Project Info
Architect: Jonathan Feldman / Feldman Architecture, San Francisco
Contractor: Kyle Mortz /Art of Construction, San Francisco
Priorities
• Update the home while keeping its Victorian charm • Create three bedrooms on the upper level
• Design a home that would satisfy a variety of possible buyers
2013 Remodeling Design Awards: Best of Year Winner
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Architect Jonathan Feldman brings this Victorian back to life and into the 21st century.
Solutions
An abandoned construction site was what architect Jonathan Feldman found when he was asked by developer Lindsay Chambers of Hazel.Wood Design Group to help her renovate this home for a future sale. Feldman hadn’t even seen the original layout of the turn-of-the-century Victorian. “It was an interesting puzzle for us,” Feldman says. “We had to figure out what to keep and what not to.”
The team also wanted to design a home that would work for a family with three bedrooms on one level, a rarity in this Noe Valley community, but with flex space for other configurations.
In a collaboration with Chambers and interior designer Lisa Lougee, Feldman created a space that fits the needs of today’s homeowners with two bedrooms and a master suite on the upper level. They restored the exterior Victorian character, a modern glass door being the only tip off that “the house has been altered and something different is going on.”
Feldman saw the interior as a time capsule with the front remaining more closely connect to the past architecturally. The traditional, more expected—smaller, cuter—bedrooms are in the front, and in the back the master suite “is more open and unexpectedly new.”
So that the overall design isn’t jarring, Feldman anchors the modern portion of the house to its traditional roots by using a lot of built-ins, wainscoting, and crafted woodwork, much of it by cabinetmaker Aaron Robinson. “It was a way to give a warm, old-school character to the more modern rooms,” Feldman says.
Judges’ Comments
The judges loved that this home fits in with the architecture of San Francisco and doesn’t try to overpower its neighbors, yet has a contemporary interpretation. They were most impressed by the restraint in the design: “The combination of … modern design elements and restoration and the interior spaces, the use of stone and color. It’s just really nicely edited.” They appreciate that the designers “took liberties” with the back of the home, which “doesn’t’ just look like a back end of a house.” And they praised the home’s livability. “It’s very comfortable—for a real family.”
Products:
Bathroom plumbing fittings: Kallista One, shower; Water Decor, tub filler
Bathroom plumbing fixtures: Wet Style
Bathroom cabinets: Mark Brady Cabinetry
Brick/masonry products: ELG Studio through SpecStone, deck tiles
Countertops: Pietra Fina, marble
Dishwasher: Viking
Entry doors: custom with 3Form panel inset
Fireplace: Montigo
Flooring: Amber Flooring, oak, natural oil
Hardware: Emtek, door knobs; Linnea, kitchen knobs
Master bath vanity: Mockett
Interior doors: NanaWall
Kitchen cabinets: Mark Brady Cabinetry
Kitchen plumbing fixtures: Blanco
Lighting fixtures: Acquatinta by Michele de Lucchi
Oven: Viking
Paints/Stains: C2, Philips Perfect Colors
Refrigerator: Sub-Zero
Skylights/roof windows: Velux
Windows: Marvin
Other: Art of Construction, fabrication of metal stair, handrail, and screen; Theissen Glass; Walker Zanger, Vibe bath tile; Integrated Resources Group Calcutta marble
