Noe Valley Craftsman

Noe Valley House Rear

Back to Nature

A San Francisco Design Duo Modernized a Traditional Craftsman Home by Opening it to the Outdoors

“THERE’S A SENSE OF WANTING to bring back the elemental, the wild,” says designer Kevin Hackett, whose firm Síol Studios recently joined forces with architect Ross Levy to transform a modest bungalow on a down-sloping lot in San Francisco’s Noe Valley into a light-filled three-story home that’s woven into its valley landscape. “I think we crave nature more than ever because we’re not connecting to it as much,” Hackett says.

From a curb perspective, there’s no indication that Hackett and Levy’s design facilitates a connection to nature. Its gray-painted Craftsman-style facade, just like those around it, references the city’s architectural past, when punched windows, low ceilings, opaque walls and small rooms represented the idea of home.

“It’s the old fabric, which city planning authorities demand we keep because they feel it maintains the general charm and character of San Francisco,” Levy says. The architect and modernist at heart did what many city architects do and created openness and airiness in the rear and the interior of the house, while leaving its traditional-style street presentation. “It’s hidden architecture,” Levy says.

The two residents, who work in technology and community arts and organization, pass through the entry and traverse a steel-grate bridge into an expansive living, dining and kitchen area on the house’s top level. Levy punctuated the open-plan space — and the entire rear facade — with glass and steel that visually explodes with the sublime greenery of the valley below.

“You begin with a Craftsman aesthetic, but then step over the threshold and kind of float on that bridge and it’s almost like you’ve walked into a treehouse,” Hackett says. “The bridge lets you know you’re entering new territory and sets up the experience for the rest of the home.”

Levy also designed a suspended walnut-and-steel staircase with a slim silhouette that accentuates the airiness of the beamed living space and leads to a new rooftop deck Hackett designed. The light feel of the staircase marks your ascension to the highest point of the home, where a concrete fire pit and bluestone pavers offset built-in redwood benches and a red cedar hot tub. It’s a space above the treetops that’s abuzz with the sounds and sights of the city.

Inspired by the ways the architecture integrates with the terrain, Hackett appointed the interior with natural materials and finishes. Gauze-like sheers dress the steel-framed windows in the kitchen-dining-and-living area, mitigating the sunlight that washes over the space’s lime plaster wall.

“The plaster almost sucks in that light, accentuating and reflecting it,” Hackett says. “Everything is pared down so the focus is on the poetics of the sunlight.” The designer employed walnut flooring that lends still more warmth and texture and pays homage to the tree trunks that populate the valley. The kitchen island, too, is crafted with walnut as well as blackened steel. “It’s as if the walnut comes up and out of the floor,” Hackett says. “And the steel will wear beautifully and exhibit a nice patina.” A brilliant and massive painting by Jet Martinez that depicts riotous florals marks the kitchen area, making it appear more like a gallery corner than a functional space.

As you move to the lower floors, where Levy situated the bedrooms and bathrooms, there’s a quieter sense of being anchored. Hackett and Levy devised a shifting materiality for the staircases to enhance the sensation of moving from high to low: the airy steel-and-walnut up to the roof, walnut and walnut-and-concrete staircases from the living room down to the bedrooms; solid cast-concrete stairs to the ground level.

The bathroom design adds more sensory impressions. A lime plaster wall in the second-level master bath provides yet another canvas for sunlight play, and in the ground-level bath, a plant wall within a light well presses up against a partially etched glass floor-to-ceiling window, creating the feeling of being outdoors.

“The way you’re drenched in greenery and sunlight is remarkable,” Hackett says. Levy agrees: “It’s rare in San Francisco to be able to experience the outdoors while you shower,” the architect says.

Hackett covered the ground-level bath’s shower walls in idiosyncratically textured clay tile that harnesses glittering sunlight and bounces it around in a beautiful way. “The clay has amazing subtleties,” the designer says. “This shower is an experience that slows down mind-and-body space, offering an opportunity for true pause.”

The entire home “has a natural vibe so you almost forget you’re in San Francisco,” Levy says. “When you stare out the back of the house, you’re not looking at the downtown skyline or the Golden Gate Bridge. You’re looking at the valley and it’s this peaceful, beautiful thing.”

It’s a mood Hackett deliberately sought to cultivate, given how technology and constant scrolling impose a staccato rhythm to modern life. “Pinterest and Instagram can be a dangerous vacuum of style,” says the designer, who specifically avoids letting clients describe the way they want spaces to look and instead asks them to identify the way they want to feel and live in each area of their home. “I don’t want to talk about aesthetics,” he says. “I want to know what kind of sensory experiences they’re after.” Hackett finds that during these conversations, a desire to connect with nature emerges practically every time. “Our bodies and minds are attuned to natural systems,” he says. “Before we leap into the science behind this thing or the other, we need a firm grasp on our humanity.”


This project was also featured in Dwell Magazine: “A Craftsman Bungalow in San Francisco Gets a Striking, All-Glass Rear Facade” by By Jennifer Baum Lagdameo, June 8, 2020.

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25th Street

Levy 4372 25th St 14 SEP 14 203173 1

Blue Victorian Gets Modern Addition With Window Walls

We designed and re-imagined  this ‘pioneer’ flat Victorian for a couple and their two daughters by stripping away the interior entirely, and preserving only the timber framing and the facade. We opened up the main level and created an open plan, creating an open and airy space. The a loft-style living space spans the entire length of the house, and opens up to a deck to a wall of glass.

The original wood siding defines the historic form while vertical, corrugated steel panels clad the new forms. The home is a nesting of the old and the new, embedding the old house in a contemporary structure and interiors.  On the interior the lofty, open volumes are detailed minimally, but informed by references to period treatments.  Large glass doors, which are essentially open movable walls, connect the house to the view and the garden.  The three levels are joined by a spiral staircase at the rear. On the roof, an 8 KW solar system powers and heats the entire house, employing state of the art air to water heat exchangers and control systems.

The project is an example of an “informed aesthetic” — one that results from the mutual consideration of: client vision, historic context, architectural form, space, light, structure, environment and material. The new structure is streamlined, refined and massed to maintain the neighborhood context while still developing a presence of its own.

Publications:

  • San Francisco Magazine, October 29, 2015, pp. 68, 81: “The Shape of The City” by Lauren Murrow

Cesar Rubio, Photography

Zero Energy House

ZeroNRG 08
Architect: Ross Levy⁠ (Levy Art + Architecture)⁠
Project Team: Karen Andersen (Levy Art + Architecture)⁠
MEP: Davis Energy Group⁠
Contractor: n/a
Structural Engineer: SEMCO
Photographer: Ken Gutmaker

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:

ZeroNRG 25
ZeroNRG Floor Plan
Schematic of radiant heating system
Schematic of electric system
Schematic of water recycling system

Zero Energy House hits Asia

Blog FuturArc JanFeb2013cover

Zero Energy House was published in FuturARC (an Asian Green Architecture magazine) early in 2013, in an article written by Jalel Sager.  The article explores the California codes, the most stringent in the US (probably the world). Here Jalel finds several developments that go further than most; their owners speak of sharing their abode with the planet. The battle between the personal and the political is fought on the fringes of mainstream Green.

Here is a PDF of the article

Green California Article from Jan-Feb FutureArc

San Francisco Remodel

Blog FDemo Main

This Noe Valley Remodel pushes the envelope of what most would call a remodel, but when you start with an old small house a little goes a long way.

The house is being slightly lifted to allow for a full height understory and a new story is being added to dramatically increase the space, view and use.

The City of San Francisco and most jurisdictions have rules for what is allowed.  In the case of San Francisco the permit process is much easier for a renovation, the only issue is that you can only change so much before it’s considered a demolition.  However there’s sometimes tax consequences, so check with a financial adviser.

Fine Homebuilding – ReModel of the Year

Blog FHB BestRemodel

Our Zero Energy House was awarded the Best Remodel by Fine Homebuilding Magazine.

Best Remodel: Row House Recharged

A historic home in the heart of San Francisco maintains its traditional facade

A San Francisco row house was badly in need of a renovation. In addition, the owners wanted a more modern home for their growing family, and they wanted their house to meet its own energy needs plus those of an electric car. Although city preservation requirements limited the changes that could be made to the house’s Edwardian facade, architects Ross Levy and Karen Andersen found that they could give the facade a simple facelift while transforming the house behind it. Because row houses can feel cramped and dark, Levy and Andersen brought light inside and created the illusion of space with three strategies:

(1) defining spaces with details, not walls

(2) integrating glazing where it would have the most impact; and

(3) using a central stairway with a skylight at the top as a lightwell

They achieved net-zero energy use by insulating the roof with open-cell spray foam and the walls with an inch of closed-cell foam covered with fiberglass batts, making the house all-electric, and powering it with an 8kw photovoltaic array. A chart demonstrates the economics of this net-zero home and estimates the payback time for the energy-efficiency extras to be nine years. For its successful bonding of preservation with performance while also reflecting its owners’ lifestyle, this home is FHB’s remodel of the year for 2013.

From Fine Homebuilding #235 (Houses)
pp. 42-47 April 25, 2013