Publisher’s Choice, Residential
Tucked in the Oakland Hills of California, Radiant Hills House stands as a family residence and a living study for a practice’s design evolution. Constructed in 1949 for jazz musician Virgil Muhler, the home has been reimagined by architect and Design Draw Build (DDB) Principal Tyler Kobick, AIA. The building was reshaped as a sanctuary that balances modern family life, environmental sensitivity and architectural experimentation. The series of renovations and additions bridge time and site-sensitivity—honoring the structure’s Mid-century origins while transforming it into a family’s vibrant living space that also functions as a neighborhood daycare and studio for the architect-owner’s design-build experiments.
The home’s design begins with its Oakland Hills site. Perched on a ridge with expansive views of the San Francisco Bay, the property straddles two distinct ecological zones. The east side nestles into the shade of heritage oaks and redwoods while the west side opens toward sweeping vistas of the Pacific Ocean and headlands. This duality drives the spatial composition. The plan orients communal spaces westward, opening them to light and views, while private spaces embrace the calm intimacy of the forested slope. The resulting interplay creates indoor-outdoor connections, allowing the home to adapt to the microclimates of the Oakland Hills.
The plan orients communal spaces westward, opening them to light and views, while private spaces embrace the calm intimacy of the forested slope. 
Nearly 70 percent of the exterior is clad in reclaimed copper shingles salvaged from a World War II airplane hangar at the Alameda Naval Air Station. 
The interiors hold the same reverence for the original home and material treatments. For example, warm walnut flooring restored from a Silicon Valley office grand foyer softens the living room. 
For the owner/architect, the home is both residence and research—a space where design ideas are refined. Here, blackboard slate from a former grocery store has been repurposed for bathroom floors. 
BEFORE 
BEFORE
AFTER PHOTOS: Marcus Edwards Photography; BEFORE PHOTOS: Design Draw Build
Materiality lies at the heart of the project. Nearly 70 percent of the exterior is clad in reclaimed copper shingles salvaged from a World War II airplane hangar at the Alameda Naval Air Station. Each fabricated shingle bears a unique 85-year-old blue-green patina. DDB’s design and fabrication team invented a siding system to assemble these shingles in a quilt-like pattern over a vertical T-metal subframe. The result: a tapestry of weathered blue-greens that ages with exposure to strong-wind and high-moisture characteristics of the Bay Area. Every individual shingle and the collective quilt echo the design-build firm’s ethos of natural yet curated craft.
The interiors hold the same reverence for the original home and material treatments. Custom steel, American walnut, and ipe drawn from reclaimed stock or shop scrap are refined into expressive joinery or structural elements. Blackboard slate from a former grocery store has been repurposed for bathroom floors while warm walnut flooring restored from a Silicon Valley office grand foyer softens the living room.
The architecture balances preservation and renovation. Additions rise above the original datum, creating new volumes that capture light and views. New clerestories bring in controlled daylight and subtly extend the home’s horizontal heritage upward. A new sunken living room, edged by the clerestory windows, forms a central gathering space that connects seamlessly to an expansive mahogany deck. Here, the family hosts dinners, music jam sessions and community gatherings. Among the additions is a primary bedroom wing, a freestanding home office and a small daycare wing. The new stratification—low original roof and taller new volumes—allows daylight to penetrate deeper into the house while preserving the modest character of the original footprint.
Custom elements—like a library door with playful circulation or a window rhythm that mimics piano keys (a nod to Virgil Muhler’s musical legacy)—imbue the home with personal resonance. Meanwhile, a modular tensile railing system along the deck and stairs reinforces the project’s handcrafted tenor by balancing lightness and structural clarity. The family’s deep connection to music and gathering inspired the expansion of the kitchen and communal areas. What was once a modest compartmentalized layout has become an open sequence of spaces anchored by the kitchen island, flowing into the dining and living rooms and ultimately opening to the mahogany deck.
The topography shaped design and process. The steep hill, an onsite creek, and a 4-foot-diameter Monterey Cypress demanded careful insertion and gentle impact. This sensitivity extended to construction sequencing, as well. The project unfolded in phases, allowing design decisions to evolve through lived experience and direct observation of how the environment interacted with the building over time.
Sustainability in Radiant Hills is neither technological nor aesthetic alone; it is embedded in process. The decision to salvage and adapt local materials, to reuse structure rather than demolish and to build incrementally over time reduces waste while preserving embodied energy. The copper cladding, for example, requires no coating or maintenance and will continue to develop richness for decades. The reclaimed slate, walnut and steel will weather with grace. Even the project’s structural strategies reflect a conscious effort to tread lightly on the landscape. The home’s adaptive-reuse spirit resonates with a broader Bay Area tradition of resourcefulness and reinvention.
For Kobick, the home is both residence and research—a space where design ideas are refined. It embodies his firm’s design-build philosophy that architecture is not a final object but a continual act of making. Over time, the home has evolved with the architect’s growing understanding of site-specific building science, thermal performance and ecological balance. It stands as a prototype for DDB’s future work on residential, community, hospitality, and educational projects rooted in the context of their cultural and environmental landscapes across the American West.
The project also demonstrates how thoughtful adaptation can sustain the spirit of Mid-century Modernism without freezing it in nostalgia. Instead of replicating a style, it reinterprets its principles—clarity of structure, honesty of material and integration with nature through a contemporary lens. The outcome is a home that feels timelessly grounded in its hillside perch yet open to the horizon.
The Radiant Hills House celebrates the histories of its materials, the memory of its original home and the evolving life of its inhabitants. The house proves that modern architecture can be deeply personal and environmentally attuned—revival can emerge not from replacement but from reverence. Clothed in its blue-green copper quilt, the Radiant Hills House honors the balance between continuity and change.
Judge’s Comment
Wow! An amazing transformation to a stunningly located home. I enjoy the recycled copper cladding.”
Daryl Johnson, AIA, NCARB, president, Johnson Architecture
Retrofit Team
Architect, Design-Builder and General Contractor: Design Draw Build
Structural Engineer: Ashley & Vance Engineering
Surveyor: Bay Area Land Surveying
Materials
Patinated Copper for Siding, Rainchain and Miscellaneous Applications: Salvaged from Alameda Naval Air Station
Blackboard Floor: Salvaged from a Local Grocery Store
Walnut Floor: Salvaged from a Silicon Valley Office Foyer
Windows: Salvaged “Mis-orders” from Bay Area Window
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