Taft Project

During the first design meeting, as they spoke of roof planes, sloped ceilings, exposed beams, green design and my hero Frank Lloyd Wright, I knew this was going to be a good one.

With these sensibilities, they got the grand Entry, open stairs, two-story spaces with balconies, large Kitchen and open Living Areas associated with McMansions, but without the trappings of those off-the-shelf "custom" homes. The house is dramatic but not ostentatious, and truly custom.

Rob and Tiffany brought a lot of general and specific ideas to the design table. They just needed my help in putting it all together. I produced conceptual variations on our theme involving tiered roofs, clerestory windows and horizontality. Rather than slap a stone facade on just the front (which looks great in carefully-crafted brochure pictures - until you move a few steps to the side and see the thin edge of veneer), we used stone, stucco and siding to create layers of texture. Coming out of the ground is a stone base, above that a band of stucco, and above that, siding. All the layers wrap around the house - emphasizing horizontality. Further hierarchy is created by pulling the stone base forward and out to the side as a planter. The planter wraps around the side and anchors a massive stone chimney in the living area.

Coming out of the ground is a stone base, above that a band of stucco, and above that, siding. All the layers wrap around the house - emphasizing horizontality.

Further hierarchy is created by pulling the stone base forward and out to the side as a planter. The planter wraps around the side and anchors a massive stone chimney in the living area.

All this horizontality is contrasted by the Tower, which penetrates the gentle slopes of the main roofs. It is the focal point, the defining feature, and a really cool place to be.

From the Tower's loft you can see over the Entry roof out the front to the street, down on the Living Area and stairs, and across to the Master Suite's interior balcony.

If your aim is good, you can launch a paper airplane from the loft, across the Living area, under the Master Suite balcony and into the Kitchen.

Entry to the house is modulated by passing through stages of enclosure: first the walk, then the steps, the Covered Entry, the Foyer, and finally the living areas of the house. The covered Entry is the transition from outdoors to indoors. Its open gable roof is inviting, whereas the sheds and hips of the main house are more reserved.

The Entry thus communicates its purpose. Oversized stone and stucco columns foreshadow the Tower's columns. A 12' arched ceiling shelters, but is not confining and the house corner on the left offers your first contact with the house itself.

The Covered Porch to the right is an outdoor version of the Living Area on the left. There is no step up from the Entry to the Foyer (giving the after-impression that you were already in the house when you were in the Entry), but the ceiling is lower and more intimate.

To the left, over a railing and down two steps is the Living Area, and to the right is a Coat Closet. Straight ahead are cantilevered stairs, like 11 (extremely rigid) diving boards projecting from the wall, leading to the upper level.

Ahead and to the left, as you leave the intimate confines of the Foyer, is a giant column which leads your eye up to the 20' high Tower ceiling - the ceiling seems to float above a band of clerestory windows. If you turn around, you'll see that the 10' Foyer ceiling is the Tower Loft's floor.

Though large, the house is not imposing. The Porch, Entry and Living Area are human-scale 1-1/4-story elements with the two-story elements set back.

The house "grows" as it moves back to the upper level bedrooms. The layers of horizontality and depth "break up" the house into smaller, friendlier elements.

Tiffany designs kitchens at the Kitchen Guild for a living, so once we determined the location of the Kitchen, she ran with that.

The Master Suite features a Sitting Area in an octagonal bay with windows all around and a door leading to an exterior Balcony. Even with all the other dramatic design features, one of Tiffany's favorite elements is the 10' wide by 8' tall shoe closet.

While the color palette was brown and beige, the house is green. The walls are factory-built panels, sized to our specifications, filled with high-resistivity insulation and assembled on site. Deep rafters allow 25% extra roof insulation. The same high-efficiency heater that heats the water heats the hydronic radiant floor.