Located in San Francisco’s Noe Valley, this partial renovation and addition project is a modern take on traditional house forms found in the neighborhood. The architectural program for a young couple’s first home called for a third-story addition to include a new primary bedroom suite and office with a roof deck above to capture the views toward Twin Peaks, which is named for a pair of 922-foot-high summits. Adding the vertical addition required reworking the stair core to function for four levels. An additional program requirement was simplifying the front façade at the first and second floor to maintain streetscape cohesion with the neighborhood.
Prior to purchasing the property, the homeowners encountered the typical San Francisco challenge of limited inventory in a tight housing market. After searching for several months, they found this Noe Valley residence, which recently was renovated by a local developer. Although the house did not tick off all the boxes of their ideal dream home, they decided to live in the house for a year before deciding to do any future work. After this one-year initiation period, the homeowners contacted RENATO JOSE | architect (R|a) to engage in designing their proposed renovation project. The firm had worked with the homeowners previously in providing feasibility assessments for other properties, so the R|a team was aware of the couple’s modern design tastes, which aligned with the firm’s own design aesthetic.
Stairway to Heaven
A central piece of the design is a stair that starts at the bottom level and continues up to the exterior roof deck. The stair’s location from the first floor to the second floor was part of the existing house. In the new design, the stair continues up an additional two flights to the roof deck.
The new stair flights consist of an open-tread design, helping to filter natural light, as well as to give the overall stair composition a lighter feel. Although the stair is centered in the middle of the house, the owners desired an open living-dining-kitchen floor plan with minimal visual impact at the main second-floor living level. Full floor-to-ceiling glass partitions were designed to maintain the desired visible transparency. The partitions also function as guardrails for the stairs at this level to meet building-code guardrail requirements.
To ensure the third-story addition would not block natural light reaching the first floor, the architect designed a retractable skylight to flood all floors with natural light. A local Bay Area company specializing in retractable roofs manufactured the architect’s skylight design. The skylight serves a dual purpose in providing the access point to the occupiable roof deck. The footprint of the retractable skylight matches the footprint of the stairway, providing a clean, modern design layout that filters natural light to all floor levels.
Get Back
At the exterior, the original 2-story front façade stepped back at the second level. As part of the Planning Department’s Design Review Guidelines, building mass and scale cohesion with the neighboring residences needs to be maintained for continuity with the city block streetscape. Typically, in San Francisco residential neighborhoods, this requires the third-story addition to step back from the existing front façade. By adding a new third story to an already layered façade, the architect was concerned that a tiered “wedding cake” look at the front would appear too busy.
To negate this, the existing second floor was extended forward to align with the first floor. For these lower two floors, the front façade design is a modern take on the typical wood-shiplap-siding houses seen in Noe Valley. The siding boards are a larger-profile fiber-cement board, and the windows are dark bronze anodized aluminum with minimal trim surround to create a sleeker profile. Because the surrounding homes are 2-story, the third story of this home was stepped back from the main façade to meet the streetscape requirements of the Design Review Guidelines. This provided a design opportunity to create an exterior deck above the second-floor living area. To contrast with the façade below, vertical Shou Sugi Ban wood siding was used at the third story, and a dark bronze aluminum clad overhang creates a cap to unify the house.
Lullaby
About a year into the design process, the project received planning approval from the San Francisco Planning Department. Once planning approval is achieved, a site permit is given outlining the entitlements for the project as it relates to the project’s design, its building envelope parameters and its compliance with Planning Code. Once a site permit is obtained, the project can be submitted for building permit review with the San Francisco Building Department. Midway through the building permit review process, the program shifted because the couple welcomed a baby into the mix.
Adding a third family member created a design layout shift—two additional bedrooms at the third floor and an additional third-story bathroom to function off the new kids’ bedrooms. Despite the additional program requirements, the third-story building envelope needed to remain the same to maintain the project’s Planning Department approval. Because of this, additional square footage at this level was out of the question. To achieve the first kid’s bedroom, the original office at this floor was converted into a bedroom (an easy fix). For the second kid’s bedroom and the new kids’ bathroom, portions of the primary bathroom and primary closet were sacrificed. Although this program shift reduced the size of the primary suite, important project elements were maintained, such as a walk-in-closet and, in the primary bath, a double sink and separate shower and bathtub.
Beautiful Day
light and giving the overall stair composition a lighter feel.
Living in hilly San Francisco, views are an important element to capture in a project. Although the roof deck captures 360-degree panoramic views, one of the owners’ favorite architectural elements of the house is the clerestory and corner-window view from bed when awaking. From their primary bedroom, the homeowners enjoy a private view of Twin Peaks and Sutro Tower, which changes appearance every time the famous San Francisco fog rolls in. Before starting their workday, the pair enjoys a cup of coffee from heated chairs on the deck off their bedroom most days of the year.
Today, the owners are a family of four. The toddlers’ favorite architectural elements are the stairs and the floor-to-ceiling glass partitions at the second-floor living area. These elements form the perfect backdrop for games of peek-a-boo with their parents. The kids may not admire the views from the Noe Valley house yet, but thanks to the shift in program during building-permit review, the kids have spectacular third-story bedroom views of their own.
PHOTOS: Jean Bai unless otherwise noted
Retrofit Team
Architect: RENATO JOSE | architect
Interior Designer: Lexi Zavad Interiors
General Contractor: Devlin/McNally Construction
Structural Engineer: L Wong Engineering
Materials
Exterior Shou Sugi Ban: Charwood from Montana Timber Products
Fiber-cement Siding: Shiplap Hardie Artisan Siding from JamesHardie
Retractable Skylight: Rollamatic
Windows: Fleetwood Windows & Doors
Shower Wall Surfaces: Dekton from Cosentino
Primary Bath Faucets: MEM from Dornbracht
Primary Bathtub: Azure from blu Bathworks
