A Pristine Bay Area Home By a Lloyd Wright Protégé (Somehow) Had Room for Improvement

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Project Details:

Location: Palo Alto, California

Architect: Schwartz and Architecture  / @schwartzandarchitecture

Footprint: 4,115 square feet

Builder: Marrone & Marrone

Structural Engineer: SWM & Associates

Civil Engineer: Triad/Holmes Associates

Landscape Design: Boxleaf Design

Lighting Design: Loisos + Ubbelohde

Interior Design: Sarah Sherman Samuel  / @sarahshermansamuel

Photographer: Ayla Christman / @aylacchristman

From the Architect: "The original home was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright protégé Aaron Green and built by Eichler Homes in 1966. In 1951, Frank Lloyd Wright hired Green as his West Coast representative, allowing him to continue his independent practice out of their joint office.

"Our primary design charge for the renovation was ‘First, do no harm.’ This dictum, from Hippocrates’ 400 B.C.E. text ‘Of the Epidemics,’ would prove ironic given the timing of the global pandemic and its impact on the project’s cost and schedule. Our challenge was to protect the design integrity of the home while adding a substantial amount of space to make it viable for a young family with three children.

"The home was virtually untouched by the original owners and included custom furniture pieces salvaged and integrated into the new design. The house is tucked back from the road on a flag lot surrounded by more traditional suburban homes. It was originally 1,590 square feet with three bedrooms and two baths on a third of an acre lot. We added 1,512 square feet for a total of 3,102 square feet.

"Given the spider-like sculptural roof and scuppers of the original, the home was already a complete thought, with no obvious solution of how to add to the composition, let alone double the interior square footage. Our first design move was to head off the existing downward sloping roof beams mid-span and add a small rear addition along the entire length of the house under a new upward-sloping roof. This opened the dark kitchen and bedrooms with a new higher ceiling while continuing the rhythm of the existing structure and creating a niche for hidden cove lighting where the original beams once ran.

"In addition, since the existing carport and scupper was too low for many modern family cars and no longer met local code for covered parking, we raised the roofline and scupper at the front to create a new carport while also converting a portion of that area into a new sunken family room, consistent with the midcentury vibe of the original.

"Finally, we added a primary bedroom suite tucked behind a new board-formed concrete wall. Taking inspiration from the home’s existing concrete block walls, our addition peeks out behind the new wall—referential but deferential. Despite the addition’s deference, we wanted the roof to have its own distinct character, with the lightness of the clerestory windows balancing the heaviness of the original roofline. Whenever possible, views through the space frame the iconic roof scuppers as they touch down to the ground. The design strategy is to let our modern interventions shine but with the mindset of ‘What would Mr. Green do?’"