One 12-foot skylight brightens two rooms

Sunset, March, 1989

These two rooms share indirect daylight from one 12-foot-long skylight well that's split lengthwise by a wall. The angle-sided well gives a once-dark hall a distinctive overhead volume and also brightens the adjacent living room.

The skylight well starts above the hall's left side, then angles in to run below the house's ridge beam and meet with the rafters. To accommodate the skylight, the rafters were cut and their loads picked up by beams framing the opening.

Rather than position the well so as to light only the hall, the designer let it cut into the living room ceiling, 18 inches beyond the shared, nonbearing wall. Removing every other ceiling joist in the well makes it seem more open but does not weaken the ceiling structure. Gypsum wallboard wraps the remaining 2-by-6 joists and lines the skylight well.

Architect Hiro Morimoto of Berkeley designed the remodel for owners Robyn Keller and Mark Geliebter.