For decades, “modern” architecture was a specialized oddity. Hugely popular in parts of Southern California, but in the Bay Area this modern style was overshadowed by the traditional home idiom. Too unusual and dated for some tastes, contemporary design has found a new audience over the past two decades. Today, there are individuals in the Bay Area who swear by the sharp, uncluttered lines found in modern architecture and interior design.
Too often, people think San Francisco is the only place to find homes with clean, modern lines. While it’s true that certain city neighborhoods are known for contemporary design – SOMA, Clarendon Heights, and even Noe Valley come to mind – the Peninsula has its own treasure trove of Bay Area modern homes. You just have to know where to look.
Right now I’ve got a listing at 2 Homs Court (pictured), in Lower Hillsborough, that is as cutting-edge Bay Area Modern contemporary as anything you’d find perched on the side of Russian Hill. Designed in 1986 by San Francisco architects House & House, this limestone-clad six-bedroom home is the epitome of sophisticated modern design, infusing dramatic urban flair into this quintessential Lower Hillsborough heritage neighborhood.
But the Peninsula’s modern tradition goes back much further. The evolution of San Mateo County touches on a wide variety of design schools, with a heavy nod toward trends started after World War II. This should surprise no one, because outside of a few exceptions, like San Mateo, Redwood City and Burlingame, Peninsula cities did most of their growing after 1945.
Even in the established cities I mention above, the post-war influence is great. Development in San Mateo County has been steady, creating pockets of contemporary design all over, especially in the western half of towns like San Carlos, San Bruno, Millbrae, Burlingame and Belmont, where foothills separate the inland Peninsula from the coast.
In the northern half of San Mateo County, the Westlake neighborhood, dream project of visionary builder Henry Doelger, has been getting attention as one of the country’s best (and largest) collection of post-war Modernist architecture. Doelger’s “good” suburb is notable for its advances in mass-quantity home construction, but the neighborhood once held up for ridicule as the inspiration for folksinger Malvina Reynolds’ “Little Boxes” has matured into a magnet for lovers of Mid-Century Modern design.Flexible floorplans, expanses of wood (Redwood, in this case) and glass, interesting plays on lines and angles – all are essential components of a style whose influence is surprisingly widespread.
Still, the essence of contemporary style on the Peninsula is not, despite the presence of Westlake and Joseph Eichler’s Highlands subdivision, contained within large developments. Instead, it exists in the one-off custom homes that appear in every community and at every price point.
Emerald Hills, on the border between Redwood City and Woodside, is a hilly, secluded area that lends itself well to modern design. I am currently listing 768 Lakemead Way as an Emerald Hills home for sale at $2,399,000. It is common to find homes built between the 1960s and 1980s in Belmont using expanses of glass to take advantage of their hillside San Francisco Bay views. Homes in San Carlos’ Devonshire Canyon apply indoor-outdoor living precepts to a heavily-wooded creekside setting.
At the county’s southern edge, Portola Valley was once made up almost entirely of Mid-Century Modern homes. Many are gone, razed to make way for much larger homes whose style is often an updated version of that same style. For example, the four-year-old residence at 1 Grove Court, designed by Tobin Dougherty, is an excellent example of core modern design tenets – including two-story windows, floating interior stairways and wide open living spaces – brought into the present, with a media room besides.
Other original Portola Valley homes, like 135 Willowbrook Drive, built in 1957 as a faux Alpine chalet, and 15 Peak Lane, a 1962-built classic Mid-Century, have been remodeled; designers like Fu-Tung Chen, who worked on 135 Willowbrook, have focused on updating without straying from the homes’ original ambitions. Both of these homes are for sale, listed at $3.995 and $2.995 million, respectively.
I have a spectacular and rare listing in Lower South Hillsborough that stylistically reflects these two properties. Located at 755 Bowhill Road and offered at $3,195,000, the home has Bay Area Modern roots tracing back to 1960, but was recently re-engineered and completely re-designed to stunning effect.The modern design blueprintis on glorious display with walls of frameless-edge glass, flexible indoor/outdoor living spaces and partial room dividers, all in a lush, natural setting….at once understated and full of drama. The current owners have incorporated efficient solar panels with an online monitoring system, as well as enhanced the natural topography with a new vegetable garden, picnic terrace, and even a personal Zen outpost of a greenhouse with koi pond ecosystem. The end result is a property that adds an exclamation point to an idea whose times has come: that “modern” style, and particularly our unique Bay Area Modern, will prove as timeless as any other classic architectural and design movement.