ARCHITECTURE
San Francisco Architects Lorissa Kimm and Julie Dowling Craft Inviting Eco-Aware Contemporary Interiors For A New Hillsborough House
Text by Diane Dorrans Saeks
Photography by Matthew Millman
San Francisco architects Julie Dowling and Lorissa Kimm are known for their meticulous planning and their modernist approach to design. They create interiors that are contemporary in style but also very family friendly.
For their newest project, a residence in Hillsborough designed by architect David Regester of Hawley, Peterson & Snyder Architects of Mountain View, the Dowling Kimm Studios' brief involved the interior architecture. Their focus was on millwork design and furniture for this six thousand square foot single family residence, located on a site in the highlands above Hillsborough. The house reflects the clients' interest in contemporary design and exotic materials. “Our clients wanted the house to be modern but very elegant and practical for daily life and for entertaining,” says Lorissa Kimm.
The residence, which stands on a steep hillside, evokes a tree house that seems to float among the pine and cypress trees. The HPS Architect's design was inspired by the traditional Indonesian longhouse, with raw tree trunks supporting an open plan upper floor, with vaulted ceilings, exposed beams, and trusses in Alaskan Yellow Cedar.
“The architecture was complex, so we worked to create a simply detailed interior with neutral colors and a sense of calm,” explains Kimm. In contrast to the exposed bolt-studded trusses that zigzag across the spine of the house, Kimm and Dowling designed interiors of utmost restraint.
For more on the Dowling Kimm Studios' interior design of this Hillsborough
home, pick up a copy of the September/October 2009 issue.
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