An early 1960s San Francisco residence by architect Joseph Esherick has been brought to the 21st century by Richard Beard Architects and The Wiseman Group. The team worked with the original midcentury home's brutalist architecture, implementing contemporary interiors to accommodate the owners' art collection and make the home suitable for a family of five. ‘[We wanted it to be] respectful of the heritage but looking to the future,' says architect Richard Beard.
With the home's main brutalist space, the atrium living room, featuring exposed concrete and a high, skylight ceiling, Beard admits that making it feel ‘cozy' was challenging. Yet the architecture team balanced preserving the building's original character and architectural intention with making changes.
‘The character of the house is and was defined by a number of distinctive details and materials,' explains Beard. ‘Those we preserved, and enhanced. It would have been a shame to turn the house into just another lovely suburban home. What was odd was the compartmentalised plan. At a time when open plans were becoming an innovative architectural approach to composition, this house was comparatively segmented. We carefully opened a few things up, to give a more expansive feeling through the home.'
The Wiseman Group led the interiors. Paul Wiseman had worked with Joseph Esherick on one of the latter's last projects so there was strong understanding there of the original architecture concept. Still, there were challenges there: ‘visualize Louis Kahn’s Salk Center in San Diego trying to be a warm and cozy living room,' says Wiseman.
Working with Beard's vision for an open, flowing interior, the interiors team used midcentury references and fine tuned material choices. For example complex and clashing floor tiles were removed and plain concrete and natural wood were reintroduced where appropriate. A relatively limited palette contrasts the elegantly luxurious furnishings and artwork.
The result is a space that bridges old and new, brutalism and modernism, soft and hard. And, importantly, it's all done in an effortless way. Beard says: ‘I find it a huge compliment to not be able to tell exactly where original interior intersects new construction; you just know it’s awfully nice!'
INFORMATION
-
Formafantasma’s biodiversity-boosting installation in a Perrier Jouët vineyard is cross-pollination at its bestFormafantasma and Perrier Jouët unveil the first project in their ‘Cohabitare’ initiative, ‘not only a work of art but also a contribution to the ecosystem’
-
Gingerbread City: architects sculpt London out of the season's favourite treatUntil December 29 in Chelsea, see London brought to life in a seasonal-appropriate medium by leading architects and designers
-
New Revox B77 MK III reel-to-reel tape recorder, and more cassette tape-based trickeryThe new Revox B77 MK III might be the ultimate analogue flex. In response, we’ve explored the outer reaches of cassette tape design
-
A vibrant new waterfront park opens in San FranciscoA waterfront park by leading studio Scape at China Basin provides dynamic public spaces and coastal resilience for San Francisco's new district of Mission Rock
-
A look inside the home of George Homsey, one of the fathers of pioneering California modernist community Sea RanchGeorge Homsey's home opens for the first time since his death, in 2019; see where the architect behind some of the designs for Sea Ranch, the pioneering California modernist community, lived
-
‘Concrete Dreams’: rethinking Newcastle’s brutalist pastA new project and exhibition at the Farrell Centre in Newcastle revisits the radical urban ideas that changed Tyneside in the 1960s and 1970s
-
Soviet brutalist architecture: beyond the genre's striking imageSoviet brutalist architecture offers eye-catching imagery; we delve into the genre’s daring concepts and look beyond its buildings’ photogenic richness
-
Is Rochester Street Office a creative worker’s dream? Inside a Sydney workspace echoing calmness and lightRochester Street Office by Allied_Office merges utilitarian design with cascading vegetation, presenting a thriving environment for creativity and collaboration
-
Transamerica Pyramid: a San Francisco icon, remasteredThe Transamerica Pyramid, a landmark in the San Francisco cityscape, has been redesigned to 21st-century standards by Foster + Partners
-
This Joshua Tree home is inspired by the Californian desert's 'openness and sublime beauty'High Desert House by Ryan Leidner is a US home and studio inspired by Californian landscapes
-
‘Brutalist Plants’ is a new monograph capturing the best of eco-brutalism'Brutalist Plants,' the new book by Olivia Broome, captures concrete architecture engulfed with nature
