Marin Magazine - SPACES January 2018

She and both architects share an affinity for clean, contemporary design, and their robust discussions led to a consensus: gutting the interior would be best for better perspectives and views.

With the interior stripped to its raw concrete shell, they eliminated one bedroom and one bathroom to provide a flexible dining and office space. And a balcony off the living room was enclosed and incorporated into the living area.

Now, surrounded by new walls that contain built-in storage along with concealed heating and venting systems originally housed in ceiling soffits, the apartment seems much bigger and taller. An open-plan public core is linked by a wide hallway/gallery to the master suite; a door from the dining area to the master suite’s exterior balcony also allows direct access from the suite to the entire apartment.

“I really appreciate uncluttered space with everything
in its place,” the owner says admiringly. Still, efficiency
notwithstanding, “we tried hard not to make the apartment
too coldly modern.”
Thus, while white eggshell Benjamin Moore paint on
the walls is a crisp backdrop, it contrasts with warm floors
of broad-plank engineered oak from Italy, and some of the
in-wall cabinetry is veneered with quarter-cut pale oak, laid
with tight grain running horizontally.

“We pay attention to details. We align joints even when the materials change, and where one joint stops, the other starts,” Tamjidi says.

As a result, for example, the deliberately narrow gaps and reveals between painted and unpainted cabinet doors create a subtle rhythmic grid that looks like delicate pencil lines on paper. Interspersed between the volume shapes, here and there, are voids and niches for displaying artwork.

Because she likes to entertain friends and family at home and her husband has vineyards in Lake County, the architects also provided a kitchen that functions equally well for formal and informal wine-tasting parties.