A stunning new 8,000 square-foot Modern home situated on secluded 2-1/2 acres in Piedmont. This spacious and light-filled home was a collaborative design between ourselves and NY firm Tsao-McKown Architects, and designed to work as a gathering place for a global family.
Inspired by traditional Chinese courtyard homes, Calvin Tsao established the floor plan, where the Chinese courtyard is where the extended family intersects. Here, the hub of this home is the dining room. It is the center of the floor plan arrangement with four wings radiating from it.
The north wing of the home features four bedroom suites for the traveling members of the family. The west wing features an open family dining/kitchen arrangement with an additional upstairs bedroom suite for grown children above. The only one-story portion of the house, the southern extension houses the spacious master bedroom suite and study. The “hub” of the dining room opens directly onto the formal living room, above which is the office, creating the east wing. All of the spaces feature distinct attention on ceiling heights. To create intimacy, ceilings are lower in rooms such as the kitchen and family room. More formal rooms such as the living and dining rooms use higher spaces to emphasize openness and accessibility.
Natural light from floor-to-ceiling windows punctuates every room. Each set of windows is situated to bring in the intrinsic beauty of the wooded property. The interior floors are done in white stained bamboo while the walls are painted in a subtle, 20-color palette. The cleanness of these Modern walls and lack of applied architectural ornamentation provide a perfect seamless foil for the beautiful custom furnishings, hand-woven rugs, and museum-like accoutrements throughout the house. All of the interior artifacts were custom-designed or hand-selected by Mr. Tsao resulting in a series of intimate and cozy spaces.
The home’s exterior blends regionally available woods and simple metal shapes, with Chinese stone. The house visually rests on a tight-joint granite base, reclaimed from the Three Rivers Gorge project in China. The exterior of the living spaces are sheathed in vertical western Red Cedar siding, selected for its aesthetic and weather resistant qualities.
The house is setback from the road, at the rear of the wooded parcel, and accessed by a sinuous 700-foot drive. The same Red Cedar siding is used on the bridge over year-round Indian Creek. Its detailing has the character and refined quality of the nearby house while actually hiding the massiveness of the bridge. The bridge and house are carefully sited on the edge of a woodland meadow, along a year-round stream, amongst mature redwoods and oaks. This siting optimizes garden and woodland views from all parts of the house, while saving all existing healthy trees. The approach culminates at a finely-set terrace of chipped-granite pavers, leading to the front entrance.
The residence was awarded 2009 Best New Home-Contemporary by the City of Piedmont's Planning Commission Design Awards. See here for official announcement
The house is one of five architectural jewels highlighted during the 2008 Children Support League’s 20th Anniversary Heart of the Home Tour, April 25-26, 2008.
The house was cover article of June 2007 issue of Interior Design magazine link to article in Interior Design magazine
The houses of the tour, including this one were highlighted in the April 2008 issue of SF Magazine. Click here for link to article
And working with Tour orgainzers, Mr. Laczko was highlighted on a local television house design program, to use the beauty of the house to advertise for the Tour. Click here to watch this short segment.-be sure to watch "Episode 53" as there are alot of episodes!
