An 1894 Queen Anne-style house in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights is recast as a minimalist “house-as-gallery”.
Studio VARA turns an 1894 San Francisco Victorian into a four-storey sculptural gallery for family life, wrapping a sinuous white stair and airy interiors inside the home’s restored Queen Anne shell. The team reworks the once-chopped-up interior into a run of loft-like spaces, replacing dark hallways and small rooms with open floors that feel more like a gallery than a traditional Victorian. They keep the ornate street face intact but treats it as a kind of antique veil, with the real drama happening inside around that sweeping stair and a handful of bold, sculptural pieces.
In the kitchen, the architects play up the gallery vibe with a set of large, abstracted orbs which function as countertops and sculptural counterpoints to the minimalist cabinetry. Upstairs in the primary bathroom, an arrangement of angular terrazzo monoliths masquerade as a double vanity, turning a daily routine into a small installation. Throughout, the interiors provide moments of whimsy and joy by strategically inserting sculptural pieces into an otherwise subdued backdrop.
The material palette is deliberately tight: aligned with their ethos of minimalism and restraint, the team adhered to a limited palette of European wide-plank white oak, concrete, steel, and white solid surface material. That calm backdrop lets the sinuous grand staircase, molded with solid surface material and complemented by floating oak treads, take centre stage as it winds through all four levels. Defined by soft curves and subtle recesses, the winding sculptural stair solidly anchors and unifyies all four levels of the home.
On the bedroom levels, the design focuses on reduction rather than addition, where a warren of rooms connected by dedicated hallways was transformed into interconnected, airy, loft-like spaces. Low ceilings have been removed to reveal the original wood framing, and new windows and skylights have been added to flood the rooms with natural light and create a sense of grandeur. Gabled roof dormers are replaced with large picture windows, maximising stunning views of San Franciscos rolling hills and the Bay beyond, so the house still feels very much plugged into its Pacific Heights setting even as it lives like a private museum.
Photography: Matthew Millman
