View Finder

For his own Potrero Hill home, architect Neal Schwartz turned a boxy 1950s house into a showcase for sunlight and views.

photography by Matthew Millman

The combination of mahogany and stucco with casement windows makes the modern facade more approachable.

I might have thought twice about starting this project if I knew how hard it would be,” says Neal Schwartz. The architect and principal of San Francisco–based Schwartz and Architecture discovered the harsh realities of remodeling firsthand when he set out to design his own home in Potrero Hill. “When we moved in, I continually referred to the remodel as ‘just adding a box of space.’ It was out of sheer naiveté that we took the project on,” he admits.

When Schwartz and his partner, attorney Ron Flynn, decided to start looking for a house of their own in 2000, it was because their loft had suddenly gotten quite crowded. They had just acquired Bruno, a Swiss mountain dog puppy, and he was fast on his way to reaching his mature 100-pound size. On the hunt for a yard that Bruno could run around in, they came across a property in Potrero Hill that seemed to fit the bill. The original structure was a nondescript two-story building from the 1950s, but it had great views. And while the house itself was a modest 800 square feet, it had a 25-by-25-foot concrete pad that extended from the back. “It was almost like a building site just waiting to happen,” says Schwartz.

On weekends, Schwartz would obsessively sketch out designs for the remodel. He essentially doubled the footprint of the existing house to 1,300 square feet. On the ground floor, he created his architectural office behind the garage. He added a new master bedroom to the second floor, turning the existing living room and a bedroom into a guest suite. Then he created a completely new third floor with a large deck in front. “I basically needed the second floor to prop up the third floor, in order to take advantage of the views,” explains Schwartz.

(LEFT): The kitchen’s square window frames Sutro Tower perfectly; (RIGHT): From the small courtyard on the second floor, the stairs continue up to the top-floor deck. When Schwartz throws parties, his guests can go straight up to the home’s main entertaining spaces.

Today, the outdoor stairwell has become “the heart of the house,” as Schwartz describes it. “It’s the space you are always looking or moving through.” This exterior courtyard, which he and Flynn have dubbed the “magnificent light well,” also brings natural light deep into the interior of the home, solving one of the ubiquitous problems of San Francisco row houses.

Inspired by the courtyards of 1950s Case Study houses, Schwartz sketched out a small outdoor space, a “secret, private world” within the house. “I wanted to balance the openness of the views with a sense of privacy,” he says. Removing the roof from the existing staircase, he created an open-air landing where the second bedroom had been.

More than four years later—including a year-and-a-half when Schwartz and Flynn lived on the second floor while the upper floor was being finished—their home was finally completed. “Over those years, we lived in every room in the house,” says Schwartz.

 

Meanwhile, the top floor definitely delivers on the panoramic views. In front, Potrero Hill stretches out below; in back, there’s a postcard-perfect view of Sutro Tower. The kitchen, dining area and living room share one lofty space, while the ample front deck, facing east, captures the warm rays on sunny mornings. The expansive appeal is aided by immense glass doors that provide a clear line of sight from one view to the other. “The upper level feels like another world,” says Schwartz. “I still get the sense of discovery and the feeling of getting away from everything.”

(LEFT): A stairway from the second floor leads from the master bedroom down to Schwartz’s architectural office and gives their dog Bruno free range of the garden; (RIGHT): Schwartz (in foreground) stands at the kitchen counter with partner Ron Flynn and Bruno.

Schwartz’s approach to modern design was honed during a traveling fellowship after architecture school, when he spent time in Berlin and Northern Europe. He developed a particular affinity for the work of Alvar Aalto. “It’s about balancing the minimal with a lot of wood and a lot of warmth, anywhere you touch the house,” he says. In this house, the touchable elements include the “welcome mat” of stones set into the floor of the courtyard, the screen of mahogany slats in the stairwell and the Pietra Cardoza kitchen countertops (“They have the beautiful veining of limestone but the durability of granite,” he says).

Since moving from Boston to the Bay Area and starting his practice in 1993, Schwartz has developed a reputation as an accomplished practitioner of modernist architecture, someone who isn’t afraid to mix it up with the city’s historic styles. One of the better-known examples of his work, on Wisconsin Street in Potrero Hill, has a modern third story added onto an existing Spanish Revival–style row house.

“One thing I try to do, especially with small projects, is to create a sense of disorientation, of being lost,” says Schwartz. “It makes the space more fun to live in.”

He’s seen that in action at his own house. When guests come through the front door, he’s noticed that many don’t realize that the covered entry leads to another open space. “A lot of people will come up the stairs and it doesn’t dawn on them until they look up and exclaim, ‘Oh my God, I’m still outside,’” says Schwartz. “I really love that sense of surprise.

Taken from the October 2007 issue of our sister publication, California Home+Design. For more than a decade, CH+D has informed, celebrated and inspired the nation's most influential home and design market. Subscribe now.

photography by Matthew Millman

The combination of mahogany and stucco with casement windows makes the modern facade more approachable.

I might have thought twice about starting this project if I knew how hard it would be,” says Neal Schwartz. The architect and principal of San Francisco–based Schwartz and Architecture discovered the harsh realities of remodeling firsthand when he set out to design his own home in Potrero Hill. “When we moved in, I continually referred to the remodel as ‘just adding a box of space.’ It was out of sheer naiveté that we took the project on,” he admits.

When Schwartz and his partner, attorney Ron Flynn, decided to start looking for a house of their own in 2000, it was because their loft had suddenly gotten quite crowded. They had just acquired Bruno, a Swiss mountain dog puppy, and he was fast on his way to reaching his mature 100-pound size. On the hunt for a yard that Bruno could run around in, they came across a property in Potrero Hill that seemed to fit the bill. The original structure was a nondescript two-story building from the 1950s, but it had great views. And while the house itself was a modest 800 square feet, it had a 25-by-25-foot concrete pad that extended from the back. “It was almost like a building site just waiting to happen,” says Schwartz.

On weekends, Schwartz would obsessively sketch out designs for the remodel. He essentially doubled the footprint of the existing house to 1,300 square feet. On the ground floor, he created his architectural office behind the garage. He added a new master bedroom to the second floor, turning the existing living room and a bedroom into a guest suite. Then he created a completely new third floor with a large deck in front. “I basically needed the second floor to prop up the third floor, in order to take advantage of the views,” explains Schwartz.

(LEFT): The kitchen’s square window frames Sutro Tower perfectly; (RIGHT): From the small courtyard on the second floor, the stairs continue up to the top-floor deck. When Schwartz throws parties, his guests can go straight up to the home’s main entertaining spaces.

Today, the outdoor stairwell has become “the heart of the house,” as Schwartz describes it. “It’s the space you are always looking or moving through.” This exterior courtyard, which he and Flynn have dubbed the “magnificent light well,” also brings natural light deep into the interior of the home, solving one of the ubiquitous problems of San Francisco row houses.

Inspired by the courtyards of 1950s Case Study houses, Schwartz sketched out a small outdoor space, a “secret, private world” within the house. “I wanted to balance the openness of the views with a sense of privacy,” he says. Removing the roof from the existing staircase, he created an open-air landing where the second bedroom had been.

More than four years later—including a year-and-a-half when Schwartz and Flynn lived on the second floor while the upper floor was being finished—their home was finally completed. “Over those years, we lived in every room in the house,” says Schwartz.

Meanwhile, the top floor definitely delivers on the panoramic views. In front, Potrero Hill stretches out below; in back, there’s a postcard-perfect view of Sutro Tower. The kitchen, dining area and living room share one lofty space, while the ample front deck, facing east, captures the warm rays on sunny mornings. The expansive appeal is aided by immense glass doors that provide a clear line of sight from one view to the other. “The upper level feels like another world,” says Schwartz. “I still get the sense of discovery and the feeling of getting away from everything.”

(LEFT): A stairway from the second floor leads from the master bedroom down to Schwartz’s architectural office and gives their dog Bruno free range of the garden; (RIGHT): Schwartz (in foreground) stands at the kitchen counter with partner Ron Flynn and Bruno.

Schwartz’s approach to modern design was honed during a traveling fellowship after architecture school, when he spent time in Berlin and Northern Europe. He developed a particular affinity for the work of Alvar Aalto. “It’s about balancing the minimal with a lot of wood and a lot of warmth, anywhere you touch the house,” he says. In this house, the touchable elements include the “welcome mat” of stones set into the floor of the courtyard, the screen of mahogany slats in the stairwell and the Pietra Cardoza kitchen countertops (“They have the beautiful veining of limestone but the durability of granite,” he says).

Since moving from Boston to the Bay Area and starting his practice in 1993, Schwartz has developed a reputation as an accomplished practitioner of modernist architecture, someone who isn’t afraid to mix it up with the city’s historic styles. One of the better-known examples of his work, on Wisconsin Street in Potrero Hill, has a modern third story added onto an existing Spanish Revival–style row house.

“One thing I try to do, especially with small projects, is to create a sense of disorientation, of being lost,” says Schwartz. “It makes the space more fun to live in.”

He’s seen that in action at his own house. When guests come through the front door, he’s noticed that many don’t realize that the covered entry leads to another open space. “A lot of people will come up the stairs and it doesn’t dawn on them until they look up and exclaim, ‘Oh my God, I’m still outside,’” says Schwartz. “I really love that sense of surprise.

Taken from the October 2007 issue of our sister publication, California Home+Design. For more than a decade, CH+D has informed, celebrated and inspired the nation's most influential home and design market. Subscribe now.

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