A sense of place: the winners of our 24th biennial program celebrate their settings - 2003-2004 Western Home Awards - home design projects, designers, and architects

Sunset, August, 2003

Visually tied to nature, elegant yet practical-rooted in the region but not bound by it--these are some of the qualities that define Western living at its best. And they are particularly apparent in the winners of the 2003-2004. Western Home Awards--cosponsored by Sunset and the American Institute of Architects. The jury, listed on page 106 and composed of architects and sunset's Home staff, selected 11 winning projects out of nearly 500 entries submitted by architects from the 13 Western states. Each home embodies a special sense of place, from the sod-roofed getaway on a bluff in Washington's San Juan Islands (shown here) to the mining town-inspired community in Breckenridge, Colorado, and the restoration of an early modern icon in Los Angeles.

Urban courtyard

Challenge: Provide the maximum amount of outdoor living on a tight 30- by 122-foot lot in a built-up neighborhood near Venice Beach.

Solution: The two-story U-shaped house wraps around a tranquil sun-filled courtyard, opening onto it on three sides: main living area at the front, gallery-stairhall in the middle, and the studio-media room at the rear. A roof terrace adds even more outdoor living space.

MERIT AWARD--Steven Ehrlich and James Schmidt, Steven Ehrlich Architects, Culver City, CA (310/838-9700)

Special effects

Three of the four garage doors built into the house have nothing to do with automobiles--they're glass walls that roll up to let fresh air and people flow in and out. Two of the doors open the front and rear of the ground-floor living-dining room, and the third opens up the studio/media room over the garage. "When all three garage doors are open, the house transforms itself into a pavilion of connected courts and interior spaces," says architect Steven Ehrlich.

Upper-level bedrooms overlook the center court, which has lush tropical plantings and a reflecting pool. A bonus is the roof deck, which includes a built-in seating area and a steel-clad outdoor fireplace. Views are to the Pacific Ocean and the fabled Venice boardwalk, one block away.

Simple industrial materials contribute to the elegant, easy-to-maintain, loftlike aesthetic: painted steel beams, concrete exterior panels, aluminum-framed windows, and a polished concrete-slab floor.

Rocky Mountain village

Challenge: Persuade the town to adopt denser development on an 85-acre site originally zoned for four large residences and design a community that's childfriendly, walkable, affordable, and authentically tied to its region. The land consisted of dredge piles left over from mining operations.

Solution: Developer David O'Neil and architects Tom Lyon and John Wolff spent three years convincing authorities that the Wellington Neighborhood, a carefully designed scheme for 122 mostly single-family residences, would enhance the town and avoid sprawl. It feels like a Currier & Ives village come to life. More than 70 freestanding two-story houses in six configurations-from two-bedroom duplexes of 1,000 square feet to four-bedroom dwellings of 1,800 square feet-have been built so far.

MERIT AWARD--Wolff Lyon Architects, Boulder, CO (303/447-2786)

Special effects

The houses are organized around a series of "green courts," or small parks, which establish the village character and provide safe places for children to play. Garages are on rear alleys.

The gabled roofs, broad front porches, picket fences, and simple ornamental details echo the Victorian-era architecture of historic downtown Breckenridge. Inside, each house boasts an open kitchen and family room.

Affordability. Single family homes range from $225,000 to $395,000, less than half or the area's median.

Surf's up

Challenge: Give two busy doctors who like to surf on their downtime more space while adding architectural character to a nondescript row house near Ocean Beach in 'San Francisco's Sunset district.

Solution: Thanks to a new, open third floor, a boldly colored and patterned exterior, and large windows that capture the ocean views, the house appears to "shoot the curl" with elegance and sophistication.

MERIT AWARD--Nick Noyes Architecture, San Francisco (www.nnarchitecture.com or 415/512-9234)

Special effects

The house mirrors the owners' personalities--serious but in touch with the fun side of life. You can see it in the striped exterior made of colored cement-based shingles. Serendipity played a part: the supplier didn't have enough shingles in the color the owners first picked out, so the owners chose two. Tough and long-wearing, the shingles make sense in the area's windy and foggy climate.

The new skylighted third floor contains the living room and kitchen, where the best views are. Ceiling trusses keep the floor plan as open (and therefore as bright) as possible.

Breezeway as hillside getaway

Challenge: Architect Henry Siegel wanted a small, resource-efficient getaway that opened to the view on his rural Sonoma County site without overly intruding on the landscape. The house also had to be comfortable in a climate where summers are hot and dry.