Lowe House
Salinas, California

A retired couple residing in an ubiquitous, ranchish 60’s tract house requested an enlarged living room for grand family functions. The outcome is a discrete, spacious garden room surrounded by decks and greenery on all sides and formally related to the existing house through an axis from the front door and entry foyer. The new room is equipped with oversized, double-hung windows, which are shaded with exterior trellises.

Symmetrical bays form both storage and a sitting nook. The maple floors are coated with a tough dance floor finish, the walls are sheathed with wood Bead and Board stained with subdued colors to reflect the clear Salinas sunlight and the ceilings are resawn cedar planks, spaced to absorb sound resonating into the 18 foot peak. The gardens are designed in response to the formal relationship of the new garden room. A rose covered gazebo overlooks a patterned raised bed of herbs and vegetable planter boxes centered upon a snap pea topiary and the whole surrounded by a double-row of espaliered fruit trees.

The design weathered several iterations rescued from sure disaster by both a tract-wide design committee and a city wide planning reviewer.