Delightful Illusion

The owners of this custom residence in Kenwood, Calif., can transport themselves from the urban setting of their primary residence in San Francisco into surroundings that were painstakingly planned and crafted to evoke the charm and character of a villa in Tuscany.

In fact, much about this house is illusory, though it was done with a specific intent, architect Tom Taylor says. Although it is only a year old, from the outside the home easily could be mistaken for one with a lengthy history on a hillside in Italy. A closer look at its design and finishes, however, reveals details inspired from other parts of the world, including the South Pacific, Mexico and Morocco.

"We had to work really hard to get the historic look of true Tuscan masonry for the home's exterior," Taylor says. The finish includes a combination of natural stone from Colorado accented by a variety of colored tile fragments. Taylor says the secret was in setting these materials flush with the mortar, in a similar fashion practiced by Italian masons.

"These artisans worked to create a smooth building surface using stone, tile and mortar because everything was intended to be covered up by a layer of stucco," Taylor says. For this home's 5x8-foot pattern, samples were created and discarded to get the design right. It took months to come up with the right blend and technique, Taylor says.

Inside, the home features a single, ballroom-size, multifunctional living space, flanked on either side by the owners' wing and a guest wing. "While on the surface it appears to be a very simple plan, it was not simple at all to design," Taylor says. The main room measures 68x34 feet and has a soaring 21-foot ceiling. "It was the largest interior residential space we've ever done, and it required a lot of additional structural work that would not detract from the open feeling of the room," Taylor says.

Builder Jim Murphy, who has experience in both commercial and custom residential projects, adds, "We had to incorporate a lot more steel beams, cast-in-place concrete and hidden supports into this home than we would for a more conventional one. I relied heavily on my commercial construction knowledge for this particular home."

Two 14-foot-high bronze entry doors open into the main living space, taking the place of a formal foyer. The position of the furnishings and three massive chandeliers define the various functions of the room, creating a conversation area, a dining area and a kitchen.

The portion of the kitchen visible from the living area is what Taylor calls the show kitchen. Designed for entertaining, this striking space includes concrete countertops, a brick bread/pizza oven and hand-distressed alder cabinetry. "The actual working kitchen is tucked out of sight in the pantry that adjoins the space," Taylor says.

A 60x10-foot wall of pocketing sliding glass doors between the main house and loggia provides a seamless transition from the indoor living space to the outdoor. This indoor/outdoor connection was an important design element for the clients, who vacation in the South Pacific, Taylor says. "They wanted to recapture that same informal island feel in their own home."

The home features hydronic heating and an artfully stained concrete floor throughout the interior. For continuity, the same flooring extends outdoors to the loggia. Only the home office has a wood floor, which gives it a more formal ambience, Taylor says. This personal retreat also includes a circular staircase leading to a below-grade wine cellar.

The 20-acre estate also includes a negative-edge pool flanked on either side by detached pavilions designed to appear as though they are modern additions. One outbuilding serves as a guesthouse. The other is an entertaining space that includes a kitchen.

The home was completed in February 2002.

Style of Home | Tuscan
Location | Kenwood, Calif.
Total Square Footage | 6,955
Builder | Jim Murphy & Associates, Santa Rosa, Calif.
Architect | Brandenburger Taylor Lombardo LLP, San Francisco
Interior Designer | Jerrine Barrett Interiors, Menlo Park, Calif.
Custom secondary residence for upscale client

Major Products Used | Appliances: Sub-Zero (refrigerator), Thermador (range), Miele (dishwasher) | Cabinetry: custom alder | Countertops: concrete | Plumbing Fixtures: Dornbracht, Waterworks | Doors: Craftsmen in Wood (interior), Albertini (exterior) | Home Controls & Automation: LiteTouch | Home Theater: Runco, Plasma TV, Sony | Sound System: Runco, Sony | HVAC: Bryant | Windows: Albertini | Exterior: natural stone | Insulating Concrete Form System: Arxx Building Products | Roofing: Redland Tile

Rather than building this custom home with standard wood-frame construction, builder Jim Murphy's crew used an insulating concrete form (ICF) system faced with an 8-inch layer of natural stone to create the extra-thick, 21-inch exterior walls specified by architect Tom Taylor. "While there is a learning curve to any new process, this project really went pretty smoothly," Murphy says.

ICFs are a relatively new technology in which expanded polystyrene forms are used to create a home's structural walls. For this process, the lightweight, high-insulation foam forms are filled with concrete and, unlike temporary wooden forms, remain in place permanently, becoming an integral part of the completed wall.

While a variety of ICFs are on the market, the interlocking system that Taylor and Murphy selected for this home provides insulation, an air/vapor barrier and space for steel reinforcing rods in each block. It also offers a variety of forms to reduce the need for custom cuts.

For the interior walls, channels are grooved into the surface of the form to accommodate electrical work. The interior walls in this home then were finished with plaster over blue board.

The benefits of ICF construction include reduced temperature fluctuation, a stronger, quieter structure and increased energy efficiency, says Taylor, who was pleased with the results on this project.

"The scale of this home is one of the things that make it so special," he says. "It is really the solid walls that give the house a whole different feel. It seems as though it has been entirely constructed out of masonry."