We were asked to renovate a house overlooking an expansive valley. The existing house was too massive in relation to the hillside it occupied. We were tasked with framing the view in a meaningful way at the interior and to recompose the exterior to reduce the heavy massing. To minimize the massiveness, we eliminated the pitched roof, eliminated the tall bay window at the front elevation, and created a darker garage level to allow the upper two habitable levels to float above. The result was a more horizontal articulation of the building that was better suited to the hillside.
