Viewridge by Feldman Architecture
Viewridge sits on a leafy corner lot in San Mateo, CA, United States, where Feldman Architecture reworks a modest ranch house into a more open home. The renovation keeps the original low profile while reorganizing rooms, circulation, and outdoor terraces to support contemporary family living. Indoor and outdoor areas now trade light, views, and shelter, giving the house a new clarity without sacrificing its privacy.
Filtered daylight lands first on the entry, then pulls down the reworked hallway toward views of oaks and layered planting. From the street, the low roofline stays calm while crisp new lines and warmer materials hint at the changes inside.
Viewridge is a house renovation in suburban San Mateo by Feldman Architecture, reshaping a modest ranch home for clients deeply engaged with sustainable design. The project keeps the existing structure’s quiet stance yet redraws circulation and gathering areas to bring light into the core and open daily life to the garden. Plan moves are direct and efficient, turning a once-compartmentalized interior into a series of connected rooms linked by an animated spine.
Opening The Entry
The approach begins at a subtly expanded entry that projects toward the street and sets a clearer threshold between public and private realms. A large window at the end of the reconfigured hallway now catches the eye immediately, drawing visitors inward with borrowed views of trees and planting beyond. The formerly dark, compressed entry sequence becomes a gentle progression where light, not walls, guides movement from front door to living areas.
Hallway As Architectural Spine
Within the original structure, the central hall once read as a narrow service corridor, cutting rooms apart and hoarding what little daylight reached it. Feldman Architecture cuts through existing roof trusses to lift the ceiling, inserting asymmetrical skylights that pour shifting light into the length of the passage. This move turns the corridor into an active architectural spine, bright enough to anchor adjacent rooms and varied enough in light pattern to register the passing day. Rooms now borrow this glow, so circulation becomes a shared resource rather than leftover area.
Linking Living And Deck
At the back of the house, previously segmented kitchen, dining, and living rooms now read as one continuous volume geared toward daily family life and entertaining. Sliding doors open this shared room to a rear deck, extending dining and lounging outdoors while keeping easy visual contact with the interior. A restored wood ceiling runs above, tying together cooking and sitting zones, while clean white walls give the custom wood kitchen cabinets and sculptural wood screen a clear, calm backdrop. The screen gently marks the edge between entry and living room, maintaining privacy without blocking views or light.
Rooms Wrapped By Landscape
Toward the private end of the plan, the refreshed primary suite opens directly to a new wrap-around deck that threads along the rear of the house. From this edge, sightlines lift into oak canopies and across planted areas, turning waking, resting, and working into moments connected with the yard. In back, low concrete walls step to form two distinct outdoor living areas, shaping zones for dining, lounging, and quiet time while reinforcing the updated modern character. Similar low walls and layered planting in the front yard protect privacy, so the house keeps its unassuming stance even as daily life pivots outward.
Updated exterior cladding and roofing sharpen the old ranch silhouette without abandoning its low-slung profile. As daylight shifts across new walls, decks, and concrete planes, the simple route from entry to hall, to living room, to garden reads as one clear loop. Viewridge holds onto the modesty of the original house while giving its owners a more generous path through light, rooms, and tree-framed outdoor terraces.
Photography courtesy of Feldman Architecture
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