FORMA introduces: The Wraparound House
The Wraparound House in San Francisco’s Marina District
FORMA is excited to share our recently completed project with Speigel Aihara Workshop (SAW) and Heidi Kim of White Space Design. This Spanish Revival-style home in San Francisco has been given a 21st-century makeover.
AWARD | 2021 California Home & Design Residential Build Award
Innovative engineering and precision were the guiding components when FORMA began the modern transformation of this Marina-style home built in 1931.
The home was brought down to studs and rebuilt by lifting it on cribbing and replacing the foundation. Through geo-grouting the soil and a thick mat slab, we were able to create the support to go up a level with a deck on top.
The home effortlessly floats upward from an extended backyard through a series of terraces, shifting across four levels of vantage points that further connect the homeowners to the landscape and vast views.
PRESS | Wraparound House featured in METROPOLIS
The homeowners, a couple with three energetic school-aged children, purchased the 2,300-square-foot home in 2015 with the intent to renovate but still retain a sense of its character. Like the surrounding houses in San Francisco’s Marina District, it had a red tile roof, arched windows, and interior archways.
Leaving the original facade mostly untouched, the design team tied the new and old spaces together by keeping all of the existing curves and adding more in unexpected places, dubbing the project “Wraparound House.”
PRESS | Tour the Wraparound House in Wallpaper Magazine
The Wraparound House program involved updating an existing home, adding space to accommodate group activities and entertaining, and also stabilizing and tackling the land below, which was contaminated and in need of remediation.
Inside, a central staircase becomes not only a connector between levels but also a sculptural accent. A second, exterior stair links the different floors via the outdoor terraces. This access and relationship to the outdoors takes place on every level, in different ways; connecting the indoors with the garden, and allowing for long vistas of the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge were a key part of the clients’ brief.
