Nestled in an established neighborhood in the San Francisco Bay Area, Big Island Residence emerges as a family’s private oasis within the city. Flanked by mature, heritage oaks and curated gardens, the home embraces its natural surroundings, with views and opportunities for outdoor living in every room.
Photo: Douglas Friedman
Big Island Residence
Bay Area, California
A black steel bridge, suspended over a landscaped lightwell, serves as a threshold between sanctuary and city. The bronze, pivoting front door opens onto a formal entryway, its gallery-like walls punctuated with eclectic art, with views to a reflection pool and cherry blossom trees beyond. From there, the home’s main floor breaks into several distinct living zones—a formal entertaining wing, a separate guest suite, and family gathering areas—set between a feature stair that runs parallel to a two-story window framing a reflection pool.
The formal wing, framed by reflecting pools and composed of kinetic glass walls and black steel columns, culminates in a fireplace centered between two 13-foot-tall glass pivot doors.
Custom-made by David Wiseman, a three-dimensional botanical bronze screen divides or unifies the dining and living areas. The nearby powder room explores light and shadow with an abstract black marble sink set against black wood walls with veins of bronze inlay.
Using a modern and resilient palette of board-form concrete, steel, limestone, and glass, the lower-level family spaces prioritize links to nature and indoor-outdoor living. The kitchen revolves around a 28-foot-long Titanio marble island overlooking the landscape in both directions. Sliding windows open the kitchen to a terrace with dedicated space for grilling and dining, sheltered beneath the cantilevering volume of the primary suite. The Olympic-sized pool follows this axis, culminating in a cabana that includes a sauna, cold plunge, and outdoor gym. An adjacent sport court for tennis and basketball further supports the family’s active lifestyle.
Upstairs, the primary wing includes a bedroom and sitting room, a bathroom, dressing rooms, and offices. The bathroom’s Titanio marble tub, cut from the same block as the kitchen island, feels concealed within the sweeping tree canopy even as it looks out onto the yard through a fully glazed wall. A separate children’s wing is organized around a playroom and four bedrooms with vignette views of the site. At the basement level, steel shutters fully open the gym and recreation room to the landscaped lightwell at the entrance, inviting daylight into this subterranean space.
On the one hand, the very formal part of the house entertains guests, while a very informal and intimate space—flanked by an outdoor kitchen, pool, and play courts—becomes the central gathering space for the family. The interweaving of a very formal agenda with a very informal recreational area is one of my favorite parts of the design.Tom Kundig, FAIA, RIBA
Design Principal
CASBS Administrative Building at Stanford University
Stanford, CA
Team
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Charlotte Essex
Alex Fritz
Katherine Ranieri