Fireplace wall can store wood, show slides

Sunset, March, 1988

Fireplace wall can store wood, show slides Built-in surprises add utility and beauty to the sculptural wall built around this prefabricated fireplace. Set 3 1/2 feet away from a perimeter wall, the 8-foot-tall, 17-foot-long partition masks access to an upper roof deck and stairs to a lower floor.

From 2-foot-wide ends, one side of the partition bows subtly outward to a 4-foot width at the midpoint. A cutout in the curved side makes a flat-fronted section in which the fireplace is centered. (The mass of the firebox fits under a landing at the back side.) Built-in down lights flank the heat-circulating fireplace.

A 12-inch-square opening in the bowed wall appears to be a backlit display space for a ceramic piece. But by removing a square of translucent plexiglass at the apparent back of this niche, the owner can set up a slide projector stored inside the shell of the wood-framed wall.

Built into the end of the partition wall near the stairs is a 6-foot-tall wood bin.

Design was by architect Robert G. Zinkhan, Jr., of Santa Rosa, California.