N-01 The program
What the house had to do
A 1961 post-and-beam by a locally admired mid-century architect, loved to death: original mahogany ceilings under three layers of paint, single-pane walls of glass, and a floor plan built for cocktail parties, not for the family of four who now owned it.
The project stripped the house back to its bones, restored what was worth restoring, and added a bedroom wing that steps down the hill on the original structural grid — same rhythm, new verse.
N-02 The materials
The palette, and why
- Restored mahogany ceilings
- Stripped, sanded and oiled — sixty years of paint removed one weekend-cabinet at a time.
- Steel-framed glazing
- Thermally broken steel replaced the original single-pane walls — the sightlines survived, the heating bill didn't.
- Poured terrazzo
- Continuous through kitchen and gallery, ground and polished in place, aggregate matched to 1961 photographs.
- Clear-sealed concrete block
- The original chimney core, cleaned and left honest — the house's spine, made visible again.
- Blackened-steel stair
- The one frankly new object in the house — it doesn't pretend to be 1961, and that's the point.
N-03 The timeline
As it actually ran
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Discovery 5 weeks
Structural review of the original frame — the 1961 beams passed; the 1980s deck did not.
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Design & documents 6 months
Every new detail drawn against the original blueprints, which the owners found rolled in a closet.
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Permitting 2 months
Hillside geotechnical review for the stepped addition — scheduled first, so it never held the line.
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Construction 13 months
The family moved out. We're honest about that: nobody should live inside this much dust.
N-04 The collaboration
Designed in-house
In-house design with the original 1961 drawings pinned above the drafting table. The estimator priced restoration and replacement side-by-side for every original element — the mahogany stayed because the numbers said it could, not on sentiment alone.
“Our architect friends can't find the seam between 1961 and 2025. Hartwell knew that was the whole job.”
