Bishop Peak is the sixth in a chain of seven volcanic plugs known as the “Seven Sisters.” This craggy mountain chain stretches from Morro Rock in the Pacific Ocean to Cerro San Luis, which looms above the city of San Luis Obispo. Bishop Peak itself is public open space, with a popular hiking trail leading to the summit. The foothills of Bishop Peak are range lands for cattle ranches, with only a few residential lots carved into the space between ranch land and nature preserve.

The Bishop Peak Residence will occupy one of these rare residential lots (recently purchased by Chris Weber). Surrounded by wide open vistas, this parcel occupies a spot above the range lands and below the nature preserve. To the south, a wide-open view of Los Osos Valley, Laguna Lake and the outskirts of San Luis Obispo spreads out, replete with century-old barns, distant vineyards, and the coming and going of the storied marine layer over the coastal range. To the north rises the granite summit of Bishop Peak. A seasonal creek winds through the property, with California Sycamores and Live Oaks snaking their way down the creek’s rocky bed to the valley and lake below. Over the course of the year, the landscape changes from a grassy carpet of emerald green to gold with the passing of the seasons.

The home is designed to take full advantage of the panoramic views. Connection to the outdoors and to nature is made possible by arranging the house into a long row. To the south, the long horizontal line of the horizon spreads out under a low eave, allowing the view but not the direct glare of the south sun. To the north, the roofline rises high to allow an uphill view of the rocky peak.

The house itself is embedded into the hillside at its easternmost edge. To the west, it extends out into a sculptural cantilever, floating in the boughs of the adjacent sycamores and oaks. The hillside lot is terraced, with arrival and parking at the lowest level, and landscaping and a pool occupying the upper level. A guest house is located opposite the pool terrace.

This house is in the Schematic Design Phase. Architecture and landscape design are by CWA.

This penthouse occupies the two upper floors of a converted manufacturing building in San Francisco. The space was already imbued with three existing, classic arched windows, and a narrow roof-top terrace. The remainder of the interior was a blank canvas consisting of bare concrete. Our goal for this home was to create a space that had the feel of an early 20th Century penthouse. The space is intended for use as a part time residence and place for entertaining guests.

Our fist intervention was to remove a large portion of the upper floor of this two-story space, creating a grand, double-height great room which takes full advantage of the arched windows to create a light and view filled space of monumental size. This change reduced the usable floor space but added value by significantly improving the experience of the remaining 2,400 square feet. One end of the great room is paneled in antique mirror panels, creating the illusion of a palatially sized room.

An elegant new stair, clad in white marble and venetian plaster, with a bronze and brass balustrade, artfully connects both floors. The main entrance is on the upper level. Since the space is intended for entertaining, this arrangement allows for truly dramatic entrances.

Each floor contains a full bedroom suite, suitable for full-time residents, but intended for part-time stays by either the owners or their guests. The bedrooms include dressing areas with generous storage and bathrooms with luxurious appointments.

The kitchen includes ample space for several people to work and allows for convenient storage of kitchen tools to keep the room appearing tidy. A large banquette anchors one end of the kitchen; it’s a cozy space for intimate gathering.

This project is in schematic design. The photorealistic images of rooms were created to assist the owners with visualization of their own ideas and to understand our design proposals with clarity.

The San Francisco Row House is a quintessential part of the city’s fabric. Built on lots approximately twenty-five feet wide, these Victorian and Edwardian homes line the streets of virtually every neighborhood in the city, stacked cheek by jowl, up and down the hilly streets. Often picturesque and covered in ornate millwork, these houses are emblematic of San Francisco domestic life.

As fond as we may all be of the San Francisco Row House at the streetscape, many find that Victorian notions about spatial organization, housekeeping and domestic life no longer suit the residents of America’s 21st Century tech hub. We value open plans, connections to our outdoor spaces and informality.

For this Pacific Heights home, a new plan was devised that would enable the house to be open from front to back, allowing views of the oak shaded back yard all the way from the front bay window. Existing openings have been enlarged, and new structure inserted to allow for a less compartmentalized main floor. Open plan remodels by others often remove all hints of partitions, resulting in spaces that lack intimacy and purpose. For this house, vestiges of the original plan will remain, allowing each of the house’s individual spaces to feel connected, but not vast. Similar changes are implemented on the second floor.

The design team began with a laser scan of the existing house, allowing an exceptionally accurate 3D model to be constructed. The design phase was efficiently run, with lighting, electrical, mechanical and plumbing drawings prepared in-house as a design-build service. CWA also provided landscape and interior design services. The robust set of construction drawings was approved by planning and building without a single correction request – a truly novel feat given the city’s Kafkaesque approvals process.

Arrow Builders, led by Eric Friedman & Darin Freitag, expertly completed construction in Summer 2022. Strandberg Engineers provided structural design. Axiom Engineers provided energy use analysis. Furniture was provided by Green Couch. Photos by Lucy Borden & Chris Weber.

This Pebble Beach Residence is just a few houses down from the Pebble Beach golf course clubhouse, an ideal location for two avid golfers to build their home for retirement.

Sited on a sloping lot with view of Monterey Bay and the golf course, the house is modern, but not stark. Natural materials are used throughout, including limestone walls, oak floors and cedar walls and ceilings. The house exudes warmth and a sense of style that the owners developed themselves - stylish and comortable.

Outdoor living is also a key component of the design, with gardens, terraces, a pool and an outdoor living room design by Michael Bliss Landscape Architecture.

The house has a sprawling plan, with central living and entertaining areas, a separate guest bedroom wing and the entire second floor devoted to the master suite with dual bathrooms.

Both house and grounds were first conceived entirely as a 3D model, allowing the homeowners to experience the spaces in full before committing to the final design. This tool was invaluable for getting feedback and ensuring that the executed work would be consistent with the owners’ expectations.

The house was built by Stocker & Allaire, General Contractors, a firm that has expertly executed many beautiful homes in coastal Monterey County. The interiors were furnished by Jean Larette of Larette Design, whose work is certainly worth having a look at. Adam Potts provided the beautiful photos.

This project was executed by Chris Weber while he was a Project Architect at Richard Beard Architects. Richard Beard is the Architect of Record.

Originally constructed in the 1880s, this Pacific Heights Victorian sat abandoned for at least a generation prior to being purchased and reborn as a modern home for a family of six. The interiors were worn and without much redemption value to the new owners, so a new interior with new structure was designed for the existing shell.

The house’s worn exterior was lovingly restored by the design and construction team and is a terrific example of preserved Victorian architecture in San Francisco, occupying a prominent site atop a hill on Broadway.

A new basement and garage was added underneath, with an auto turntable to assist with getting four cars in and out. The main level features a very impressive chef’s kitchen as the focal point with living spaces on either side.

A custom fabricated stair with bronze balustrade gracefully connects all four levels and terminates in a bright skylight. The interiors, by The Wiseman Group, are crisp, neutral and modern. The master suite occupies the entire attic floor.

Broadway Victorian was lovingly re-constructed and remodeled by by Centric General Contractors.

This project was executed by Chris Weber while he was a Project Architect at Richard Beard Architects. Richard Beard is the Architect of Record.

The Haight-Ashbury Residence is a truly unique experience. It was originally a turn of the 20th Century San Francisco mansion on a hillside double-lot. The work here represents an entirely new concept inserted into an Edwardian shell. The owners had plenty of imagination and were in the adept hands of Nicole Hollis, interior designer, to develop their fanciful new home. I served as project architect for Richard Beard Architects for the development of this unique design through the mid-phase of construction.

Home remodels offer opportunities for homeowners to realize their own priorities for making a home. For this project, the unique, bespoke aesthetic and “program” (the types and arrangement of spaces) were the driving force. The very tailored design was supported by highly complex building systems. An entirely new structural skeleton was inserted (designed by Strandberg Engineering), including some subterranean spaces. The hillside location required special attention to civil, structural and landscape design. The approval process was also not without challenge, as San Francisco retains one of the most stringent jurisdictions for alterations to historic homes. Managing this design process required an ability to understand the main objectives, keep the entire team collaborating and communicating, and deliver a design that could be executed.

The house includes some truly wonderful features (a visit to Nicole’s or Richard’s website would certainly be in order for understanding their intentions. Architectural Digest also does a very nice job). My work here consisted much less of being a design influence, and much more of managing a complex process and ensuring that it would be buildable. Redhorse Constructors skillfully executed the design, as is evident by Douglas Friedman’s masterful photos.

The “design for how you live” ethos at CWA involves embracing the things that give our clients joy, and giving them the very best version of the spaces they envision. When clients have a bold vision, we delight in partnering with them to bring it to life. Our work on this existing Monte Sereno home was concerned not just with improving the performance of the home, or providing an update, but with taping into a client’s vivid imagination and bringing a fantasy to life.

Monte Sereno is a semi-rural residential community in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Lots are big and homes are spacious. Tennis courts and swimming pools abound. Many of the homes here were constructed in the 1990s and reflect the tastes of that generation. For this remodel and addition, we were encouraged to ignore the 1990’s pedigree of the house and provide a new design that would create the feeling of another place and era.    

Our intervention was concerned primarily with the spaces that are to be used for gathering and entertaining. We removed the existing kitchen, family room and game room, and replaced them with new spaces that were better proportioned and full of natural light. We added an outdoor dining pavilion with a glass roof to allow for dining under the stars. We also added an outdoor kitchen and a new pool pavilion, arranged thoughtfully around a redesigned backyard terrace and pool.

The exterior work relied on Beaux Arts design principles, with cast plaster columns, pilasters, entablature and balustrades in the Tuscan order. The terraces are arranged with marble pavers and steps. And the new garden features boxwood borders with interior plantings expected to bring an explosion of color in the spring and summer.

The same unabashed love of color follows into the interior of the house, giving a space which might otherwise be described as “formal” an air of playfulness. Two new skylights have been added to the kitchen and family room, allowing sunlight to filter in through translucent laylights constructed of delicately overlapped circle and oval tracery.

CWA provided architectural design and landscape design for this home. Kavanagh Construction provided expert craftsmanship. The project was deftly managed by Brodie Group. These photos have been beautifully composed by Blake Marvin.

The Santa Lucia Preserve is California’s Narnia – a truly magical place. It’s 20,000 acres blanket the hills and valleys just west of Carmel Bay. Rolling oak lands give way to rocky crags. Hilltops provide Pacific panoramas. Redwoods line shady creek beds. In the spring, it glistens like an emerald. In the summer it turns to gold. 300 home sites are dotted throughout the expanse.

The compound featured here really embraces the Carmel, California aesthetic. With inspiration taken from historic Spanish ranchos, the house and its auxiliary buildings were arranged by Richard Beard Architects in traditional courtyard style. I served as the Project Architect for this design through the very beginning of construction. Richard Beard’s design is very nicely coordinated with Bernard Trainor’s (Ground Studio) natural landscape, which allows the buildings to feel very much an integral part of the hills they inhabit. Jay Jeffers was the interior designer.

The program here consisted of several buildings (a main house, bunk houses, a pool house, a stable, etc.), all of which needed to be cohesive with each other and with the magnificent landscape. Great care was taken that the size and scale of the buildings not overwhelm the site, that each would make excellent use of the available views, and that the experience at any location in the compound would be memorable.

The images shown here are all renderings, none are photographs. The software that I continue to use in my own practice allows for this kind of full-scale visualization, which is fully immersive. A virtual reality headset can be worn to allow the homeowners, the general contractor (and certainly the architect) to survey the entire place from within. This technology is great for sprawling estate homes but is equally useful for designing small spaces.

Drew Maran Construction is the general contractor. The images used here were produced by Richard Beard Architects.

High above the City of Oakland, at the summit of the hills in the Montclair District, is a spectacularly situated property that offers complete seclusion from neighbors and the urban fray, but with a panoramic view of the entire San Francisco Bay. A narrow mesa at this summit affords a perfect location for a new home with a large, flat yard – which is a rare commodity in the hills, where most homes are built on steep grades. On the west side of this lot, is the open expanse of the San Francisco Bay view. On the east side is the East Bay Regional Park system. Together, these create a feeling of being surrounded by wide open space and nature.

We have proposed for this lot, a simple “post and beam” house, laid out in a six-foot grid. This simple form creates a long rectangle, where every space has a connection to the vast openness of the view and surrounding nature. Simplicity and elegance are often compliments of each other. This house achieves a sense of elegance and serenity by blending in with its hillside setting, connecting the occupants to the land around them, and celebrating what’s already there.

The house also calls back to the efficiency of home construction in the post-war era and embraces the rationality of modernism. A wide roof overhang shields the house from overheating throughout the year, making large picture-windows possible. A system of operable panels along the top perimeter of the house allows passive ventilation to keep the house cool by way of bay breezes.  

Construction is expected to take place sometime in late 2025. Architectural, landscape and interior design is all by CWA.

We are helping a soon-to-be retired couple plan their new, rural Napa County home. The new house will be perched high atop a hill with beautiful views in all directions. The simple, modernist inspired home is designed of post and beam construction, with elegant shed roofs angled to the spectacular northern views of Lake Berryessa. This project has completed its initial design phase and will be refined in the coming months.

This mountaintop lot has been in the same family for generations. The current owner had fond memories of visiting her grandparent’s home there, prior to its destruction by fire in the 1960s. She was determined to build a small home of her own there and to retire with her husband.

Recent fires throughout the wooded regions of the North Bay created an escalation in the cost of building materials that nearly rendered the modest home un-buildable. However, significant savings were achieved by making some key revisions to the plan. The owner’s determination to build and my commitment to keep the project alive eventually won out.

The house consists of a central great room with large French doors on both sides, giving the central mass the feeling of a pavilion with a sweeping view of rolling vineyards and Mount St. Helena. On either side of the great room are two modest bedroom suites. The house feels well suited for small gatherings.

The owner was inspired by Colonial Revival design, so the house has a very crisp, New England feel to it, with charming, simple, classic details throughout. She enjoyed being involved in the design process and her influence can be observed throughout. That kind of collaboration makes a project truly custom, and it is enjoyable to learn which features of a home activate a client’s imagination.

The homeowner remained active in directing the project through the completion of construction, a decision that saved her additional money and ensured that the house would turn out exactly as she intended. She and Chris remained in touch through the course of construction and afterward, occasionally exchanging ideas and encouragement. She is in the process of moving in, with exterior construction and landscape installation ongoing.

This home was expertly constructed by Thollander Constuction.

This project was executed by Chris Weber while he was a Project Architect at Richard Beard Architects. Richard Beard is the Architect of Record.