The architectural intent of the design is to express the psychological complexity of this family’s life in built form.  The tension between public and private is expressed in the playful treatment of the transitions and thresholds between the central living court, defined by four existing industrial columns, and the private rooms along the perimeter of the court—the master bedroom suite, the daughters’ bedrooms, the kitchen and dining area, a study and a family room. 

The perimeter spaces are related in different ways to the central space by openings, fixed and sliding walls and by partial views created by glass panels.  Natural light from the north and west is allowed to penetrate to the central court through a continuous band of clerestory windows that is enlivened with whimsical sandblasted figures.

The dominant figure of the central square living space is crossed by a diagonal that connects the moment of entry from the front gallery space to the dining room and the view out and across the downtown scene. This provides a rotational quality to the otherwise symmetrical main space.

INTERIOR DESIGN:  The style is modernist, complimenting the family’s collection of mostly European contemporary art - sculpture, paintings, prints and sculpture - with a heavy representation of Spanish artists, notably from Catalonia.

The possibilities of light as a way of defining and enlivening space through reflection, transparency and translucence are investigated by the use of glass in many forms:  large slabs of solid cast blue glass are used around the fireplace; blue mirror, plate glass countertops and etched glass cabinet doors are used in the kitchen; carved glass is used in the important points of transition from room to room in the clerestories; patterned pressed glass is used in the sliding doors; and, etched mirror and pearlescent glass tiles are used in the bathrooms.