They got a brighter, larger space

Sunset, Jan, 1992 by Daniel P. Gregory

ONCE CRAMPED, DARK, and isolated, this remodeled kitchen has become a sunlit hub of family life.

The old plan confronted owners Chris Sorensen and Danny Scher with a warren of small, gloomy spaces consisting of a very limited kitchen, a utility room, and a maid's room. The owners wanted a larger, brighter space--a kitchen-family room that would capitalize on views of a woodsy garden and, beyond it, of San Francisco Bay. They hoped the new room could be contemporary without conflicting with the traditional character of the 1923 house.

San Francisco architect Bernard Stein met the challenge. To create a single large space with windows on three sides, he replaced two major load-bearing cross walls between the old kitchem and adjoining rooms with 40 by 12-inch "micro-lamps" (smaller-scale versions of conventional glue-laminated beams). Only a 3- by 5-foot granite-topped island now divides the kitchen from the family room.

Stein opened up the southwest corner of the room (opposite the kitchen) with a horizontal band of small-paned windows on adjacent walls. The windows match existing windows elsewhere in the house. An L-shaped bench was built under the windows, creating a handsome relaxation zone near a new media center facing this corner.

From the outside, it's impossible to tell that the house has been remodeled.