A young family of four, including two daughters, found themselves constrained by the high cost of living in San Francisco, leading them to move to Marin County. The parents, a tech entrepreneur and a brand strategist, discovered a development of midcentury homes by Joseph Eichler, which appealed to their interest in modernism.
The neighborhood’s sameness also drew them in, as it offered the chance to make one home distinctly their own. In 2011, they bought an atrium model and renovated it with a period-conscious hand. The architecture of the house was a major factor in their decision, but the neighborhood itself played a significant role in their choice to stay.
The Neighborhood and Community
The residents of the neighborhood became close friends, often gathering at each other’s houses and watching their children grow up together. The family even traveled with their friends, including a trip to Greece with 17 people. When the husband’s work took the family to Seattle in 2019, they kept the Eichler house and rented it out, hoping to return one day.
Years later, the couple considered themselves “almost empty nesters” and began planning their return to the house. They assembled a team, including Marsden Architects, Geremia Design, and Terremoto, to renovate the house and preserve the experience of living in it. The goal was not to preserve the interiors, but to create a new space that worked harder without sacrificing familiar sight lines.
The Renovation Process
The renovation process involved subtle structural moves, such as converting part of the garage into an office and adding double sinks and a water closet to the primary bath. However, the intervention was more radical underneath, as the team discovered that the 60-year-old house had essentially no rebar in its original foundation. They lifted the structure to pour a new one, rebuilding plumbing, electrical, and drainage systems along the way.
The custom terrazzo floor, designed by Geremia, became a central element for the interiors. Its aggregate picks up colors repeated throughout the house, while the Mondrian-inspired grid of brass aligns with window jambs, cabinetry, and door openings. The floor’s materiality was particularly important in a home with little conventional wall space, as art could play only a limited role.
Materiality and Design
Geremia, a painter and designer, wanted to create an Eichler house that explored femininity, nature, and softness, rather than reproducing a textbook midcentury palette. The materials used, including Heath tile, wood, stainless steel, and deeply colored stone, build on the terrazzo floor’s colors and create a sense of texture and hand. Outside, Terremoto approached the garden with a similar balance of continuity and reinvention, nodding to the home’s midcentury origins without reproducing a familiar style.
The garden was reorganized as a series of outdoor rooms centered on entertaining and wellness, with a cranberry-colored pool tile chosen to echo the warmth of Geremia’s lava-stone chimney. Nearly everything in the house is designed for gathering, from the seating that wraps the pool to the kitchen that opens toward the grill and pizza oven. The house’s design allows it to work hard, whether it’s just the family of four or a 35-person cocktail party.
Some of the house’s most personal additions came from longtime partygoers. Geremia has a takeaway that the collaborations are emblematic of the project: “The community helped build this house, and in many ways they were building it for the community.”
