The owners of this 1924 Tudor Revival house knew they were taking a chance when they bought it several years ago, intending to remove it and build new. The well-loved neighborhood, walkable to downtown Burlingame, was marked as a potential historic district, which meant that any plans for the house had to go through a historic review process. And sure enough, when the report came back, they were prohibited from tearing it down.
Enter TRG Architecture + Interiors, whom the clients—a couple with three school-age children—hired to see how the house could accommodate their ambitious program. It soon became apparent that the addition they needed would literally require a heavy lift—moving the 3,200-square-foot house from the middle to the southeast side of their half-acre lot. “The family hosts lots of fundraisers and community gatherings,” says principal Randy Grange, AIA. “They wanted a place to have big, catered events, with a lot of indoor-outdoor flow and different places to do activities.”
After the house was settled onto its new foundation, they built a modern wing to the northwest, resulting in an L-shaped plan facing south, with a transparent entry hall and bridge linking the old and new. The 4,800-square-foot addition juts into the deep backyard; it contains a new family room, kitchen, and dining room, with a primary suite on the second level and a theater, game room, and gym in the basement. The updated Tudor portion houses the formal spaces, including a living room, two offices, a guest room, and a mudroom off the existing driveway. Upstairs, two en-suite bedrooms, a laundry, and a playroom/third bedroom circle around the original two-story space overlooking the library.
“It was a case of making lemonade out of lemons,” Randy says. “It was a difficult task to insert a modern building into that neighborhood, but because we were contrasting it with the historic resource, we were able to get away with it, and that drove it into a fun zone.”
Interlocked
In the process of gutting nearly the entire house, the team removed one-story dining room and sitting room additions at the rear. The library was preserved, but the breakfast room and part of the kitchen were turned into an office at the back of the house, and the back stairway became a mudroom. Finally, removing a wall in the former entry hall resulted in a larger living room. The second-floor rooms remained largely the same, except for the addition of a girls’ bath where the stair had been, and an en-suite bath in the son’s room that was carved from attic space at the front of the house. The girls’ shared bedroom received a flat-roofed dormer, creating a light-filled lounge and balcony facing the backyard.
Although all finishes except in the library are new, the original details were carefully dismantled, documented, and refurbished or replicated. “The clients wanted to bring the old part back to life,” says interiors principal Leslie Lamarre. “We replicated the original window trim and baseboards and recreated the living room’s paneling and coffered ceiling.” The wood front door was restored, too; it opens to a new brick patio and planter outside the living room—a copy of the original entry terrace.
Handblown glass was inserted into new windows on the office and library, evoking the wavy pattern of the old ones. “The original house was neglected quite a bit,” says project manager Samaneh Nili. “We replaced the roof and stucco and replicated the fascia details and half-timbering, keeping the character of the defining details.” That included the chimney, which was taken down to move the house. While the previous stucco had been painted gray, the new stucco is white, as shown in historic photographs.
With the addition’s short side facing the street, those restorative moves more than satisfied the historic commission. “The old and new are interlocked, the yin and the yang,” Leslie says. “Right behind the girls’ bedroom, everything comes together and you see how the old and new are attached.”
“When you see the house from the front, the old part is the dominant half,” adds Randy. “In the back it almost becomes a little cartoon off to the side.”
Light Box
Indeed, a prominent feature of the rear elevation is the two-story, Cor-Ten-clad stair tower that connects the two parts of the house. A Chicago-based metal artist built the staircase. “The way it’s built, it’s holding its own weight,” says Samaneh. “Its transparency brings a lot of light to the basement.” On the upper level, a glassy bridge separates the primary suite from the kids’ bedrooms.
“To connect the two, we ended up with a corridor facing southwest and wanted it to be airy and glassy but knew it would bake in the sun,” says Samaneh. “We found an exterior louver system that pockets into a narrow band at the roof.” Installed on the primary suite and the bridge, its adjustable blades can be lowered or raised, disappearing into the roof.
Long and narrow for light penetration and an indoor-outdoor feel, the addition’s rooms were finished in wide-plank oak flooring. In the kitchen, light-colored quartzite countertops complement the white oak cabinetry and ebonized uppers, while a slab of live-edge elm extends the island seating. A cove-lit “cube” floating between the kitchen and dining room contains a coat closet and powder room facing the entryway, a storage closet and pantry serving the bar on the opposite wall, and a wine closet on the dining room side.
Upstairs, the primary bedroom balcony is enfolded in a green roof atop the family room. In the adjoining bath, serene white oak casework is mixed with marble countertops and accent shower tile, while watery-patterned porcelain floor tile and a shapely tub lend organic grace. The designers had some fun with wallpaper. Silver wallpaper with geometric fan shapes adds a glam touch to the noir finishes in the cube’s powder room. Over in the old part of the house, gilded beetles decorate the walls of another powder room, and stylized bluebirds flit among swirly clouds on the girls’ bedroom ceiling.
Outside, the original detached garage was preserved, but the pool house behind it was rebuilt. “Because it was behind the pitched-roof garage, we could make it modern without affecting the relationship between the two structures,” Randy says.
As you move through the house on both floors, the dichotomy between the classical and new spaces is quite clear. The project not only satisfied a discerning historic commission but presented a puzzle that pleased the architects. “This project was a great excuse to do a modern building in this old neighborhood, and there was good justification for it,” says project architect Yossi Zinger, AIA. “We took it as an opportunity.”
Tudor Revival
Burlingame, California
Architect: Randy Grange, AIA, principal in charge; Yossi Zinger, AIA, project architect; Samaneh Nili, project manager, TRG Architecture + Interior Design, San Mateo, California
Builder: JP Lindstrom, Burlingame, California
Interior designer: Leslie Lamarre, interiors principal in charge; Erika Shjeflo, project manager, TRG Architecture + Interiors
Landscape architect: Mike Callan, San Mateo, California
Structural engineer: BKG Structural Engineers, San Carlos, California
Civil engineer: KPROX Civil Engineering, Palo Alto, California
Mechanical engineer: Blue Forest Engineering, Oakland, California
Electrical engineer: Atium Engineering, San Ramon, California
Project size: 8,959 square feet (including garage and pool house)
Site size: 0.5 acre
Construction cost: Withheld
Photography: R. Brad Knipstein Photography (except where noted)
Key Products
Cabinetry: Henrybuilt
Cabinetry hardware: Henrybuilt, Armac Martin, Turnstyle Designs
Cladding: Accoya, Cor-Ten steel
Cooking vent hood: Modern Air
Cooktop: La Cornue
Countertops: Bianco quartzite, Caprice White honed marble, quartzite Nera
Dishwasher: Asko, Miele, Fisher & Paykel
Entry doors and hardware: Pacific Sash & Design, Sun Valley Bronze hardware
Exterior Venetian blinds: Warema
Fireplace: Da Vinci Fireplaces
Flooring: Carlisle wide plank, Oak-Urban Collection, Swaying Hammock
Faucets: VOLA, Watermark, Kohler, Dornbracht, Galley, Rohl, Zip Water
Green roof: LiveRoof Green Roof System
Icemaker: U-Line
Lighting: Element
Lighting control systems: Crestron Electronics
Millwork: Fry Reglet
Outdoor grill, pizza oven, refrigerator, smoker cabinet: Kalamazoo
Outdoor heaters: Infratech
Ovens: Wolf
Paints/stains: Benjamin Moore (black beauty) Classic Gray (exterior)
Refrigerator: Sub-Zero
Roofing: Timberline Roofing Shingles
Skylights: VELUX Sun Tunnel
Stair: David Green—Iron & Wire
Tile: Sonoma Tilemakers, Artistic Tile, Red Rock Tileworks, Fireclay, Ann Sacks
Toilets: TOTO, Kohler
Towel heaters: Dacor
Vanities: Henrybuilt
Wallpaper: Calico, Abnormals Anonymous, Designers Guild
Washer/dryer: Electrolux
Window shading systems: Crestron Electronics
Window wall systems: Fleetwood Windows & Doors
Windows: Fleetwood Windows & Doors, Kolbe Windows
Click image to view full-size gallery.