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architectnews · 3 years ago

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Feldman Architecture updates 1960s Round House in northern California

American firm Feldman Architecture aimed to take a respectful approach while overhauling a "quirky circular house" perched on a hillside near Silicon Valley.

The Round House is located in the affluent town of Los Altos Hills and is bordered by a nature preserve.

The house is located in the Los Altos Hills

Completed in the 1960s, the building consists of a circular main floor, and a lower-level volume housing an in-law unit and a garage. The total area is 5,103 square feet (474 square metres).

When a couple with two young children bought the unusual house – whose original architect is unknown – they weren't exactly sure what a renovation would entail.

The building has a circular main floor

"The clients fell in love with this quirky circular house and initially planned a modest remodel," said San Francisco's Feldman Architecture. "Soon after moving in, the pair recognised the inefficiencies of their new home."

The issues included low ceilings, roof overhangs that obstructed views, and an awkward entry sequence. After a few years of living in the house, the clients hired Feldman Architecture to design a sensitive overhaul.

A circular kitchen was incorporated into the design

"Our team set out to craft a respectful enrichment of the home's original form, focusing in on a site-sensitive response to the steep, challenging plot," the architects said.

The home was stripped down to its studs and foundation. The walls and roof were rebuilt, and exterior facades were re-clad in charred accoya wood.

The house features a spacious deck

Modifications were made to the floor plan, including switching the location of the public zone and main bedroom.

Most notably, the team did away with an internal, central courtyard and replaced it with a circular kitchen. The cooking area now befits a family of food enthusiasts, including a mother who is an ardent baker.

Feldman Architecture arranged pie-shaped rooms around the circular floor plan

"A large circular skylight streams daylight into the kitchen, creating a makeshift sundial that illuminates different sections of custom, curved casework throughout the day," the architects said.

Adjoining the kitchen is the living room and dining area, along with a spacious deck that offers sweeping vistas of the landscape.

The yard has a small lawn

"Tall, curved pocket doors vanish into the walls, asserting a seamless indoor-outdoor connection," the studio said.

Pie-shaped rooms are arrayed along a circular hallway. Each of the home's four bedrooms is afforded access to a perimeter deck.

Read:

Cedar slats wrap backyard pavilions by Feldman Architecture at Silicon Valley home

Interior finishes include white walls, concrete floors and wooden accents. In the main bathroom, a wall behind the bathtub is sheathed in large, greyish tiles from Porcelanosa.

The home's restrained decor helps keep the focus on the outdoor terrain, which is made visible through large stretches of glass. The clients can also take in the scenery while relaxing in a yard with a small lawn and circular jacuzzi.

Exterior walls are clad in charred accoya wood

The architects said they encountered many challenges due to the home's rounded shape, and overall, the project required a lot of creative problem-solving.

"Most conventional solutions favour straight geometry, which made for a refreshing intervention that is an honest response to the constraints of this unique project," the firm said.

The house has sweeping views of the surrounding landscape

Established in 2003, Feldman Architecture has designed numerous residential projects in California and beyond.

Others include a pair of crisp, backyard pavilions for a Silicon Valley residence and a cypress-clad, beachfront dwelling in Santa Cruz that is meant to balance high design and a casual aesthetic.

The photography is by Adam Rouse.

Project credits:

Architect: Feldman Architecture General contractor: Baywest Builders Structural engineer: BKG Structural Engineers Civil engineer: Lea + Braze Engineering Inc Landscape design: Variegated Green Geotechnical consultant: Romig Engineers Inc Arborist: Urban Tree Management Lighting designer: Tucci Lighting

The post Feldman Architecture updates 1960s Round House in northern California appeared first on Dezeen.

#Architecture – Dezeen

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jamaicaismyplayground · 7 years ago

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Dr Germaine Spencer, an obstetrician, gynaecologist and surgeon, is not satisfied with being just a medical practitioner, when there is money to be made from quality health facilities.

The medico with a taste for business specialises in female oncology, that is, cancer prevention, treatment and care for women; minimally invasive abdominal or laparoscopic surgery; and vaginoplasty or cosmetic vaginal surgery. He identifies the latter as a booming area of a generally profitable health business.

Spencer, 38, has outfitted and operates three private health centres in Montego Bay and is now investing in excess of US$2 million, or over $260 million in local currency, in a new private hospital set to open in the western city by next January. For the past year, he has also invested in a restaurant and sports bar in the western city.

Baywest Hospital takes up space formerly occupied by MoBay Hope at Half Moon Shopping Village in Rose Hall. Hospiten Group, the Spanish owners of MoBay Hope, rebranded the facility and relocated just across the road where it now operates as Hospiten Montego Bay. That 27-bed hospital, reported to have been built at a cost of $2.3 billion, was opened in October 2015.

Spencer is taking a slightly different market focus than rival Hospiten and is banking on the encouragement of corporate clients, including major hotels, large business process outsourcing firms, cruise lines and international insurance providers to drive business his way.

"The market is there for the taking," he told the Financial Gleaner.

The 10-bed Baywest Hospital will be equipped with an operating theatre, a maternity suite, clinics and a full range of imaging services, and will be serviced by a staff of nearly 30, including 20 doctors. The hospital joins three other Baywest health facilities all located in Montego Bay - at Baywest Shopping Centre; on Barnett Street; and a 24-hour operation at the Fairview commercial centre in the expanding Bogue suburbs.

These businesses grew out of one office in Baywest Centre, started in 2011, which itself has undergone major expansion and now occupies some three rented shops, one utilised as an operating theatre. Baywest Medical partners with ambulances service providers Life Call and EMed air ambulance.

The tenacious entrepreneur also operates E-Shore Medical, which provides medical services on location in the Montego Bay Free Zone for call centre workers.

Last year, spurred by the perceived need among young professionals for a safe space to relax downtown, Spencer decided to enter the food service business. He opened 876 Legends restaurant and sports bar at the fast-developing Fairview Town Centre on the Montego Bay outskirts.

The 876 investment, to date, is in excess of $30 million. Spencer said he is still learning the restaurant business and is yet to determine whether to maintain a long-term footprint in that industry.

The entrepreneur says his business expansion is being financed largely by bank loans with savings, reinvestment of earnings and support from one family member who assisted in purchasing some equipment in the early stages. He and wife, Kerene, who oversees the finances full-time, were coy about disclosing the total investments to date, which they admit is sizable.

All the businesses combined employ close to 50 people.

Self-sufficient centre

In his core area of competence, medicine, Spencer's central business idea is to create a "wide network of full-service, urgent-care medical facilities throughout western Jamaica", with these centres also providing referrals to the Baywest Hospital.

These centres are intended to be self-sufficient, providing services including general practitioner, physician, obstetrician/gynaecologist, internist, surgeon, dentist, laboratory, ultrasound, X-ray and other imaging services. His network of urgent-care health facilities is also expected to be supported by a services locator mobile app with the capacity to deliver medical advice from trained paramedics, security and roadside assistance. The GPS-enabled app has been in development for a few years but is expected to be launched soon, pending the expected signing of a major health insurance provider.

Spencer plans to grow his holdings nationally, eventually, but first wants to perfect his business model before stepping beyond western Jamaica.

For now, the evolution of his business is driven by "gut feeling" and his knowledge of the health-care environment.

Spencer says he is not worried about the competition from the various medical centres and doctors' offices dotting the landscape in Montego Bay. He cites the full-service nature of the Baywest medical centres, a down-to-earth service culture, and "less-than-market benchmark" fees as competitive advantages. The three locations together are said to see up to 180 patients on a good day.

As he puts it, the state of public health facilities and services, handicapped by the lack of resources stemming from the Government's no-user-fee policy, is providing a lucrative, growing market for medical entrepreneurship.

"There is 'x' number of patients any human being can see per day without getting flustered. The clinics are backed up. The surgery list is backing up," said Spencer. The 'no-user -fee' policy "created a lull for us initially, but business went back to what it was before," he said.

Spencer's first foray into business was in 2010 on his return to Jamaica from Trinidad and India, where he pursued advanced studies following his degree studies in medicine and surgery at the University of the West Indies, Mona.

Building from failure

He tasted failure when his initial medical centre business partnership established at Fairview in Montego Bay went sour after a year, while he worked full-time in the government health service for three years. But he decided to treat it as a positive development, an opportunity to do better on his next venture.

He has a protracted court battle that ended a year ago to thank for the recovery of some of his initial investment, which saved him from total loss on the venture.

The Jamaica College graduate credits his uncle, Dr Howard Spencer, a retired cardiothoracic surgeon, professor emeritus of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of the West Indies and registrar of the Medical Council of Jamaica and the Caribbean Association of Medical Councils, for having encouraged him into medicine and guiding him professionally.

But credit for his entrepreneurial side, he said, goes to his mother Yvette Griffiths.

Both his mother and father, Goldstone Spencer, have been involved in garment manufacturing.

"My mother is a strong woman," he said, recalling the challenging times when her business was seriously and adversely affected in the financial sector meltdown and Finsac bailouts of the 1990s and she struggled to keep the venture afloat, pay staff and put food on the family table.

Spencer notes that he tries to match his mother's tenacity in his own business pursuits.

"I love business. Medicine is my route to business," he said.

#Jamaica Gleaner #medical

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