Kuth/Ranieri Architects Byron Kuth and Elizabeth Ranieri
With texts by Ila Berman, Mitchell Schwarzer, Rodolphe el-Khoury, and Aaron Betsky
Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Chicago Princeton Architectural Press, New York
Contents ix xi 1
Preface, Byron Kuth and Elizabeth Ranieri Acknowledgments Introduction, Ila Berman Projects:
4 16 26 36 46 54 68 80
Nob Hill Residence Park Presidio Residence Russian Hill Penthouse William Wurster Renovation Hillsborough Residence Private Residence and LEF Foundation Offices / Gallery Guesthouse / Gallery Lodi Bunkhouse Essays:
93 98 106 108 112
“Kuth/Ranieri’s Performance of Modernism,” Mitchell Schwarzer “No Obstacles: Notes on Martyrs’ Square and Other Roofscapes,” Rodolphe el-Khoury Industrial Fetish Fabrications: The Body in Repose “Fields of Fetish: Kuth/Ranieri’s Disturbances,” Aaron Betsky Proposals:
166
Calistoga House Malama Learning Village CAMP: A Gateway Proposal for the Contemporary Art Museum at the Presidio AIDS Memorial Grove Harvey Milk Memorial Car Climate Clock Martyrs’ Square Mission Bay: A Proposal for a Green District Identity Folding Water: A Ventilated Levee for a Living Estuary
170
Project Index Timeline
174
Awards
175
Selected Bibliography
177
Contributors
178
Profiles
179
Studio Members
118 124 132 136 140 144 148 154
Nob Hill Residence San Francisco
The house is sited on a narrow alley that transforms
Like the plan, the facade responds to the
from street to garden at the building’s front door. The
site and context with the transformation of typical,
project falls between the city grid and the organic
typological elements specific to urban residences in
nature of the San Francisco landscape. Vistas from the
San Francisco. The bay window, entry, front-facing
house include Pacific Heights, the Golden Gate Bridge,
garage door, and street-side roof terrace are folded
and the distant hills of Marin County to the north. The
into a singular assembly of clear sealed mahogany
planning of each floor remains open to the views, with
panels and ledges. The regimented order of the
the central living spaces bracketed by perimeter cores.
horizontal ledges is set in contrast to the inflection
Wall surfaces are expressed as cabinetry, concealing
and modulation of the facade’s planar surfaces.
and containing stairs, storage, and baths; surfaces
The facade’s interplay of regular and indeterminate
unfold, slide, and disappear, actively signifying and
geometry relates the Cartesian orders of the city to the
responding to the programs they serve.
exaggerated topography of its landform.
SKIN/surface: The finely articulated skin transforms the dimensionality of the neutral planes of modernism into the directionality of the continuous folded surface. This woven surface oscillates between frame and fill, its rhythmic seriality acting to simultaneously synthesize and expose difference. The compression and expansion of horizontal striations that trace this skin, and the subtle local inflections of its surface, imbue space with a corporeal thickness that converts the faciality of the facade into a new material body. –I. B.
Sections, railing detail
Kuth/Ranieri Architects
4
5
Project / Essay title
Axonometric, parallel streets in San Francisco
Site plan
Kuth/Ranieri Architects
6
7
Project / Essay title
Kuth/Ranieri Architects
8
Circulation axonometric
9
Project / Essay title
Kuth/Ranieri Architects
10
Plan, first level 1. Kitchen 1
2. Dining
2
3
3. Living room
0
10’
20’
Section
11
Nob Hill Residence
Kuth/Ranieri Architects
12
13
Nob Hill Residence
Plan, second level
2 1
3
1. Guest suite 2. Master bathroom 3. Master bedroom 4. Roof terrace
Kuth/Ranieri Architects
14
0
10’
20’
4
15
Project / Essay title