Ross Woods: Merit Builder's Choice Award
Builder, October 2004

It was Ross Woods’ hillside site, which overlooks San Francisco bay and is loaded with trees, that dictated the house’s architecture as much as anything. “We felt the Shingle Style would be particularly in keeping with the unusually wooded nature of the site,” says John Eller, president of SB Architects. “It really blends into the hillside and produces a desirable effect.”

The Shingle Style’s vertical nature also helped to offer great views and create more volume within the small footprint of this project, a mix of attached townhouses and zero-lot lined homes. Inside the three-story structures there was room for such creative design solutions as split levels, overlooks, corner window bays, and offices tucked into stair landings. Two of the four plans put the master bedroom all the way upstairs, with an adjoining retreat that’s been bumped up a step or two. “That means the windowsill is lower, so you get a better view of the bay, even when you’re sitting down,” says Eller.

— K.S.