Restore and Revive a Classic Home in San Francisco
When you’re a professional shelter-magazine writer, certain clichés come with the territory. There’s the house that’s modern but surprisingly warm; the house that blurs the boundaries between indoors and out; the house in which every object and design detail tells a story. The San Francisco home of Jessica and Aaron Sittig is all of the above—but there’s nothing clichéd about it.
“This was one of the most thoughtful and deliberate design processes we’ve ever been through. Aaron and Jessica wanted to drill down into every aspect of the project—conceptual, narrative, aesthetic, mechanical, and functional,” says Leo Marmol of Marmol Radziner, the Los Angeles–based AD100 architecture firm and restoration specialist tasked with the rehab of the Sittigs’ classic midcentury residence in San Francisco. His partner, Ron Radziner, seconds that emotion: “The level of rigor reminded me of the conversations we had when we were restoring Neutra’s Kaufmann House. We almost never get the opportunity to go this deep.”
Marmol Radziner’s meticulous architectural restoration of a classic midcentury home in San Francisco provides an unexpectedly hospitable backdrop for avant-garde interiors by designer Charles de Lisle
Interior designer Charles de Lisle, who spent five years working in
close collaboration with the homeowners and Marmol Radziner, is
equally rhapsodic. “Jessica and
Aaron approached the design process
with a kind of intellectual
curiosity beyond compare. We’d have
eight-hour meetings about a door handle and hinges,” he recalls.
“What makes them so extraordinary
is that they don’t feel beholden to
conventional wisdom about
objects and rooms.
They wanted to question everything.”
Originally built in 1963, the Sittigs’ house is composed of stacked rectilinear volumes of redwood and glass, projecting from a steep San Francisco hillside. The taut modernist structure had barely been touched in the half-century since it arose in a neighborhood better known for Victorian and Beaux Arts finery. Its architect, Hank Schubart of Schubart and Friedman, apprenticed under Frank Lloyd Wright and worked in the studio of influential Bay Area maestro William Wurster.
The homeowners’ fascination with craft and process naturally extended from humble hinges to the splashier furnishings and decorative flourishes that coalesce in de Lisle’s kaleidoscopic assemblage. For pure sex appeal (as design nerds would understand the phrase), it’s hard to beat the commodious living/dining room, with its panoramic view, massive retractable skylight, and huge glass sliders. Along one side of the room, panels of figured red birch veneer conceal a seriously seductive bar, bookshelves, and a small work station. Floating within the open expanse is an ever-changing landscape of toothsome vintage furnishings by the likes of Gio Ponti, Ward Bennett, Joe Colombo, Maurice Dufrène, and Pierre Chapo, all set atop a sprawling carpet of abaca tiles. A custom de Gournay wallpaper of pine trees in fog, as delicate as a Japanese ink drawing, lines the bar interior.13 / 13Originally designed in 1963 by architecture firm Schubart and Friedman, the structure is clad in redwood siding and stucco.
Northern California and Japanese craft traditions. De Lisle also served as a conduit between the Sittigs and the myriad designers, artists, and master craftsmen they enlisted to create custom pieces. Consider the bespoke dining table by Martino Gamper. De Lisle took his clients to London to meet the designer, and after more than a year and a half of conversations, sketches, and on-site mock-ups, Gamper fabricated a series of super-site-specific tables made of teak-banded Marmoleum set on powder-coated aubergine legs.
