KLOPF ARCHITECTURE

OVER THE LAST 21 YEARS, Klopf Architecture has designed more than 300 mid-century modern home remodel-addition projects and 22 new modernist homes. John Klopf and Geoff Campen, partners in the firm, lead a team of designers who ‘get’ mid-century modern. Together they have developed an arsenal of maneuvers designed to update the functions of mid-century modern homes while keeping changes compatible with the Eichler aesthetic.

The Klopf team believes in blending the indoors with the outdoors. “Seamless transitions and continuous materials were major tenets of Eichler home design,” Klopf says, “and we often push for even more openness in our mid-century home remodels.”

“People should be able to live comfortably in energy efficient houses that stand the test of time in terms of both design and durability,” says Klopf. Klopf Architecture values the importance of maintaining the look and feel of MCM homes while melding them with today’s stricter building standards, resulting in a more comfortable, energy efficient home.

“Eichler homes were designed to use space efficiently…maybe too efficiently,” says Klopf, “so we look for ways to re-arrange, expand, or add spaces, updating them in ways that are compatible with the original design intent.” The firm also covers practical considerations such as cleverly hiding away storage, expanding sightlines, and increasing the sizes

Blaine Architects

MEGAN AND KEITH BLAINE, principal architects at BLAINE Architects, are passionate about maintaining the integrity of mid-century modern homes.

“We believe in honest design, and mid-century modern homes are simple and honest,” says Megan Blaine, half of the husband-and-wife team who, in recent years, have resided in an original 1951 Anshen and Allen-designed Eichler. “We were looking for an Eichler for a really long time before we got one.”

“For us, honesty is an holistic approach to design and construction,” adds Keith, who was 2020 president of the American Institute of Architects, Silicon Valley Chapter. Of the firm’s admiration for Eichlers, he adds, “I feel mid-century modern homes are more honest in what they are...They’re not trying to be something they’re not.”

BLAINE architects opened their doors in 2015, when the couple was working for London-based Foster + Partners on designs for the new Bay Area campus for Apple. Five years after moving back to California, they moved the firm to more spacious quarters in San Jose in 2020.

“We accept other types of projects, but we’re pretty specialized in mid-century modern homes at this point,” admits Megan, who says they have worked on Mackay and functionality of bathrooms and kitchens.

Interpreting clients’ lifestyle goals serves as a guide for the design direction. “We listen to the base needs of the client and keep an open mind for potential solutions that are not initially apparent,” Campen says.

The firm’s range of client services include full design collaboration, assisting with permits, and creating detailed construction documentation prior to the start of construction for each project. Designing and documenting interiors, materials, fixtures, and finishes helps carry the design clients expect through construction. This level of detail also offers clients a more accurate comparison of bids from potential contractors.

Klopf Architecture also represents most clients during construction, maintaining communications with the contractor throughout every phase of the process. “Homeowners find it comforting to have an expert to advocate on their behalf from the start of the project until the very end,” Klopf says, “answering design or technical questions and checking to see if the work is going along according to plan.” and Cliff May homes of this style along with over two dozen Eichlers. “With Eichlers, the structure is exposed. I really like that about Eichlers…They start with the structural grid, and then from there everything else sort of falls into place.”

Most often the firm’s designs are so seamless one can’t tell where the original structure stops and the remodel starts. Klopf and Campen are confident that regardless of continuous changes to codes and standards, their designs will continue to help Eichler homeowners update and improve their homes while respecting the design vision of the original architects.

“The honesty really comes down to the materials and the way they’re used, their expression, and the structural components,” concurs Keith. By design, he says, “they’re kind of reducing the amount of mental noise.”

Material vendors favored by the Blaines include several Eichler Network participating service companies, Eichler Siding, Dura-Foam, and Unico System.

Keith says sourcing era-appropriate manufacturers helps establish a permanence of style. “There’s this kind of timelessness to Eichler homes,” he says. The couple recently expanded their staff to 14 with the addition of creative director Katrina Marshall. “We allow the architecture to remain true to the mid-century style, but with some clever upgrades that make the home more functional,” Megan says.

Keith agrees, promising, “We design in a way that pays homage to the homes’ original design intent and materials, allowing the clients to drive function.” joanne@kocharchitects.com

“This allows our designs to feel more like a custom Eichler home, designed around our clients needs,” adds Megan.

JOANNE A IS CANDID about how her “lifelong connection to the California landscape and lifestyle” informs her work as an architect.

“It’s a very natural, intuitive sort of lifestyle,” says the third-generation California native, who is the principal and owner of Koch Architects.

At the same time, Koch considers a major strength of her five-person office to be their ability to incorporate each client’s own personality and lifestyle into the designs they purchase.

“In order for the design to truly be shaped by the client’s needs and lifestyle, you really have to know a lot about who they are and how they live,” says Koch, who started her practice in 1998 after ten years working at other firms.

In fact, to get to know her clients, she has them fill out a questionnaire that reveals, among other things, their favorite season and color to learn “the psychology of who the clients are, so we can customize their house for them.”

Koch moved to her current West Berkeley location in 2012, and she is proud of how several resources in the office contribute to the design process. Most of all, she values her staff and the way they collaborate as a team to manage and deliver the work.

“They allow me to do my best work, because they keep the project manager tasks in order,” says

Koch, whose fondness for mid-century modern architecture ext ends to her personal life.

She and husband restored and expanded a 1952 home on Berkeley’s Northside designed by Bay Modern master Roger Lee. “Clients love to see my own home, how I have edited and expanded it, and how I live in it,” she says of the redwood-and-glass dwelling on Oxford Street.

The Koch Architects office has a couple other noteworthy resources that clients will appreciate besides skilled personnel.

“I have a lot of space devoted to our materials library,” Koch says, terming it “kind of the candy store approach, given that we include all the interior finishes, many times including window coverings, furniture, and carpets.

“We strive to have a robust and current sample library in house always gathering new products and materials to keep the designs fresh and innovative.”

Nevertheless, she says, “For me, it’s also about the service we deliver and how the experience of working with an architect leads to a project that responds to the landscape, budget, and our clients’ needs and desires.”

When it comes to merging who a person is with the design th ey deserve, says Koch, “That’s what we’re doing. We’re translators.”

General Contracting & Remodeling

Serving the Entire Peninsula

650-965-1256 office@keyconinc.com www.keyconinc.com

CA license #888337

RON KEY LIKELY HAS UPDATED more Eichlers than any other general contractor in the Bay Area. In business for more than 35 years, his Keycon, Inc. concentrates on Eichler whole-house construction and remodeling, additions, and kitchen and bath remodeling. Key doesn’t just focus on construction. He spends a considerable amount of time working with customers on the design process, which can oftentimes include an architect in the mix as an integral part of the project. But Key’s three-plus decades of experience with Eichler renovation has proven to be invaluable when it comes to his making recommendations for incorporating design elements.

“Most projects are designs first,” Key says. “We can do a bathroom remodel that ranges in price based on the design and selected materials. It all depends on the level of finishes and what the homeowner is trying to achieve.”

Decisions like these, Key says, will impact cost while they increase the functionality of the home.

Keycon projects begin with an on-site or virtual meeting with homeowners to discuss their objectives. While an expert contractor may have a very realistic idea of what things cost, it is natural that homeowners may not.

The value that a contractor like Key, who is fully experienced with the Eichler design, can bring to the table is the ability combine tasks and reduce the number of separate vendors needed to complete the project.

As Key points out, “The value-added aspect my company brings to the process encompasses a design and engineering level, as well as a construction/project management/budgeting level all rolled into one.”

Key also believes that it is important to be practical when approaching home improvement. Today, we are all facing safety and energy efficiency issues that did not exist when Eichler homes were built. He reminds us, “Back then, the environment wasn’t always considered, and it didn’t seem to matter how energy efficient the homes were.”

Now, it’s all about “being pragmatic as well as trying to be true to the core design,” says Key. Key finds working on Eichlers and with Eichler owners to be a unique experience. “Eichler owners have a strong affinity for their homes, more than other types of homeowners,” Key finds.

Call Keycon today for your free consultation for Eichler kitchen, bath, and whole-house remodeling; additions; new construction; repairs; and more.

General Contracting & Remodeling

Serving the Palo Alto Area

408-448-1328 cindy@starburstconstruction.com www.starburstconstruction.com

CA license #580070

Starburst Construction

DOI NG QUALITY WORK is the most important part of a contractor’s job. But good communication is a close second. If a builder can’t communicate with their clients and prospective clients, then their top-notch set of skills quickly become moot.

That’s no problem for Starburst Construction, a homeowner-friendly general contracting team that puts communication at the top of its priority list.

“We like to come in and hear what your dream is for your home,” points out Cindy Carey, one of Starburst’s principals. “We can then strategize on how to best help you achieve your goals while keeping in mind your lifestyle.”

To maintain c ommunication through each project, project management software and an app are utilized, allowing clients to log in and get real-time status updates for their specific project.

“This truly helps set clients at ease,” says Carey. “It’s another tool in our tool belt for helping make sure everything with our clients run smoothly.

“If homeowners are going to be traveling, they can check and see who’s scheduled at their home. If there’s an inspection that day, they can see the schedule. If there are materials that need to be selected by a certain day, all those items are listed.”

Starburst’s successful formula has been refined throughout its 40 years in the construction industry, and its team continues to grow and evolve as Cindy’s son, Brian Smith, and his wife, Marissa, carry on the Starburst legacy.

Through that succession, Starburst’s inherent attention to detail and quality continues. “All projects are given full concentration on the details to make sure that the job is done right,” chimes in Brian Smith, now a Starburst principal.

Working in the Eichler communities, where Starburst has built quite a reputation, has become one of the company’s specialties.

“Whatever the upgrades the Eichler client has in mind whether it be windows, kitchens, full-home remodels, additi ons, or custom homes we can assist with all that the project requires, eager to help accomplish client goals,” Carey points out.

“We bring dream homes to life,” Carey adds as her icing on the cake. “You can ask our clients about that. As one of them told us, ‘I thought that saying was cheesy, but it’s true.”

As another one pointed out, “The ease of working together with Starburst Construction, their understanding of my goals, ability to generate creative solutions within our budget, positivity, outstanding p roposal package, perfect follow up, solid t eam of trades all point to a strong recomm endation.”

General

HENRY CALVERT HAS been in the construction business for 30 years. Two decades ago, he bought his first Eichler, in the San Mateo Highlands and then everything changed for him.

For the past several years, Calvert has worked on scores of Eichlers throughout the upper Peninsula. While Calvert is especially fond of drawing projects in his own Highlands backyard, where he is especially well known, his focus also extends to the Eichler communities of San Mateo’s 19th Avenue Park, Burlingame, Foster City, and Redwood City.

Involved in all aspects of Eichler construction, Calvert tends to spend the majority of his efforts on whole house interior remodels of existing structures, kitchens and baths, and select addition projects. He also does window and slidingglass door installation, siding replacement, dry rot repair, and earthquake retrofitting.

What Calvert likes most about living in an Eichler is its “livability and the nice flow of the floorplan.”

Calvert also empathizes with his clients, having undergone a major remodel of his own Eichler home, a Highlands fixer-upper, which he eventually sold. The home is set on a huge lo t, which gave Calvert and his crew plenty of room to spread out while it underwent a transformation. The project was extensive, and even included the installation of a new radiant heat system.

To get a handle on the quality of Calvert’s work, and to gain an appreciation for his fine finished carpentry, just get inside one of them for a look around. Calvert shows off his handiwork with a splash each time there’s a San Mateo Highlands Eichler Home Tour. Several years ago, his featured Eichler was his own remodeled home. In 2017, his showcase was an eye-popping rebuild, in conjunction with Klopf Architecture, of a an Eichler on Tarrytown Street that was lost to fire.

“I guess the main thing that potential customers need to know about me is that I like to work exclusively on Eichlers,” says Calvert, who continues to live in a Highlands Eichler. “I truly understand the needs of others living the lifestyle.

“Since we have that common understanding, and share an enthusiasm for the same type of home, my customers especially enjoy the fact that I know exactly what I’m doing and exactly what I’m talking about.”

Maintaining the integrity of the original Eichler design aesthetic is a key ingredient in Calvert’s work. “There are ways to remodel your Eichler,” Calvert says, “and still retain much of that original intent that Mr. Eichler set forth.”

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IN A FORMER LIFE, Craig Smollen may have been an ancient architect, with eyes toward the modern world.

“I think my greatest strength is that I speak the same language as architects,” says Smollen the Builder, the name of Craig’s company and domain name of its stylish website.

“Wexler, Schindler, Lautner, Quincy Jones, Neutra they’re all heroes of mine,” says Smollen, reeling off a ‘Who’s Who’ of mid-century modern architecture on the West Coast.

“When you walk through a modern home, things are coming in and out of view,” he observed of the clean lines and glass walls in such houses. It’s one reason why he tries to minimize any design changes or shortcuts, so as not to take away from the big picture. “I find that less is more.”

An East Coast native who now lives in a midcentury modern home in Marin, Smollen also maintains reverence for good modern design through his communication with clientele.

“I’m often telling my clients, ‘Don’t let your carpenter design your home,’” says the Mill Valley-based, licensed general contractor. “I try to carry the design through to the end. I’m all about the design. ”

Smollen has been woodworking professionally

Vida Building Systems

FOR JONATHAN CUNHA, the small stuff matters.

The contractor knows that each tiny aspect on a remodeling project, or in an interaction with a customer, can make the difference between success and failure.

And after 25 years in the Bay Area construction business first as a carpenter, then as the head of a company called Fusion, and now helming Vida Building Systems Cunha knows how to get the details right.

“I don’t let a few dollars here or there be the deciding factor in how we do something,” Cunha says. “It’s really about the long-term relationships we form with clients that allow us to get good references moving forward.”

The most important aspect of his work?

“Happy people,” he says.

For example, Cunha, who studied architecture before getting into construction, recalled a recent project in Mill Valley, where he and his team did a large-scale, high-end remodel on an Eichler. Their goal was to keep the original look while updating it to modern standards of efficiency and comfort.

For that project, after fixing a dozen or so leaks in the radiant system, Cunha said his team made for three decades, since his teens, and along the way he learned what he was good at and really liked to do.

“I really only do modernist housing these days. I realized that’s all I was really interested in doing,” he says of a work portfolio that includes several Eichlers. “They tend to be remodels that look like they’re built from the ground up.”

Smollen’s ‘less is more’ philosophy does not apply to his attention to detail, however. He stresses he’s a “mud-on-the-boots contractor,” adding, “I’m on the job, I’m actually there a lot, I’m involved.”

“That’s why people like working with me,” Smollen says, noting that he generally uses a small core of about four reliable subcontractors on his work.

He recalled bidding recently on a Quincy Jonesdesigned home in Kentfield, exulting, “It’s beautiful, it’s all glass.”

“My goal is to look back in 15 years and see three to five architecturally significant houses [like this Jones one],” he says of his next phase of project experiences. “Then I’ll feel happy with my life.”

It certainly can’t hurt when design staffs peruse Smollen’s website and see the company motto proudly displayed as a reassuring headline: “An Architect’s Best Friend.” custom fittings that allowed the new FSC-certified wood flooring to fit in conjunction with the original doors. “We wound up putting custom grooves in so that the flooring would fit, since it was a little higher than the original cork flooring.”

That kind of problem solving defines Cunha’s relationship with Eichlers, which he said he became enamored with over his decades of building in the Bay Area.

“It’s about understanding how the pieces work together,” he says. “It’s not like a ‘normal’ house where you cut wherever you want, and then go into the crawlspace and reset it.”

Eichlers, Cunha points out, with their slab foundations and ceilings without attics, are far less forgiving than most homes. “It’s certainly a challenge, but I really thrive on that kind of work. It’s always exciting.”

But success is not just about understanding houses, Cunha says. It’s very much about understanding the people who live in them.

“Our philosophy is basically to do whatever we can within reason to keep our clients happy,” Cunha says . “We just do the work to the best of our ability, and then stand behind it if there’s a problem.” michael@thebuildingcompany.org www.thebuildingcompany.org

CA