Michael Hennessey Architecture Offers Up a Contemporary Vision of the iconic San Francisco Townhouse – SURFACE

With its famous colorful Victorian and Edwardian homes, San Francisco’s architectural legacy has cemented itself as one of the enduring images of American life. Stacked side by side like sardines in a tin can and dotted up and down the mountain slopes of a city by the bay, there is perhaps no urban city in the country so closely defined by its residential make-up, which has maintained its look and feel for more than a century.

So what would a contemporary version of this design language look like? That’s what local firm Michael Hennessey Architecture has commissioned to solve. The masters of light and scenery set out to offer a new vision of San Francisco vernacular with the home of Twin Peaks. With a sprawling cityscape at its disposal, the studio set to work on a classic modern-day cottage interpretation through a stellar renovation of a dilapidated structure. Inspired by Mies van der Rohe’s masterpiece Farnsworth House, in Plano, Illinois, Twin Peaks is a delightful representation of what the future might hold with its abundance of light-filtering glass, intended moments, picturesque vantage points, and the reorientation of a single-family home into a multi-unit building.

Below, we take a closer look at the project through the eyes of MHA Director Michael Hennessy.

Project Description: Located on the east side of San Francisco’s Twin Peaks neighborhood, this three-unit apartment building was built from an ordinary single-family home that had been suffering from years of neglect. Two stories were added above the existing building and a double-height rear addition was included behind the garage, creating a five-story building that has sweeping views of downtown due to its sloping orientation. The project caters to different needs as it contains homes of different sizes with a one-bedroom lower unit, a two-bedroom middle unit and a three-bedroom upper unit. Twin Peaks provides much-needed density to a city hungry for more housing options and is on a public transportation line that allows convenient access to the rest of the city.

Project inspiration: The client lived next door to this property for years and decided to purchase the neglected dwelling in an effort to capture the stunning views from the site in a bold way. Achieving maximum glazing in both the front and back of the building was a stated goal. Although located in a rural area, the Farnsworth House in Mies van der Rohe has proven to be an appropriate inspiration and reference for this urban project due to the ingenious use of glass to frame the landscape. The architect embraced this challenge of purposefully framing the landscape from every space. For example, orienting the bed on the upper level to capture a layered view of a hill full of houses in the foreground, against the downtown skyline behind. Or consider working on a kitchen island that overlooks a sunken living room while at the same time taking in a remote, framed view.

Scheme: The lower unit is specified in a double-height size that opens onto a private, lower back yard. The middle unit has a walnut center bench/bookcase that mediates the floor level change between the kitchen and the sunken living room. The loft unit contains a master suite with an abundance of glass floating above the living room and kitchen. Each residence is accessed via an external staircase designed with perforated steel to cast daylight onto the building’s entrance.

The front elevation is a combination of steel frames with aluminum windows and integral colored cement plaster filling the steel frame. Cement plaster is used in the bedrooms on the second floor to provide privacy from the street below, while an abundance of glass is used on the third level where privacy becomes less important. The vertical orientation of the windows and steel elements draws the eye to a horizontal steel visor, ending the upper part of the composition. A wooden slatted pivot gate provides visual warmth to the front elevation, creating an inviting moment upon entering the building.

Takeaway / exclusivity: Although the size varies, each unit will be of the same quality, design and finish to enhance a sense of community among the residents. It is quite unique in multi-family housing developments to maintain a level of quality and detail that one would find in a single-family dwelling. Sheer blinds, walnut veneer, and travertine floor tiles are the primary materials used to create consistency throughout the building, adding layers of warmth as a counterpoint to the overall design.

The orientation of each sun space creates special moments at different times of the day, whether it is while waking up to the dramatic morning light on the east side of the building or watching the sunset behind the Sutro Tower from an office on the west side. The play of natural light on the perforated stairs creates unique visual experiences during the afternoon. The perforations in the interior drawer produce a graphic shadow effect on the adjacent wall and floor, bringing a magical texture to the loft kitchen. Vertical steel rails on the exterior stair railing create a fun game of shadows against the cement plaster of the common circulation space.

ChallengesRenovation of a single-family dwelling into a larger three-unit building comes with a set of design challenges such as weaving purposeful spaces and a new structural system into an existing set of constraints. Making sure the finishes are aligned correctly when building against less than perfect timber frames from the original structure is a testament to the great craftsmen who worked on the project. In addition, the vertical circulation solution of a multi-family building in a narrow urban area leads to the idea of ​​external entry and the scale of the staircase encircling the sky above. Finally, designing the public building to fit respectfully with the surrounding context was both a challenge and an opportunity to create a uniquely modern building in San Francisco.

the list’Column “Project Lights” It features unparalleled projects created with our forward-thinking List Individuals. By going straight to the source – and having designers demystify the methods behind their designs – we hope to enlighten and inspire our creative audience to push the boundaries of what is possible in design.