In this bathroom, a twisting concrete volume rises out of the floor to form the sink, vanity, medicine cabinet, as well as a wall for the showerhead behind.
Robins sees the black Edra black sofas in the living and dining areas as “soft cartoons of furniture, appropriate for the relaxed island atmosphere.” Alvar Aalto and Eames chairs provide graceful midcentury contrast.
The kitchen and double height living room is steps from the pool. The heated floors are made of recycled arbutus—small flowering trees that were blown down.
Where the floating outbuilding meets a grove of silver cedar, galvanized steel columns match the trunks.
The L-shaped secondary building perches over a craggy escarpment. It offers the best vantage point for taking in the moss-planted roof, forest, and ocean.
The bedroom corridor cuts away to glass directly above the infinity-edge pool, delivering a design jolt akin to being dunked in water.
The main building sinks then elevates in full view of ocean.
The unit has virtually no right angles, and the spread of furniture is equally freeform. Brightness, neutral colors, inset lighting, and open circulation combat ceiling height—a mere eight feet.
On a high floor in the east tower, this unit takes up two-and-a-half kernels on the cob. The buildings are famous for pie-shaped floor plans wrapped around a central core, bringing generous window frontage and broad balconies. As a result bathrooms and closets are shunted toward the point of each wedge, by the entry.
Ebony tile and artificial lighting take over in the master bathroom, but even with the door shut, the sightline carries through. “The whole unit is subservient to the views,” says Dufresne. “We created a one-way mirror so the client could shower with the view and keep his privacy.”
The master bedroom was enlarged in the renovation and its circulation altered, again to prioritize views and natural lighting. The herringbone tile extends from the main living space.
The all-new eat-in kitchen has an island with a Silestone quartz surface, comfortably seating six. To free up even more living space, an entertainment center is integrated into the back wall, adjacent to a seating nook.
A galley kitchen was opened to the living room during the renovation—the new combo space fills out much of the space and claims the largest share of balcony. Floors are Cerdomus stoneware tiles, laid to simulate herringbone hardwood.
Often likened to corncobs or honeycombs, each Marina City tower has 19 levels of open-air garage parking beneath 40 levels of residences. Their strident pose beside the river, atop a podium of shops, restaurants, services, and a marina, was part of their financer’s effort to build a showstopper that would keep 900 families in the city at the height of urban flight.
Behind a traditional facade, the house was stripped to the studs and rebuilt with a timber and steel frame and a rear extension. “We were working in a conservation district,” says McLauchlan, “and there was a lot of back-and-forth with the community before the design got off the ground. We accommodated specific concerns about light pollution by adding a one-way film to the glass stair shaft.”
Looking back on the home from the concrete patio, its verticality becomes apparent. The zinc, cedar, and glass extension erupts from the base of the old brick envelope—diminutive but disruptive.
The lounge at the back of the entrance level exhibits the wide plank flooring common throughout the house. The view through the windows is made more compelling by the strip of green roofing extending the treetop canopy and the glass curtain wall that climbs just high enough to draw a sightline to the patio.
Reaching for the skylight, the five-story staircase is met at the top by the custom bookcase. The skylight opens and closes automatically in response to temperature and weather. This integrated structure is the spine of the house, off of which all other spaces are arranged.
This cross-section of stairwell and library structure creates a shard of light for rooms on every level. At nighttime, LED bulbs under the handrails emit a glow.
The stairs roll out into the kitchen and dining areas. The individual steps are steel trays dipped in orange liquid rubber, to squeaky effect.
The kitchen, Bulthaup island, and overhanging entrance-level comprise the remainder of the extension. A five-story double-sided, weld-free aluminum bookcase begins in the kitchen and rises through the lounge. A staircase traces every inch of it so that material can be readily accessed.
The extension is a two-story light box focused on the garden level, sunken below the front entry but at-grade with the backyard. The open dining area features a sliding, glazed curtain wall system framed in black aluminum, a timber framed seating nook, polished concrete flooring, and a custom dining table designed by McLauchlan.