AMERICANS’ LOVE AFFAIR WITH the automobile is still alive and well, but it’s no longer dominating neighborhood design. Today’s pedestrian-friendly aesthetic favors rear-loaded garages that put cars behind the scenes. The result, as seen in this 167-acre, neo-traditional town on the San Francisco Bay, is a friendlier, more walkable streetscape.
Porches play a big role in Baywood Plan 3, a fanciful beauty that evokes the nostalgia of classic bay-area dwellings. Victorian details such as lap siding, fish scale pediments, fretwork, and corbels read as authentic, but windows break tradition with their larger size. Window placement was key to maximizing natural light while preserving privacy, notes architect Nelda Braver.
Category: Production/Semi-custom, less than 2,000 square feet (tie); Entrant/Architect: Dahlin Group Architecture Planning, San Ramon, Calif.; Builder/ Developer: Taylor Woodrow Homes, San Ramon; Land planner: Sergeant Land Planning, Ventura Calif.; Landscape architect: Melvin Lee Associates, San Francisco
Learn more about markets featured in this article: San Francisco, CA.
