The design program called for the addition of three new rooms on the ground floor and the creation of a functional rooftop terrace overlooking the garden. The design was focused around the use of simple and durable materials and how those materials were shaped, scaled, and detailed to integrate with the existing house and its two-acre garden. The house remains an observant visitor in its beautiful surroundings, a self-contained but complementary element of this unique landscape.
On the second floor, the existing bathroom was simplified and opened to the new outdoor living room, which was formerly an unprotected roof terrace. While the terrace originally had sweeping views of the valley to the north and the hills to the east and west, the surrounding subdivisions had grown in intervening years and houses and power lines had crept into view. A new gable end roof creates shade and screens the undesirable high views to both sides, emphasizing low side views into the gardens and the scenic view to the north.
A colored glass lantern brings additional light into the space and creates a colorful sundial effect on surfaces in the room and the garden as the sun moves across the sky throughout the day. The result is a protected, light-filled, airy, but private outdoor room high above the valley and the garden below.
