Poeschl Architecture Projects

Beginning a retrospective of a life in architecture with a non-building may seem contrary to the demands of logic, but it makes some sense if given enough context.  For one thing, this pool in Big Sur is one of the most photogenic things we've done. For another, because it is essentially negative space filled with water, it survived a disastrous wildfire in 2016...

But we're getting ahead of our story.  One of the first projects to appear after I found myself on my own in 1999 was an addition to an existing, roughly 600 square foot cabin in Palo Colorado Canyon, on a scenic, wooded hillside overlooking the Pacific.  The program called for adding enough space for a family with 3 children, several rescued dogs, and a keen interest in the great outdoors.  The program also required that we avoid removing trees whenever possible. These magical trees were one of the main attractions of this site. 

We transformed the existing cabin into a living and kitchen space opening onto a terrace over an existing, leaky pool, designed a two-story wing with added master bedroom and bath over two children's rooms and a reconfigured bath, and detailed a small bunk house with bath and outdoor shower for visitors.  As for the pool, we soon replaced it with a pool turned 90 degrees so that the long dimension was parallel to the contour lines of the hillside.  Construction was delegated to master builder Alfred Seccombe of North Star Construction in Carmel, and the work was published* about 5 years after completion.  It led to other work, including an unbuilt proposal for a house near Garrapata State Park, also in Big Sur... 

…and a tea house in Japanese style, which was to be added to an existing ranch-style house in Los Altos as a retreat for a client who wished to age in place, to use a phrase that later became popular.  As we designed this during a construction boom and we heard nothing from the owner for nearly a year, we assumed that the project had remained unbuilt.  Then just around the new year, we received a card from the owner:  "Tea house is finished.  Come have tea."

Before our tea ceremony, we admired the attention lavished on small details by master carpenter Takeshi Fukui, down to his selection of a landscape light for the garden (center above) which I'd forgotten.  This project was published* in summer of 2006.

At this time our practice was divided between Monterey Bay and Boulder, Colorado, but I was spending most of my time in Santa Cruz.  This allowed time for scheming other proposals, like this quick sketch for a compact 3-story house near the Santa Cruz Yacht Harbor, which remained unbuilt.

Sketches for an octagonal house on Hurricane Point in Big Sur, however, turned into something buildable after no small amount of discussion with our client, and after engineering and construction drawings were complete.  The owner's program was to honor the octagonal form of a house his uncle had built on the windy, scenic site in the 1960s, while replacing the deteriorated structure with something sturdy, yet open to the ocean views.  I took the photo below over a year before the project was complete. More photos will likely follow, as this retrospective is a work in progress.

During this time we also designed a house for another windy site above the Pacific, Pfeiffer Ridge in Big Sur.  Our client wanted something modest in size, focused on the ocean views, but with a strong feeling of shelter...

When the Great Recession came along, we focused our spare time (of which we had plenty) on designing several small standardized houses that could be suitable for factory production; the largest, the 982, was named for its area in square feet.  The curved roof shapes on the house echoed the Pfeiffer Ridge house, and were designed to resist high winds.

In 2011 we were hired to design an addition and new structure for the Faris Machinery Company in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  The final design shown below was built by autumn of 2013, and looks just like our computer model, sharing its horizontal emphasis, despite the tall spaces demanded by an overhead crane for repair and maintenance of heavy road equipment.

On July 22, 2016 the Soberanes wildfire started from an illegal campfire in Garrapata State Park.  We listened in suspense to news reports as the fire spread to Palo Colorado Canyon. By the time the fire ended in October, it was considered the largest wildfire in California (it has since been surpassed) and claimed the life of a fire recovery worker on the road crew.  It also destroyed 57 houses, including the house and cabin we had designed.  The builder sent us photos of the damage, but it was about 24 hours before I could manage to look at them.  A couple months later, the owners decided to have the same architect and builder replace the structures that had been destroyed.

Under the Fire Recovery program, we would be allowed exceed the area of the destroyed structures (including the barn, which we hadn't designed) by 10%, and Monterey Planning approved the initial scheme of a one-bedroom cabin perched above the replacement house, as sited originally, with two more cabins downhill from the pool.  The owners decided to make the house a meeting place for family and friends, with only one sleeping loft overlooking an expansive kitchen and entertainment space.  Their original program was to build a cabin for their two daughters and their son, but to provide a full kitchen only in the house, so the now grown-up kids would visit the parents frequently. Cabin 1 (at right above) would perch bedroom and living space above a carport, as Cabin 3 (at left above) perched that space above the barn space, with Cabin 2, just above Cabin 3, featuring a loft above living space.

The basic form of the house and cabins was set after we did computerized studies showing interior sunlight and shading at summer and winter solstices.  We were still working on integrating existing retaining and landscape walls into the scheme when the above model was made. Cabin 3, with curved roof, is 70 feet below Cabin 1.  The plan was to site Cabin 2, below, on the ground occupied by an old garden coop; it would have offered about 640 square feet of space for living, kitchenette and loft sleeping space...

Cabin 2 remained unbuilt owing to a change of directors at Monterey County Planning. The new director decided that though we were well within area limits under the Fire Replacement program, the proposed cabin was not on the site of a building that had burned down. That wasn't true of Cabin 1 (top in photo below) or the main house, so construction would proceed on those once we secured building permits for the house and Cabins 1 & 3...

Cabin 1, at the top of the site, sits above the house adjacent to the ravine that had provided a path to the 2016 fire.  We moved the new house about 16 feet north of that troublesome ravine.  Cabin 1, like the other structures, is built of non-combustible materials, with concrete forming the lower level and stair, steel framing the upper level, with copper roofing shading the 2nd level copper siding and glass, which like all glazing on the project, is tempered.

Landscape architecture, including the fountain above, re-using steps that survived the fire, is by Marie Goulet of Wild Land Workshop... 

That reinforced concrete stair enclosure with scupper above the curve earned the nickname "teapot" during construction. Inside, the space is illuminated by porthole windows, wall sconces, and lights concealed under the stair nosings...

A gravel path leads you west from Cabin 1 to the main house, which our clients have christened the Meeting House...

On the way there, you pass another metal fountain designed into a network of concrete retaining walls. 

This view captures the westward vista towards the ocean.  Like the house reconfigured to our 1999 plans, this one is only a bit over 1,800 square feet of enclosed space.  The exterior decks expand that space into the outdoors...

A view of the main house from the southeast...

And an overhead view from the southwest...

Those openings framed by steel beams are overlooked by the sleeping loft and clerestory windows above.  Combustible materials were allowed indoors, and we used wood to warm up the ceilings and kitchen cabinetry.

The surfboard shape of the kitchen island was inspired by the curving north window wall (below) whose form was dictated by the curving concrete stair that survived the fire.  We moved the replacement house to a position adjacent to that stair in order to avoid closeness to the ravine that had been a conduit for fire.  Also, the architect had spent lots of time (maybe too much) surfing in Monterey Bay.

Our client requested a curved roof over Cabin 3, which they've named the Sunset Lodge because it is farthest west on the site; Cabin 1 is now called the Sunrise Lodge.  The bridge reaches the living space and bedroom located on the upper level. The lower level has storage space that replaces that lost in the original barn.

As on the main house, glazed doors slide into pockets to permit an unobstructed view of the hillside and ocean beyond.

As noncombustible materials were only allowed outdoors for small items like guardrail caps, the builders painted the exterior soffits to match the grain and color of the interior ceilings, which are real wood...

...as shown in this view towards the northwest corner of the compact living space. The unobstructed arc of the clerestory window makes the space feel more open.

The original plan was to outfit the porthole window over the lavatory with a hinged porthole-shaped mirror.  Photos were taken after our very patient clients had finally moved in...

In 2023 the North Star Construction team posed on the ocean-facing deck of the main house to celebrate completion.  We want to take this moment to thank our own team, who helped with design, drafting and computer modeling during the quarter century time span of all projects illustrated here.  In chronological order, they were Sarah Francis, Larry Butler Jr., and Ben Lochridge.

That was about five years after the first Fire Recovery building permit was released by Monterey County, and after builder Alfred Seccombe (on right below) invited me to judge sand castles in the annual competition* on Carmel Beach in August 2018.  We leave our story here, with a reminder that you never quite know where fate will take you...

Photo & Image Credits

Top through 3rd + 5th & 6th: Alan McEwan

4th, 7th & 9th from top:  Sketches by the author

8th:  The author

10th through 15th:  Design by Poeschl Architecture; computer 3D models by Ben Lochridge

16th:  Moss Media

17th through 24th: Alfred Seccombe of North Star Construction

25th:  Moss Media

26th through 32nd:  Alfred Seccombe 

33rd:  Moss Media

Bottom:  Alfred Seccombe collection

*Publications:  

The Los Altos tea house was published in the Fine Homebuilding Houses Annual Issue, No. 179, for Summer 2006.  Publisher:  The Taunton Press.

The Palo Colorado Canyon house was published in Homestyle by the Sea in the Fall 2008 issue, with an article entitled "On the Edge of Infinity".  Publisher:  Bay Publishing Company. 

For those interested in the annual sand castle competition, we posted a photo essay, "Sand Castle Magic", in this blog on Sept. 13, 2018.

Sunday Morning Dog Show with Cars

There were so many dogs at the last Boulder Classics and Coffee of the season, on October 27, that it often felt a bit like a dog show where the chauffeurs were allowed to show off their pooch transports.  There were some cars we hadn't seen on past Sundays, though, like this BMW i8. Two examples showed up in the same white and black color scheme...

The i8 was produced in 20,465 specimens between 2014 and 2020.  Most were the mid-engined coupe shown here, but there were 3,884 roadsters as well. The unusual thing about the i8 is that it was a hybrid, powered by a transverse, turbocharged 1.5 liter inline 3-cylinder gasoline engine, as well as a lithium ion battery.  There weren't any other hybrid sports cars in this period; the all-electric Tesla Roadster had been discontinued in 2012. And there weren't too many hybrids in this price class; the i8 was originally priced in the US at nearly $136,000.

The i8 shared its mechanical concept with the hybrid front-engined BMW i3 Range Extender model, though in that case the gasoline generator was a 2-cylinder non-turbo unit.  One styling theme the i8 shared with the much less graceful (to put it kindly) i3 was the use of blackout graphics that worked against a visual unity of form or sense of structure.The black graphic shapes were merely a distraction on the mostly coherent form of the i8; the black example below shows how the shape feels more unified without those contrasting graphic shapes...

My beagle-lab pal Watson (above, ready for a ride) mostly paid attention to the other dogs, but he seemed attracted to the Audi R8 parked at 8th and Pearl...

Maybe he liked the way the all-black color scheme lent unity to the R8's chunky form.  With the R8, built from model years 2007 to 2024 and sharing a chassis with Lamborghini's Gallardo and later Huracan, Audi seemed to be aiming at a different kind of GT buyer than BMW with its i8.  The Audi was offered in rear-drive and Quattro AWD versions, and with either a V8 or the V10 shared with Lamborghini.  As with the i8, coupe and open versions were offered, but prices covered a wider range, from around $60,000 for the V8 version in 2007, to over $250,000 for a Performance Quattro Spyder as the R8 neared the end of production.

One feature the early R8 shared with the i8 was a graphic theme that seemed to work against the unity of the form.  In the case of the R8 it was an access panel behind the doors that was often painted in a contrasting color, as in this black on white example... 

Audi's earlier design for a mid-engined supercar, the Avus concept car from 1991, emphasized unity of form to the point that the unpainted thin-gauge aluminum panels were polished to relate the car to the Auto Union streamliners that ran at the Avus track in the Thirties.  Designers J. Mays and Martin Smith apparently didn't want you to notice things like seams and door panel shapes. A W-12 engine, later used in the VW Phaeton, Audi A8 and Bentley, was mocked up for display, as prototype engines were not finished in time.  Wealthy collectors attempted to coax Audi into making the Avus in limited numbers, but the car remained a one-off.  A quarter century later, Audi may have tried to make up for missing a sure thing by offering a production version of their long-promised, all-electric R8 E-tron.  But buyers who forked out a stunning $1.1 million for the R8 E-tron got the same styling as on the standard car.  Not surprisingly, Audi claims they sold fewer than 100 of their all-electric R8...

It was hard to concentrate on matters of car design and history, though, when there were so many different kinds of dogs to think about...

Including these pooches who stopped to appreciate a row of Porsches parked across from a nice Paul Bracq-designed Mercedes 280SL in tasteful green.

We didn't observe even one dog to lift his leg on a car during the entire morning.  This was maybe a sign that the canines appreciated the machines on view, or that they'd already been exercised in the park 2 blocks away.

There was, as usual, great variety in mechanical configurations and condition on display. Below, a Ctroen DS wagon, with hydropneumatic, self-leveling suspension, and an inline four driving (of course) the front wheels.  Next to it, a BMW 1600 launched 2 years before the game-changing 2002 appeared in 1968...

It was a big day for Jaguars.  Here is a blue XK-150 (first seen in 1957) parked next to a Series 1 E-type that replaced it in April 1961.  Next to the white Series 1 roadster, a Series 2 E-type coupe...

There were two Series 1 E-type roadsters on view, both 3.8 liter models with thin-shell bucket seats and burnished aluminum instrument panels that were signs of the early cars with their Moss gearboxes (non-synchro on 1st gear).  We didn't get to talk to the owners, so we didn't know if they'd replaced those gearboxes with the easier-shifting kind in our 4.2 liter coupe, or with a 5-speed, which is a tight fit...

These two Series 1 roadsters were in such fine condition that it was hard to pick a favorite.  But we liked the blackwall tires on the example below, and the lived-in look of the lightly worn leather seats.  We should admit, though, that whitewall tires were available on the first E-types, and even featured in early ads for these cars...

The engines on both Series 1 roadsters were 3.8 liter, triple SU carbureted DOHC sixes with a claimed 265 hp.  Rare alloy-bodied lightweight versions used Weber carbs, and the factory experimented with Lucas fuel injection on those race cars as well.

Watson got chauffeured to the show in our 4.2 liter, willow green, '67 Series 1 E-type coupe.  Late Series 1 because Jaguar removed the glass headlight covers that summer, though the 3-carb engine, toggle switch dash, and knock-off hubs stayed until the '68 model year. We were flanked by a nice, chrome-bumper Porsche 911 Targa and a lovely narrow-body 993 coupe, our fave 911 design, with well-integrated headlights and bumpers, and no distracting spoilers, wings or graphics.  Watson admired it too...

Two nice examples of BMW's Karmann-bodied E-9 coupes showed up, a 2800 CS (built from 1968 to '71) and a 3.0 CS, available Stateside from 1971 to '75, but with clunky 5-mph bumpers in the last two years.  Initially, the 2800CS offered no performance advantage over the lighter 2800 sedan, as it also had similar rear axle and brakes to the 1800 and 2000 sedans, as well as Karmann's 2000CS coupe.  The performance picture would be changed with the release of the 3.0 CS with rear disc brakes replacing drums, and 180 hp from the 3.0 liter OHC six.  In Europe, injected CSi versions and the lighter, more powerful CSL joined BMW's lineup, with the later cars making a big impression in racing, especially in the fin and spoiler-equipped versions that were dubbed Batmobiles by fans.  We sold our '73 3.0 CS to finance a kitchen remodel some years back, and Watson has never forgiven me for trading his nice-smelling, leather-lined, air-conditioned chariot for a bunch of cabinets and windows...

Photo Credits:  

All color photos are by the author.  Monochrome photo sources were as follows:  

BMW i8 in all-black paint scheme:  pistonheads.com

Audi R8 in black and white paint scheme:  Volkswagen Group

Audi Avus show car:  Volkswagen Group