“How do you deal with the ethos of a historically significant building? You don’t shy away from it—you push it forward and create something unique and of its time, yet compatible with the old,” a judge said approvingly of the McIntyre renovation. This 1961 house by Joseph Esherick had been oddly compartmentalized at the request of the original owners, with a sunken central atrium they’d used as a winter garden. “Esherick designed the house for a very specific couple,” says architect Richard Beard, FAIA. “That meant it had some eccentricities, but the eccentricities were crafted in a way that made them easy to turn into assets for the new clients.”
In a clean sweep that preserved most of the original room locations, the isolated atrium was repurposed as a glorious living space with new visual connections to both sides of the house and the bedroom wing behind it. The 24-by-32-foot skylight was replaced and its sculptural concrete framework refitted with LEDs. With the greenhouse effect gone, the room sparkles with artwork, citron accents that echo the gardens, and flexible furnishings for hosting large and small gatherings. Dispensing with a formal dining room, the renewed kitchen now opens to a dining area and family room, and bedrooms received en suite baths. Refurbished or replaced finishes reflect the original palette of stucco, wood, and concrete. Respectful and polished, the new work beautifully focuses the house’s most striking features while adapting it for modern living.
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Citation
Custom Period or Vernacular Renovation
Richard Beard Architects
McIntyre House
San Francisco
Project Credits
Architect: Richard Beard, FAIA, principal in charge; Adam King, senior project manager, Richard Beard Architects, San Francisco
Builder: Louis Ptak Construction, Pacific Grove, California
Interior designer: Wiseman Group,
San Francisco
Landscape architect: Strata Landscape Architecture, San Francisco
Lighting designer: Banks Landl Lighting Design, San Francisco
Project size: 9,165 square feet
Site size: 2.2 acres
Photography: José Manuel Alorda
Key Products
cooktop/oven/warming drawer: Wolf
Countertops: Neolith, Oro, statuary marble
Dishwasher: Miele
Entry doors and hardware:
Torrance Steel Window Co., Collier,
Liberty Valley Doors
Faucets: Dornbracht, Kohler, Pfister
Kitchen backsplash: Heath Ceramics
Lighting: Lucifer
Lighting control systems: Lutron
Refrigerator/freezer: Sub-Zero
Roof windows: Collier
Roofing: Johns Manville
Sinks: Julien, Kohler
Toilets: TOTO
Washer/dryer: Whirlpool
Windows: Torrance
