Lerdal Residence
San Francisco, Calif.
Kuth Ranieri Architects

A draped glass facade moderates light and unifies the whole of this house

For more photos click on 'photos & drawings' above.

Located in an urban residential area adjacent to the fog-enshrouded Presidio Park, this 6,000 square foot, single-family residence was designed for a couple with three children. The house contains a full-story master suite and three bedrooms, as well as a gallery and large family room opening to the garden. The project is in great part informed by the client’s extensive collection of contemporary photography, as well as the adjacent park, where sunlight softened by the trees is reflected onto the building, moderating the light in the same way as do the daily cycles of fog.

The facade, a curtain wall of translucent glass, furthers the architects’ investigations into the development of synthetic systems of surface. It is designed to assimilate the various programmatic distinctions among the parts of the house, including the floors, rooms, front entry awning, cornice, and other detailing, rendering them as part of a seamless assembly of material and gesture.

The veiled cavity of the draped glass skin of the building allows for the play of light, shadow, and reflection within the thickness of the wall. Like the film behind the camera’s lens, the diaphanous screen of the facade records and indexes the changing external landscape of site and circumstance.

Formal name of building:
Lerdal Residence

Location:
San Francisco, Calif.

Gross Square Footage:
6,400 sq. ft.

Owner:
Mark and Carol Lerdal

Architect:
Kuth Ranieri Architects
340 Bryant St. #300
San Francisco, CA 94107

Project Team:
Byron Kuth, AIA, Elizabeth Ranieri, AIA, Rebecca Sharkey,
Elmer Lin, Andrew Dunbar

Engineer:
Lang Engineering

Consultant(s):
Landscape –
GLS Architecture/Landscape Architecture

Lighting –
Architecture and Light

Photovoltaic Consultant–
High Sun Engineering

Contractor:
Matarozzi Pelsinger Builders

Renderer(s):
Rebecca Sharkey, Caroline Cassavoy

CAD system, project management, or other software used:
VectorWorks www.nemetschek.net, FormZ www.formz.com