A Closer Look: At Home on a Hilltop
Straddling a Sonoma ridge, this contemporary house is an edgy mix of weathered boards, corrugated metal, and a plan that invites outdoor living
Architect Obie Bowman employed the site-repair approach to siting this contemporary retirement home: The best spots on the site are reserved for picnicking and outdoor living, while the house and back porch nestle the hillside. A multi-purpose portal serves as garage, shed and workshop and includes a signature Bowman element overhead: a take-notice log lintel. It’s visitors’ first clue that the path to the Weber house leads to good design.
Read At Home on a Hilltop to learn more about Bowman’s approach to designing this house.
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The path to the Weber house leads through a portal in a long, low building at the head of the driveway. The portal’s entry is topped with a massive redwood log, held aloft by a quartet of timber-framed brackets. It is a timeless expression of strength and longevity. A V-shaped gutter let into the top of the log channels runoff to the left. All photos: Charles Miller
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Follow the path to the main house. Weathered redwood and corrugated steel siding echo hilltop hues.
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Part garage, part woodshop and part garden shed, this building also serves as the eastern border of a hilltop courtyard. Translucent panels woven into the corrugated roofing daylight the shop and garage.
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The hill falls away to the south, so steep as to make it unwalkable. Tucked into the madrone and live oak trees, a deck off the guest room faces east, overlooking the ravine below.
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A common roof connects the guest room and the main house, with an opening between the two.
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The southwest-facing porch stretches nearly the entire length of the main house. Above its roof, wooden awnings shield the windows from the summer sun.
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A patio with a built-in grill spreads out next to the door to the guest house.
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From above, the timbered passage between the two parts of the house frames the view of a favorite oak tree. On the left, a storage space lies behind a door that hangs from rollers in a barn-door track.
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Tiled in slate, the guest-room bath features a door-less, step-down shower topped with a skylight.
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The bath’s lavatory is let into a counter overlooking the bedroom below. Its mirror hangs from cables affixed to a beam.
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Hal and Mary’s rustic red cabinet, received as a wedding present, sits in a dedicated notch in the wall outside the master bath.
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Wide shelves at the stair landing from the bedroom to the main floor make gallery space for a prized collection of ceramic pots, wooden bowls and a chest of drawers.
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A bank of windows overlooking the courtyard puts anybody in the kitchen in close touch with the landscape.
