WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
A Portola Valley home welcomes the outdoors in with style.
Before they’ve even entered this Portola Valley residence, visitors can see they’ll be greeted by the dog of the house, an exuberant Australian shepherd, who pants at the other side of the French doors. Once the appropriately effusive introductions have been made, guests pass between two life-size wrought-iron pomegranate trees by sculptor Luciano Zanoni. Within a small niche, a small statue of St. Francis of Assisi presides, another sign that this space is meant for all creatures. In this quasi-rural area, populated by rabbits, deer, coyotes and even mountain lions, the outdoors is celebrated. The home is deliberately casual, allowing the surroundings to take precedence.
The homeowners have a longstanding connection to the area: The husband is originally from Portola Valley, eight miles west of Palo Alto. He and his wife, who had lived here for many years, had the opportunity to purchase a 1.5-acre site high in the Westridge neighborhood, with a superlative view of the Windy Hill Open Space Preserve. With two grown sons and twin teenage boys, the couple set out to create a residence that would accommodate large family gatherings
well into the future. “We wanted something that was really simple, low maintenance and took advantage of the views,” says the wife.
An enormous native blue oak, which stretches out its gnarled arms, marks the entrance of the 7,500-square-foot, four-bedroom home. To keep the main house at one story, a lower level was excavated to create the garage, a family room, a wine cellar and additional storage space. The U-shaped house has a classic layout centered on around a courtyard, which maximizes natural light and views through its long wings and walls of French doors.
“I’m always captivated by the long sight lines between the spaces,” says the husband, who especially enjoys the view from the master bedroom through the courtyard to the distant hills. “They prove that the house and the land are deeply connected, and maybe almost one.”
The architecture, by San Francisco design studio Butler Armsden Architects, is based on the Spanish adobes of early California history, and as such is reassuringly familiar. Pitched roofs, wood-beam ceilings and steel-framed French doors are all part of the architectural vernacular. Most of the home is clad in greige steel-troweled stucco, but one end is covered in board-and-batten siding to create the impression that the building has evolved over time. Lofty ceiling heights — up to 16 feet — and modern interiors keep it fresh: There are no door thresholds or baseboards, and walls of built-in cabinetry keep the spaces calm and uncluttered.
“It’s much easier to practice in an architectural vocabulary that’s overtly traditional or overtly modern,” says firm principal Lewis Butler. “The goal in this house was not to get caught up in one or the other, but to design something that’s stylistically independent.”
The interiors, which were designed by Butler Armsden’s Glenda Flaim, have a subdued richness that comes from their strong material qualities. “The clients have a very specific eye for detail and like things that are beautiful in their simplicity,” says Flaim.
The living room is anchored by a board-formed concrete fireplace, which structurally supports the roof. “In the winter, we’ll put on a fire and have a cocktail here almost every evening,” says the wife. The
bar and den, the husband’s favorite place to watch sports and entertain guests, are handsomely paneled in walnut. Over in the master suite, a custom carpet of thick white felted wool cushions bare feet. The wife’s dressing room/office is simple but glamorous: Its built-in cabinetry is upholstered in white leather for a soft yet durable surface.
Another highlight is the outdoor dining room. Shaded by a roof overhang, the porch has restaurant-style wall-mounted heaters and a row of outdoor curtains that can be drawn to keep drafts out at night. Three Petit Friture Vertigo pendants, which look like impossibly delicate ceiling fans, spin in the breeze over a custom dining table of Monterey cypress. It’s long enough to accommodate 20 people, which is how many were seated here this past Christmas. “We really wanted to maximize the season with this covered porch, but we didn’t think it would stretch all the way to the end of December,” says Butler.
Beyond the porch is a tranquil backyard of native grasses. The view from there continues uninterrupted for miles to the slopes of Windy Hill. To keep the focus on the wild spaces, the architects placed the lap pool to one side of the backyard, so that it is perpendicular rather than parallel to the porch. “The site always informs the project,” says Flaim. “This quintessential California landscape was very inspiring.”