On the boards in San Francisco’s Noe Valley neighborhood is a new house for a three-peat client of Faulkner Architects. It is to replace an existing 1904 house that had lost its historic integrity due to renovations over the last 120 years. The new design respects the site’s long-standing use as a multi family house with an embedded accessory dwelling unit at the garden level.

Four levels that include a shared garage, pool and garden along with roof top deck allow uncommon amenity for a city lot. An open plan builds spatial connection between the neighborhood and garden. Shared by both families, the landscape consists of citrus trees and a vegetable garden, viable due to this sunny south San Francisco location. A photovoltaic array on the roof deck earns a planned net-zero annual energy usage.

The tradition of the bay window that shows up consistently in San Francisco’s historic houses is continued here and transformed as a spatial element that organizes the plan and extends through the house to the garden while harvesting light and capturing views to downtown San Francisco.

Renderings: Mikhail Sizov for Faulkner Architects