contemporary Archives - Levy Art + Architecture

Liberty Hill Home

We initiated this project for our client, completed the initial schematic designs, received permissions, and worked to create a fully-realized architectural expression.

First, we designed and permitted the building expansion to create a 4-story structure with expansive glass panels that capture a 270 degree view.

We then began to collaborate with interior designer, Charles de Lisle.

Working on behalf our our mutual clients, tech CEO Yishai Lerner and his wife Sabrina, we defined and detailed material applications throughout the home.

This is on full display throughout the house, most notably at the unique kitchen and the extravagant basement.

The kitchen invites you to sit down, or create your next culinary experience.

A modern kitchen with bohemian details. — The custom kitchen island is created with beautiful, inviting redwood.

The basement level features a custom redwood sculptural wall by artist Ido Yoshimoto.

On the lower level, we created this seamless indoor / outdoor space where the room is as much a part of the garden as it is a part of the house. This canvas serves as a backdrop for a wonderful expression of nature, interpreted as a beautiful redwood sculptural wall by @ido_yoshimoto. The piece has such a strong presence that you feel as if you’re next to it, even when the glass is closed. It completes the bridge between indoor and outdoor living.⁠

In the bathrooms, we used operable wood paneling, variegated cast concrete wall and custom cast concrete sink basin.

We also custom-designed and fabricated the winding iron staircase, so it appears to be floating independently of the walls.

We took a monumental space, and brought it to human-scale through carefully-selected organic materials, giving a sense of ease and approachability. You are invited to participate, touch, and interact with the space.

Project Credits

Principal Architect: Ross Levy, Levy Art + Architecture @levy_aa⁠ ⁠
Project Architect: Karen Andersen⁠
Architecture Team: Shirin Monshipouri, Andrew Sparks, Michael Ageno, Sonja Navin⁠
Interior Design: Charles Delisle @charlesdelisleoffice⁠
Contractor: Blair Burke GC⁠
Site Superintendent: Brad Lord⁠
Project Manager: Nicole Barsetti⁠
Structural Engineer: Daedalus Engineering @daedalusstructuralengineering
Garden Wall: Ido Yoshimoto @ido_yoshimoto
Clients: Yishai and Sabrina Lerner⁠
⁠Photos: Eric Petschek @ericpetschek and Karen Andersen @almost.elfish

Publications

This home was featured in Architectural Digest, Fall 2023: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/tour-a-stunning-san-francisco-family-home-that-used-to-be-a-total-bachelor-pad

Above the Dune on Great Highway

How an Architecture Studio Created a Lifestyle for a Working Professional and Dedicated Surfer

If you’ve ever surfed, you know that you need to watch the water. The swells tell a surfer when it’s time to surf, not the other way around. For the committed, this means that living at the beach isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity.

That’s why this project happened: our surf-focused client knew he had to make the big move — all the way across San Francisco, from Bernal Heights to Ocean Beach (a solid twenty-minute drive), so that he could keep an eye on the ever-changing swell. Stretching above the sand dune, the expanded third floor living space and roof deck afford him and his family the ultimate lookout.

Lifeguard Tower 25. The location was perfect, but the house was old. It was water-damaged and strangely organized. A third floor had been “dropped” on top of the original San Francisco “Marina Style” two-story, leaving a large cavity between. It was space to work with, just like a wave that appears on the horizon.

Working from top to bottom, we revealed vertical spaces that make the house feel and live much larger than its actual 2350 sq ft footprint. We set the entry on the split level, up from the street, to resist sand and wind and to heighten that experience even more. Ascending that half a flight on a wide stair, you’re drawn through the middle level on a cable suspended stair to the top, the lookout.

Here we added minimally, 150 square feet, almost all glass, and a new deck directly in front for the best vantage up and down the beach. New living space is under a 10-foot ceiling with natural light from 4 sides via clerestories. They define the rooms, and even the light-reducing ocean glare. A small sitting area and the kitchen at the back are cozy, under the original ceilings. Finally, we suspended a deck off the back wall to support a ladder to the roof to service the solar panels and to get a bigger view, make a better call on the waves.

The interiors (by Melissa Todd and Frances Weiss) are beach-y but contemporary. We added an organic and textural layer of materials including warm-toned wood and a mix of Cle, Fireclay, and Heath tiles in earth and water colors to ground the space in its natural environment. The effect is restrained yet welcoming, simultaneously curated and laid back.

Our client couldn’t be happier, and he’s converted his family into devoted beach goers. During the time of the Covid quarantine that has been a most welcome addition for all.

And the surf’s been good this year, too.

This project was featured in Dwell in July 2021 — check out the before & after comparisons here.

Based in San Francisco, California, Levy Art & Architecture specializes in commercial and residential projects, with the goal of creating an innovative architectural design consistent with the client’s vision. A team of professionals with extensive experience and multi-disciplinary backgrounds handles a wide range of projects of every scale. Want to find out how we can turn your vision into a custom-built project? Contact us and let’s chat.

Architect: Ross Levy⁠ (Levy Art + Architecture)⁠
Project Team: Melissa Todd, Patrick Donato⁠ (Levy Art + Architecture)⁠
Interior Architect / Designer: Frances Weiss⁠ (Levy Art + Architecture)⁠
Contractor: Blair Burke (BBGC)⁠
Entitlements: Jeremy Paul (Quickdraw)
Stair Fabricator: Luke Gosellin
Structural Engineer: FTF⁠ Engineering⁠
Photographer: Joe Fletcher

Hermitage Russian Hill: Los Tres Amigos

Hallway in upscale Hermitage San Francisco Home by Architect Levy Art + Architecture

Three Designers Modernize a Landmark Flat with European Sensibility and Meaning

Joe, Joe Joe Joe… ever concerned, ever considered, ever conditional. I’ve known Joe for some time now; we do some of the same sports and our children grew up together (or, in parallel) in the universe of San Francisco adolescence. Joe is very successful and very involved.

He was single — more on that later — works downtown and was renting a small house in the shadow of a large high-rise on Russian Hill. He kept wanting to buy, and I’d looked at things with him over the years, but his radius was small. Really small. About an eighth of a mile, right at the top of the hill.

Finally, we went to look at a large unit in a small building. It was spacious but formal, featuring several connected parlor rooms with up-close Bay Bridge and Downtown views. It was a bit “tired and old” in its aesthetics. Although the views were outstanding, the doors and windows could not be changed. They were a more traditional version of a punched opening with traditional trim and casings. The ceilings were high, which is great, but the spaces felt somewhat interior.

Our approach was to remove as many divisions as possible and to rearrange the sequence of experiences to take better advantage of the outlooks and to better suit the program for our client. We opened and integrated the living spaces to create a long, connected set of experiences of the view. We likened this new, very large, space to a Palazzo: the type of redeveloped art gallery you see in European cities in a repurposed historic structure. The doors casings, walls and ceilings at the perimeter are all preserved, but “whited out,” creating a “gallery backdrop” for a much more contemporary interior.

Joe is no longer single as he used to be. Enter his & hers designers: Cindy Bayon and Eche Martinez. Working together, Eche, Cindy and I — Los Tres Amigos — crafted stand-alone moments in the white box environment, redefining the now wall-less volume with architectural, functional and artistic objects. Cindy and I started the hard surfaces work with space-defining features like the floating dining room ceiling with collapsible chainmail walls. The master bath was enlarged, made into a grand spa — an exercise in exquisite materiality with Alcatraz views. The master suite was fitted out with an integrated headboard, lighting, and large walk-in, making it more of a private refuge.

Each installation reflects an aspect of the clients’ lives: the back lit, white gloss panels that line the entryway represent snow and skiing, wood paneling at the headboard is for nature and farming, and the materialized master bath for sophistication and travel.

Art is the thing that binds this all together. Working from the lighting into the soft surfaces and art, Eche made the spaces livable and understandable. The entire home is now inhabited, by people and by objects. The furnishings and works of art create the balance and fullness that this open environment needs.

Our work is a process and processes take time and perspective. This team, formed over time and distance, brought real meaning to the project. This kind of meaning and integrity can only be built over time, with layers of vision blended to a seamless whole.

Architect: Levy Art + Architecture
Contractor: Moroso Construction
Interior Designers: Cindy Bayon & Eche Martinez
Photographer: Christopher Stark

Featured in Modern Luxury Magazine: “Sky High” by Maile Pingel (Fall 2021)

Featured in Architectural Digest: “This Contemporary San Francisco Condo Is A Lesson In How To Live With Art” by Saiqa Ajmal (June 2022)

Zero Energy House

This project aims to be the first residence in San Francisco that is completely self-powering and carbon neutral. The architecture has been developed in conjunction with the mechanical systems and landscape design, each influencing the other to arrive at an integrated solution. Working from the historic facade, the design preserves the traditional formal parlors transitioning to an open plan at the central stairwell which defines the distinction between eras. The new floor plates act as passive solar collectors and radiant tubing redistributes collected warmth to the original, North facing portions of the house. Careful consideration has been given to the envelope design in order to reduce the overall space conditioning needs, retrofitting the old and maximizing insulation in the new.

Nothing Never Looked So Good

Words by Joanne Furio and Lauren Murrow

An Edwardian Divorces PG&E

As the managing director of San Jose–based SunPower corporation, William Kelly unabashedly geeks out about solar panels. But when he set about expanding his family’s 1904 Noe Valley Edwardian, he took things a step further, getting “off the pipe”— eliminating the need for natural gas. Instead, a radiant system of water-filled tubing beneath the floorboards provides heat, and cooking is done on an induction stovetop. San Francisco firm Levy Art and Architecture expanded the home to 2,424 square feet, moving living areas to the south-facing rear of the house to harness the sunlight; a skylight over the glass-encased three-story staircase lets natural light reach from rooftop to basement. Meanwhile, SunPower’s photovoltaic solar panel system channels 7.6 kilowatts of electricity—enough to power the home and the family’s two cars. J.F.
Originally published in the April 2013 issue of San Francisco.

Publications:

San Francisco, April 8, 2013 “Nothing Never Looked so Good” by Joanne Furio and Lauren Murrow
Fine Homebuilding, #235 (Houses) pp. 42-47 April 25, 2013: “Remodel of the Year”

Architect: Ross Levy⁠ (Levy Art + Architecture)⁠
Project Team: Karen Andersen (Levy Art + Architecture)⁠
MEP: Davis Energy Group⁠
Structural Engineer: SEMCO
Photographer: Ken Gutmaker

Laidley

Completed in 2002, this new home in San Francisco is conceived as a series of interlocking forms, stepping up the hill and out of the earth to become a transparent glass form bound by the planar structure. This linear language informs the details throughout, appearing in the plan, elevations and custom furniture design. The street level entry opens to a sculpture court where an open, steel and concrete stairway leads to a terrace and the formal front door. All three living levels enjoy panoramic views of the city from the front and the serenity of a Japanese-inspired garden to the rear.

[Levy Art + Architecture] took on the challenges of a steep site and steep aspirations by homeowners inspired both by having once lived in an R.M. Schindler home and by their longtime friendship with New York set designer Tom John. “First,” said Ross Levy, “we had to distill one vision from these many visions.” The result mixes a view of the city through the glassed front of the house with a look through the glassed back at Japan, with a teahouse and garden perched atop the multi-level yard, and connects indoors to out with doors from the master suite to the garden and exhilarating terraces on each level of the front of the house, making the house feel much bigger than its 2,500 square feet.
Susan Fornoff in “Design Magicians”

Publications: • California Home + Design, September 2006, pp. 150-155: “Balancing Act” by Lydia Lee. • San Francisco Chronicle, September 14, 2005, pp. G1,G4: “Design Magicians” by Susan Fornoff. • AIA San Francisco Home Tours 2005.

In collaboration with Tom John, Interiors. Ken Gutmaker, Photography.

Post Ranch Master Plan

This Master Plan for Post Ranch Inn, located in Big Sur, CA, was developed in keeping with the fundamental goals of the original design. With an emphasis on sustainability, the project seeks to preserve the natural landscape, increase on-site housing, minimize vehicular traffic, provide fresh produce and include alternative energy and water reclamation systems. The specific forms and materials of the architecture follow from this overall approach with structures closely related to their immediate natural context and planned in concert with the landscape. Sited on a west-facing ridge, the manager’s residence is inspired by views of the Pacific with the roof extending to create an overhang towards the horizon. Characterized by seamless transitions from indoors to out, the simple geometries form an intimate relationship to the topography and unify the building with nature.

Having completed his internship with Mickey Muennig as the Post Ranch, Ross was asked to work on a Master Plan for additional, planned development. The scheme includes; new guest rooms on the ridge south of the Sierra Mar Restaurant, Spa and Guest facilities around the pool, added employee housing, a central services building, alternative energy and water treatment systems. The structures are inspired by natural forms, clad in natural material and set into the landscape in keeping with the organic architecture and environmental ethos of the Inn.

Ora Way

This sixties vintage, split-level in San Francisco was entirely rebuilt inside the original shell, a new house inside the old. The design was an archaeological process, excavating through the existing structure to find the unrealized potential in this volume. The four parallel monolithic walls oriented from front to back are contrasted with glass and wood infill emphasizing the view. Minimalist details and the expression of structure create a synthesis between existing and new materials which complement interior spaces configured to maximize access to the panoramic skyline from multiple levels.

Publications:
• 7×7 Magazine, April 2008, pp. 98-103: “Living on the Edge” by Leilani Labong.

Cole Valley

In the heart of Cole Valley, this property was the perfect location for a growing family. The house itself was small and poorly organized. We removed a small shed from the rear and had a blank palette for new architecture. The two story addition is set two risers down from the main level. This allows it to open directly to the garden and to enjoy a tall ceiling. The element that binds the project together is a central lightwell above the kitchen bar. The kitchen relates to the living room and yard across the open bar. The lightwell also allows an overlook into the main spaces from the children’s bedrooms above and includes an internal window into the master bath. The rear façade is a collage of glass and wood, activated by a pitched roof that vaults one of the upper bedrooms. In contrast the front is an historic renovation, no sign of the contemporary space or addition beyond.

Randall

Working with the historic envelope, we created a three dimensional series of spaces to unify the experience of this vertical home in San Francisco. An open stairwell brings light down four stories from the skylit penthouse and provides a heat-stack for natural ventilation and circulation. This sculptural stair travels through the void, arriving first at a bedroom level and then at the main living spaces, continuing to the roof where a large deck enjoys downtown views. A bridge joins the kitchen and dining area to the backyard creating continuity between the interior and exterior living spaces. The terraced garden acts as an outdoor room connecting the master suite to the rear yard.

• AIA San Francisco Home Tours 2009.