Rogers-Enright Addition

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=185 BGCOLOR="#333333" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="2b28ec00ddualp.jpg"> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#333333" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <FONT SIZE="6" COLOR="#99FF99" FACE="Tw Cen MT Condensed" >Studio 300A Art+ Architecture</FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#0000BF" FACE="Tw Cen MT Condensed" >    </FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Tw Cen MT Condensed" > </FONT><B>|   </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Studio 300A Art Architecture"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>Rogers-Enright Addition</B><B>   |   </B><A HREF="proposal_for_lions_club_of_sausalito.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Schoonmaker Bus Shelter"><U><B>Schoonmaker Bus Shelter</B></U></A></div> <div> <IMG SRC="05c58020.png" border=0 width="600" height="2" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <B>Rogers-Enright Addition</B></div> <div> <B><U>[Construction Document Phase]</U></B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Fall 08</B></div> <div> Over the last year we have been quietly struggling with a small design problem in the lower Oakland Hills.  You see, we have this very small, cute little low-slung, bilaterally symmetric  ranch house, built in the early 20th century an a very beautiful little neighborhood.  The site is odd-shaped with the most developable portion off to the northwest side of the house.  We were given the task of adding a masterbedroom, office and den to this 900 SF house, as the owners now have a family to make room for.  But in putting the addition in the "easy" portion of the site (on the side), would mean we would lose the most beautiful portions of the site (as it holds now an exquisite, sunny  garden).  Plus the circulation in the existing house would get pretty wacky if we were to extend the new addition off its most private portions.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="375bcf90.jpg" border=0 width="700" height="505" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <I>From the street.</I></div> <div> One of the key things about adding on to existing structures is to make damn sure the final parti (spatial arrangement) is coherent and makes good, clear sense.  One of the key things about renovation work on the other hand is to re-establish this coherence if it is not present (because someone completely blew it with some ill-conceived addition in the past).  In some ways, it almost does not matter if the finish materials, windows, doors  match old to new, as long as the final spatial flow is has a good, solid coherence.  It is amazing how often this is entirely ignored in architecture.  Thus buildings which have had subsequent additions to them seem to always be awkward ramblings with little or no strong focus and usually a lot of wasted space.</div> <div> Thus we have chosen to place the addition to this little, low-slung, bilaterally symmetrical ranch house in the very difficult back end.  Difficult because the hill on which this house sits, drops off pretty steeply back there, and there is a setback line very near by.  This forces the addition to be very tall and narrow in order to provide for all the client's needs.  So the up-sides are that we preserving all the best portions of the site and we are keeping the private portions of the house very private and further enhancing the public portions.  The final parti is clear and makes good sense, and both new and old portions receive ample daylight and natural ventilation.  Also good is that the tall, narrow addition will be easily heated and cooled with passive solar techniques.  Down-sides are that no one is ever going to believe that a tall, narrow tower of a structure was ever intended to be an original portion of this low-slung ranch house.  So plainly our addition is going to visually read as an obvious addition.  So what to do about this?</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="376bcd30.jpg" border=0 width="700" height="467" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <I>A tiny little charmer with nice outdoor spaces around it.  The garden is off to the left, out of the picture.  </I></div> <div> <I>We wanted to preserve this exquisite area and NOT throw off the symmetry of the existing house.</I></div> <bR> <div> When IM Pei was given the task of adding a central entrance building in a courtyard of the 15th  and 16th century enclave of The Louvre in Paris, he wisely opted not to ape the existing conditions with a 20th century building.  Rather he used <I>counterpoint</I> to the benefit of both old and new.  Mind you, this is a bit of an over-simplification of Pei's solution, but the concept of complimenting vs. matching was the correct way about his project.  We wish this thinking were more commonplace today in city planning, as it is a much better way to honor our old buildings in our opinion.  Rather, we often collectively choose to shoddily ape the old with new construction, which generally serves to do no more than to bleed off and ultimately mock their unique old splendor.</div> <div> As you might guess by now, we opted the <I>counterpoint</I> concept here with our project.  But counterpoint with what?  Not just anything will do.  Oakland Planning and neighbors are certainly going to have to buy in to our thinking for us to be able to proceed.  Besides, we want to <I>compliment</I>, not just offer counterpoint.  So what would compliment a low-slung, bilaterally symmetrical early 20th century ranch house such as this one here?  (welcome to our world)</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="377bce30.jpg" border=0 width="700" height="483" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <I>View from garden.  A little less charming on the side view, due mostly to a bad addition in the 50's on the left side.  We'll fix that.</I></div> <div> In our travels around the state, especially in rural, agricultural and also some coastal areas, it is not uncommon to see houses such as this--often without paint and often with a corrugated metal roof, which has rusted beautifully.  This one here is a bit more of a suburban variation on that theme, with its fastidious care and bright paint.  We wanted something a bit more rough-hewn to sit next to it, so we looked to 19th century industrial/agricultural buildings in California for some kind of answer for us.  We chose this source material because it is not unusual to see in farms,ranches and even in old mining towns, low-slung ranch houses sitting next to tall, rough-hewn silos, barns, hop houses, smelters, water towers, wind mills, etc.  There is something very beautiful about that kind of odd pairing that we have, over time, come to accept as a normal part of life in this part of the world--becomes part of the deep ethos of a place and time.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="378bcd30.jpg" border=0 width="700" height="467" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <I>The larger, rear facade.  Note the drop-off.  Between the drop-off and the rear of the house is all we have to build on.</I></div> <div> Thus we are proposing a tall-ish, stark addition that entirely leaves the existing structure alone and does not try to pretend to be a part of the original building.  It will be sheathed in corrugated, rusted cor-ten steel and corrugated, galvanizes steel.  Yet there will be some moments of kinship.  The art here will be in the subtlety and "rightness" of the kinship which will allow it to make sense to the viewer who is familiar with the building stock of California, and for it to feel good on the land.  The cad files presented here will scarcely tell you of this subtlety and kinship.  You may have to wait for the photographs, which should be available in about a year if all goes well.</div> <bR> <div> We have obtained planning approval for this project and are now working on construction documents and are nearing a building permit submittal.</div> <bR> <div> Below are some of the drawings to date.  If you click on the <U>links below each</U>, a full-sized PDF version of the drawing will (quite possibly) appear.  Even though these will be hard to read on-line, the plan and section drawings will help show some of the spatial solutions we have devised.  It is a tricky, multi-leveled little addition, but it should prove to be spatially rich and sun-filled, and hopefully will make complete sense as a whole coherent "place".</div> <bR> <div> <I><IMG SRC="39447790.png" border=0 width="583" height="377" ALT="Adobe Acrobat Document" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> </I></div> <div> <I> <a href="HTMLobj-967/A21.pdf"><u>A21.pdf</u> </a>  </I></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <I><IMG SRC="3954a7b0.png" border=0 width="586" height="379" ALT="Adobe Acrobat Document" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></I></div> <div> <I> <a href="HTMLobj-967/A22.pdf"><u>A22.pdf</u> </a>  </I></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <I><IMG SRC="39651800.png" border=0 width="593" height="384" ALT="Adobe Acrobat Document" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></I></div> <div> <I> <a href="HTMLobj-967/A31.pdf"><u>A31.pdf</u> </a>  </I></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <I><IMG SRC="39753810.png" border=0 width="595" height="385" ALT="Adobe Acrobat Document" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></I></div> <div> <I> <a href="HTMLobj-967/A41.pdf"><u>A41.pdf</u> </a>  </I></div> <bR> <bR> <div> Stay tuned as we move into the process of detailing and interior design of the addition.  As is often the case with our work,  the interior and exterior will be very strongly related.  </div> <bR> <div> We should be ready to begin construction in the Summer. </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>