Private Residence

In 2009, our clients came to us with the desire to build their dream home on property they have owned for decades. The owners expressed not only a love for Asian architecture, but a real connection with the outdoors. Their property features gorgeous and unusual plant specimens they have cultivated and bonsai-pruned for nearly twenty-five years. The goal for their new home, then, was to create a quiet backdrop for a magnificent garden and to allow the landscape to bleed into the house interiors. There are specific places where existing, manicured and newly sculpted hillsides are carefully designed to be viewed as paintings from inside the house. 

Two axes stretch through the 6000 square foot house anchoring the home in the landscape. The first axis leads across a stone bridge, into the front door, through the foyer with its meticulously handcrafted Getsu mon or Moon Gate doorway and past the Zen garden in the backyard. The second is a visual connection of two existing Blue Atlas cedar trees that have been carefully maintained for years. This axis extends through both floors of the house connecting the wine cellar, office, billiard room and outdoor patio at the ground level and the guest suite, master suite, foyer, living, kitchen and deck on the upper level.

The main living area was designed not only for enjoying the fellowship of the table with family and guests but also an audiophile sound experience. The living room shape and acoustics with tall ceilings and acoustically enhanced wall construction were designed specifically for musical performance and deep listening. 

As well as specific enhancements for acoustic isolation and performance the home was engineered to be as friendly to the environment as possible. The exterior stucco wall construction conceals extensive rigid, open-cell foam and cellulose insulation. The HVAC is a super-quiet, high performance geothermal system. The torii gate on the north side of the home is nestled in a bio-swale that filters the surface run-off rainwater and releases it slowly back into the environment.

Project Team:

Interior Design: Katy Chudacof; Dovetail Design

Landscape Architect: Anne Daigh, LA; Anne Daigh Landscape Architect

Structural Engineering: Mark Savage, PE; EMC Structural Engineers

HVAC Engineering: Michael Peterson; Peterson Engineering

Acoustical Design: Steve Durr; Steve Durr Designs

Custom Woodworking: Yann Giguere;  Mokuchi Woodworking