elegant, contemporary, and stunning fashion. On the ground floor family room, a Series 600 Multi-Slide Pocket Door opens up to a beautiful garden patio, complete with fire pit. On the second story, a five-panel Series 9500 Bi-Fold Door ... More