This is a house for four friends, all golfers, on the Monterey Peninsula. It is more of a boutique hotel than a residence, with six-bedroom suites and large spaces for entertaining on every level. The majestic property had an existing residence, unremarkable except for two features – it was built closer to the shoreline than current restrictions allow, and the cypress forest had grown up around the structure. By building upon the existing footprint, we preserved all the cypress trees, some only feet away from the exterior walls.

The site has two levels—the property entrance and first half sit 12 feet higher than the house and bluff overlooking the ocean. The original site plan had a driveway crossing between the house and the water, with paved parking and an ill-located garage on the shoreline. We removed this huge swath of concrete and asphalt and relocated parking to the site’s upper level, eliminating the view of cars and paving from the breathtaking ocean panorama. This also allowed us to restore nearly two acres of land to native plants, including a sizable Cypress germination sanctuary.

At the top of the site we introduced a pedestrian bridge that sails over a protected courtyard carved out of the hillside to the entry door on the upper level. The primary entertainment spaces beyond take advantage of the spectacular view into the water that the second level vantage enables. The plan is divided into two wings, dictated by the old footprint as trees have matured everywhere there had not been structure. The bedroom wing retreats into the forest and the entertainment wing runs parallel to the shoreline. The entry bridge intersects at the joint between the two, which we envisioned as a glazed lighthouse creating a visual gateway to the water and the primary vertical connection to the lower courtyard and upper roof deck levels. Beyond this glazed connector is a monumental cantilevered deck floating out between the trees.

This is a tough environment with constant salt spray and all the wind and drama of the Pacific only yards away, so we chose materials not only for beauty but for low maintenance and durability. The exterior siding is reclaimed teak remnants finger jointed together into boards that will weather out to a soft gray. The trim is copper and the windows and doors are bronze, all turning various shades of green. The roof is planted with native grasses echoing those on the forest floor. On the interior, a radiant floor of random ashlar slate slabs flows continuously through each floorplate, negotiating the angular geometry. The cabinets and casework are 20” wide-plank white oak, and the fireplaces and feature walls are clad in fossilized limestone. The limestone has two treatments – honed on the interior and water-blasted on the exterior, a treatment that reveals embedded fossils and provides a dramatic texture that is already attracting moss.

Our shop fabricated some heroic signature items–enormous walnut slab screens, a large walnut entry bench, and the ten-foot-tall front door, among others. The walnut room dividers are two pairs of 12’ tall book matched Clairo Walnut slabs from huge tree named Uncle Bert, done in by a drought. We made the door from reclaimed teak railroad ties and filled the holes from the old railroad spikes with molten pewter. We also fabricated huge fireplace screens for the extra-large interior fireplaces, and an exterior firepit which utilizes the courtyard hillside as one edge of the fire bowl. The end result is a structure that is dramatic and robust, one that will age gracefully and soften as the trees grow around it, hiding itself in the landscape.