PLACERVILLE RESIDENCE

Site and Residence

Rancho Mirage, Californiaa

The design of this house is a composition of overlapping volumes of varying heights that addresses both the neighborhood’s restrictive building height limitations and the market requirement for open volumes with high ceilings.  The steep site posed a problem for the driveway, as did the narrow and long lot shape, wedged between existing properties to each side.  It was essential to keep the house frontage feeling as wide as possible and to keep the 4000 square foot house fairly shallow to allow light to penetrate through from the south, which is the street side.  Winding the sloping driveway across the front of the house and creating a landscaped berm at the street both solved the driveway problem and served to accentuate the width of the property. 

At the rear, an infinity-edge pool, set in a grassy park, grounds the house to its mountain-encircled landscape.