Project Spotlight: Love in Haight

Sustainability, Technology, and Three Generations Meet on the “Wiggle…”

This project was a collaboration between our principal Architect and her husband. The goal with this renovation was to create a multi-generational home with an expanded footprint. Accessibility and independent spaces were a big priority.

Since the home is located in a significant historic district, the city’s process required them to keep the original façade of the home. For the rear of the home, they decided a more modern home was a much better fit.

The upstairs living space was originally laid out with the living room at the front of the home and a bedroom & bathroom at the rear. We flipped the orientation to get the western light for the shared living space and make it accessible from the downstairs suite.

The lemon yellow front door opens up into a bright vaulted hallway where the original hand-cut redwood ceiling joists are exposed. Walking through the corridor past the upstairs bedrooms and bathrooms, you end up in the great room of the house.

An oversized skylight washes the kitchen in light and the stacked staircase connects the room to both the upstairs roof deck and the downstairs.

The dining room is perched at the rear of the home. It showcases a huge sliding pocket door that opens up to a Juliet balcony with custom metal fabricated railing.

Adding a roof deck at the rear of the house retained the historic front façade and allowed for additional hosting space during parties. The parapet of the roof deck (clad in dark Shou Sugi Ban siding) blocks much of the San Francisco winds. The heated furniture from Galanter & Jones provides warmth for evening gatherings.

Repurposing the original house, we built a series of outside tables and benches with the salvaged wood, which are now the gathering tables.

The entire backyard is fed by greywater from their bathroom sinks and showers, sustaining a lush and low-maintenance meadow-lawn of native California grasses.

We also built a small office shed in the backyard, with leftover materials from the renovation. Using salvaged doors and windows to create the Studio Maven home office.

Interested in your own renovation?

Feel free to contact us at hello@studiomaven.com or 415-494-8255.

Photographer: Cesar Rubio