A Modern Front Porch

Though it does not have an urban context (being 1/2 mile from downtown San Anselmo), this house is located near the trailhead entrance to Mt. Tam Open Space and its many miles of hiking/biking trails. Being sociable and friendly, our homeowners envisioned a warm and welcoming front porch where they could relax on comfortable chairs and wave at the occasional hikers.

The old wood deck was completely demolished and the ground was excavated and regraded. On the same footprint, a new deck is designed to create a seamless extension of the interior. The homeowners can enjoy their breakfast and newspaper in this outdoor living room with views of mature trees. At the same time, the deck itself is also the roof of another outdoor room, sheltered from rain but open to engage the community.

Instead of a dark underbelly of exposed wood beams plus multiple posts and braces, this outdoor room in front of the entry door is now a covered terrace with two swing chairs, intriguing sculpture/furniture pieces (by Orca Living), and an innovative floor of Black Locust pavers set in gravel. Having a south orientation, this area can get very hot. This shaded terrace offers a cool respite from the high summer sun. The clean space has only two slender steel posts and no exposed beams. The existing mundane plantings are replaced with artful clusters and a cascading series of concrete steps punctuated by thin lighting strips.

Since we did the interior remodel for this family ten years ago, we intend the exterior to reflect the continuity of the same design language. Our enduring interest in the interplay of light and solid, tactility and ductility is seen at the top of the concrete steps where they meet the terrace. The top riser serves to retain the gravel and wood pavers; the concrete retaining wall which forms the border of the terrace embraces everything and welcomes a visitor to the home.