New porch and additions help unbury small, dark kitchen

Sunset, March, 1989

Call it a "lateral pass kitchen": this 12- by 14-foot addition with a 6- by 12-foot porch relieves pressure from an interior squeeze play. Cramped and dark, the original kitchen was buried at the back of a two-story tree-shaded house. Oakland architect Alan

Dreyfus remodeled the old kitchen into a pantry and groundfloor bathroom while seamlessly grafting a new kitchen wing onto the south side of the house. The addition extends to within a foot of an existing retaining wall.

The new kitchen is spacious enough to contain a breakfast table and a built-in desk and bookshelves. Windows along the south and west walls, as well as French doors opening to the porch, bring in ample light.