About this Project
I seem to have a reputation for designing buildings successfully on steep hillsides. The Summerland buildings are some examples. One day a realtor friend, Winslow Collins, had us meet one of his clients, the Owens, who were interested in buying a steep hillside vacant parcel on Foothill Lane. The husband worked for a London Company in their Almaty Kazakhstan office. She told me she was an experienced skier and steep sites did not bother her, however both she and her husband were concerned if the site was buildable, because after all, walking down the steep slope was not easy.
The first things we did were to engineer an auto court to the area of a new building ‘pad’. In order to get there, we would have to traverse across a part of the neighbor’s parcel. We worked this out with an exchange of a view easement to the benefit of the uphill neighbor whose parcel would be traversed.
Next, we designed the driveway and retaining walls with conduits for site utilities. We figured that upon completion of the driveway, the parcel would triple in value and then potential buyers could easily see the view and the area where a house could be built.
Well, they loved building ‘pad’ so much they wanted to go directly into design and construction. We played with multi-architectural historic styles. It is unified with cement plaster walls and copper sheathed roofs. Upon completion they declared they would live there for the next thirty years. Several years later they accepted a position at Williams College in New England. The subsequent owners decided to adapt the extensive area beneath the auto court driveway for additional space.
Peter made our dream a reality. He accomplished what we thought was nearly impossible.
