Suspended between two beautiful California hills, this remodel spans a creek and boasts a waterfall in the back yard.

To build such a house anew is no longer allowed in California, but following strict guidelines, we reconceived an existing structure, transforming the relationships between home, water and land. A steel frame inserted beneath the original floors anchors the home to the rocky hillsides, thus allowing us to remove supporting columns from within the creek bed.

A human-made object in nature may exist in harmony or disparity. Our goal was to deepen this home’s connection to the environment, creating a place where our clients can live immersed within an exceptional landscape. Taking care to protect and restore the land, we suspended the renovated house between two wooded hills, where it overlooks a rushing waterfall and spans the creek below.

A third floor addition strikes a more slender profile facing east, to engage the breadth of the site. The experience is one of being in nature and also humbled by it.

The goal with this unique site was to enhance the relationship of the structure to the nearby bodies of water and the rock face.  Rather than bearing down and disturbing the creek below, the new structural system has been anchored to the bedrock within the flanks of the hill, suspending the home