Project Description
Located high on the side of a canyon that branches off the Napa Valley, the residence seamlessly blends into its setting.
The client’s vision was to construct a home in which it is hard to tell where the house stops and the landscape begins. The 13,000 gsf main house occupies one of the last available ridge top sites in Napa Valley with sweeping views of the San Francisco Bay to the south, and the length and breadth of the Napa Valley. The guest house served as a successful testing ground for design ideas used in the main house on the ridge above. Designed to merge into the landscape, the guest house incorporates the use of wood trellises, stone elements and colored stucco that reflect the color palette of the surrounding hills.
Limited by local ordinances to 995 gsf of interior space, the plan more than doubles the usable area by adding a covered loggia between the bedroom suites, decks and a courtyard. Upon entering the main house, one crosses a rich white Alhambra limestone floor to the living room. Sliding doors reveal a dramatic wrap-around stone-paved terrace, which spills into the game room linking the interior to a second terrace accessing the pool area. A door in the game room reveals a spiral staircase leading down to a 1,750 gsf wine cave. The wine cave is a series of rooms leading out to daylight at a portal, landscaped with planting and a seating area, with views of Mount St. Helena to the North.