The Green House by Schwartz and Architecture Balances Old and New in Design

The Green House, located in Palo Alto, CA, United States, is a house designed in 2023 by S^A | Schwartz and Architecture. The project expands a 1966 home, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright’s protégé, by 1,512 square feet, incorporating a sunken family room, inspired additions, and numerous windows framing the iconic roof. The team worked under a guiding principle of “do no harm” while respecting the design integrity of the space, promising a friendship between old and new.

A modern home with a glass-enclosed porch surrounded by lush, colorful gardens.

Primary Design Charge “First, Do No Harm”

Our primary design charge became “First, do no harm.” This dictum, from Hippocrates’ 400 B.C.E. text “Of the Epidemics”, would prove ironic given the timing of the global pandemic and its impact on the project’s cost and schedule. Our challenge was to protect the design integrity of the home while adding a substantial amount of space to make the home viable for a young family with three children.
A spacious living room with wooden beams, large windows, and a curved velvet sofa.

A Naturally Unaltered Home

The home was virtually untouched by the original owners and included custom furniture pieces salvaged and integrated into the new design. The house is tucked back from the road on a flag lot surrounded by more traditional suburban homes. The original home was 1,590 SF with three bedrooms and two baths on a third of an acre lot. We added 1,512 SF for a total of 3,102 SF. When we first met on site, we discussed the importance of respecting the integrity of the original home and landscape, which featured a landscaped swale running along the center of the site –a distinctive added topography for the small site and essential, we would soon find out, given the high-water table of the property.
Spacious living room with wooden ceiling beams, bookshelf, and a cozy yellow sofa.

A Sculptural Roof and Scuppers

Given the spider-like sculptural roof and scuppers of the original, the home already was a complete thought, with no obvious solution of how to add to the composition, let alone double the interior square footage. Our first design move was to head off the existing downward sloping roof beams mid-span and add a small rear addition along the entire length of the house under a new upward-sloping roof. This opened the dark kitchen and bedrooms with a new higher ceiling while continuing the rhythm of the existing structure and creating a niche for hidden cove lighting where the original beams once ran.
Warm, rustic interior with exposed beams, stone fireplace, and mid-century modern furniture.

New Carport and Sunken Family Room

In addition, since the existing carport and scupper was too low for many modern family cars and no longer met local code for covered parking, we raised the roofline and scupper at the front to create a new carport while also converting a portion of that area into a new sunken family room, consistent with the mid-century vibe of the original.
Warm, modern kitchen with wooden beams, sleek island, and a cozy dining nook.

Prime Bedroom Suite and Concrete Wall

Finally, we added a prime bedroom suite tucked behind a new board-formed concrete wall. Taking inspiration from the home’s existing concrete block walls, our addition peeks out behind the new wall –referential but deferential. Despite the addition’s deference, we wanted the roof to have its own distinct character, with the lightness of the clerestory windows balancing the heaviness of the original roofline. Whenever possible, views through the space frame the iconic roof scuppers as they touch down to ground. The design strategy is to let our modern interventions shine but with the mindset of “What would Mr Green do?”
A cozy living room with a large, comfortable sectional sofa, wooden beamed ceiling, and expansive windows overlooking nature.
Cozy bedroom with wooden shelving, patterned wall, and framed artwork. Warm, inviting space.
Warm, minimalist bedroom with wooden paneling, built-in shelving, and natural light.
Elegant marble vanity countertop, wood cabinetry, and circular mirrors in a modern bathroom.
A modern bathroom with a white bathtub, wooden frame window, and lush greenery outside.
Warm-toned wood ceiling, white walls, and gold-toned fixtures create a modern, spa-like bathroom.
Expansive modern glass-walled patio with wooden beams and lush surrounding garden.
A mid-century modern home with a mix of wooden and concrete elements, surrounded by lush foliage.

Photography courtesy of S^A | Schwartz and Architecture
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- by Matt Watts

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