Speaking of award winning modern design (and big views), the Jensen Architects designed “Kokoris Residence” (a.k.a. 50 Mountain Spring Avenue) has hit the market in Clarendon Heights asking $2,999,000.
An existing hillside home is transformed with the addition of a re-imagined contemporary front porch. Floating concrete steps lead to the cantilevered cast-in-place concrete porch, which hovers above a new waterfall and tiled reflecting pool.
The pool, lined with artisan ceramic tile in shimmering shades of blue, creates a dramatic transition from city street to residential interior. A vitrine-like, all-glass, entry vestibule leads to an automatic sliding translucent door, which slowly opens to reveal panoramic views of the city below.
Project costs were reported at $500 per square foot for those areas which were substantially remodeled plus $1,925,000 for the pre-existing home.
UPDATE (5/22): A bit of the before and work in progress:
∙ Listing: 50 Mountain Spring Avenue (4/3.5) 3,448 sqft – $2,999,000 [MLS]
∙ Kokoris Residence [Jensen Architects]
Looks pretty cool. Don’t like the kitchen and what’s with the day trader setup on the staged picture.
The listing takes fisheye lens photos to a whole new level. Aside from that and the staging, I love the house.
This house is beautiful! I wish I could afford it. The views are fabulous and I am really digging the stairs.
“Construction costs for the project were reported as $500 per square foot (not including the $1,925,000 cost of the pre-existing home)”
So $2M purchase + (500*3500sq.ft.) = 3.75M even without carrying or sales costs. Nice looking place, but no profit for the developer. Unless $500/sq.ft. wasn’t the real cost. It smells high to me.
Glad to see that they’re still installing garage sized fridges in new kitchens (photo 11/34) 🙂
“…what’s with the day trader setup on the staged picture.”
The seller is trying to lure Satchel ? I doubt this would fit his taste (or price).
[Editor’s Note: Perhaps poorly written on our part (and since tweaked), but assume the $500 per square foot budget applies to those square feet which were substantially remodeled or redone rather than all 3,448 square feet.]
The first photo reminds me of any one of several thousands of 60’s ranch style homes all over my childhood home back in Montana. It’s not bad looking, but certainly not something you see much of in SF.
Not a problem specific to this house in particular, but the TV mounted way too high over the fireplace = fail.
Center of TV has to be at the eye level, and away from light.
And speaking of away from light… walls of windows look gorgeous and all, but where does on put furniture that normally stands next to a wall? Consequently, where does one keep one’s things?
Is that a clear glass sink in the bathroom?
Well, it’s stated as a remodel, so perhaps the $500/sq ft is for any additions and not the whole 3500 sq ft. Remodeling at $500/sq ft seems pretty insane since decent-quality new architectural construction can be had at $400/sqft.
An example of buying the worst house on the block and making it into something… better.
The architects kept the roofline and not much else. With interiors best described as regrettable, although they probably made someone happy, once upon a time.
Top photo looks like a small neighborhood fire station.
Have loved this house since I first saw it a year ago wandering around the neighborhood. For $3M though, I want the backyard to have some decent landscaping and not look overgrown. Put those nifty pavers and moss back there!
About that tv location, I agree completely with Alex. We see that same solution more and more these days, and it IS one of the worst locations ever for a flat panel tv. It’s become a tired but very trendy cliche.
Would you guys shut up about the damn TV, who cares?? This is a 3m+ home and you guys are concerned about the damn 2k television.
UPDATE: A glimpse of the facade before (and work in progress) has been addded above.
I love modernism. But the staging in this house comes across as cold and sterile.
I can just see the occupants of this house wandering around with a martini, working on their admissions packet for Betty Ford, wondering how their life became so devoid of human contact.
Modernism need not inspire angst. TVs do not go over fireplaces.
I still like the house.
Somebody needs to take staging to the next level — mannequins. I mean, I don’t think I can quite picture living there with JUST the furniture. That glass display case by the front door is a perfect place to start.
Yea, tv’s do not go over fireplaces.
Ever.
Watched this being re-done. Love this place, love this street. Of the 5 ridiculous view streets (Belgrave, Clarendon, Mountain Spring, St. Germain, Palo Alto), I like Mtn Spring best.
Beautiful but void
Who is that in the window?
Depressed mannequin
I have a flat screen TV over my Noe Valley fireplace and enjoy watching it regularly, often with friends. It has been located there more than 5 years now, and so far none of my sophisticated real estate and design friends have told me outright how tired and cliche it looks or made any other snarky comments. Or maybe they are just being polite! Either way I think I will keep it the way it is !
Stu wrote:
Would make things too easy for the caption writers at Unhappy Hipsters, which this place is a shoe-in to be featured on someday.
I agree with noearch and Embarcadero. As a complete outsider, I can only guess that interior designers in general and stagers in particular are in an ongoing conversation with each other, and for most purposes, the tastes of the existing owner and the general public are being studiously ignored. When designers go “all out” to impress each other, you get almost full-on art installations like the Pacific Heights Firehouse.
my biggest concern: do enough restaurants deliver all the way up there? seriously.
I don’t mind the solitude, but if I’m gonna be stuck up there, I want 50 St. Germain (~2,000 extra sq. feet to play with). Also, I prefer 50SG because it’s still modern while not feeling too gimmicky. The front porch here would be cool for an office/store, but I wouldn’t want that for my house.
I am impressed by the decent sized gym. but maybe that’s just the fish eye lens.
im surprised there’s no deck(s) off the back.
Interesting comparison: this and 147 Laidley are roughly the same price.
Couple a comments: Yea, you can put your damn flat screen tv wherever you want, but from a “design and functional” point of view, it just doesn’t belong over a fireplace. Ever.. You do realize that you are constantly looking UP at the tv when it’s that high? The Center of the tv is recommended to be at eye level when sitting down in your sofa.
Other comment. Lots of custom remodeling comes in at around $500/sf. That’s not unusual. In fact, custom kitchens and baths are generally in the range of $1000/sf for complete (high end) new work.
noearch,
agree but this is not a high end enough remodel to warrant 500/sq ft.
The concern about placing a TV over a fireplace is mainly based in the comfort of viewing height as noearch suggests. But not all fireplaces are the same.
My home has a traditional height mantle, about 52″ off of the floor. Just perfect to strike the classic pose wearing a smoking jacket and ascot, cigar in one hand and snifter of brandy in the other. And too high for a TV.
So if the only reason for avoiding putting a TV over the mantle is viewing height then there are solutions to make this work for some homes with low fireboxes and no mantle.
But this house has no mantle at all. It is difficult to tell from the photos, but the top of the firebox opening seems to be 18-20″ over the hearth and quite low. Perhaps it is a total of 30″ off of the floor. Had the architect not designed that darker colored part of the wall above the white firebox surround, the TV would look just fine brought another 12″ lower and possibly low enough for comfortable viewing.
This is assuming that the firebox is fueled by natural gas. All bets are off if this is a wood burning reactor due to soot emission that could ruin the TV.
All this talk about TVs! You can buy the house and give all the TVs to me if you don’t like them. If you look closely, the monitors are being used to show a slide show of the front remodel.
Barcelona chair
Mannequin watching TV
Head tilted too high
Note to self:
New product. Hinged plate: on one side you mount a flat screen TV and on the other, a museum quality painting. In the down position, the hinge is at the top and the flat panel TV is hanging over the front of the firebox at an optimal viewing height. Simply flip into the up position, latch in place, and the artwork is now showing (hinge now at bottom). You can now turn on the fireplace. Bonus: Flat panel is hidden out of sight. Downside risk: market limited to Socketsite regulars.
Sitting back in your leather Eames chair
Martini in one hand
Remote in the other (well, maybe not on second thought)
Sinatra pops up on the black and white RCA
Ed Sullivan is on
At the perfect eye level
Neck is just fine
Nice idea EBGuy. Here’s a variant : instead of hinging, mount the flat screen on a sliding track. Lower the screen when watching TV. It might even overlap the firebox in that position. When not in use the flatscreen can be used to display any still image (or even a very slow slideshow, changing once every 10 minutes). Or maybe just leave the screen off.
Both ideas rely on no pesky mantle in the way and in both cases there should be an interlock to prevent the fireplace from being switched on when the screen is in the lowered position.
Perhaps just “Dwell” enough.
oh….milkshake..I don’t know where to start with you. your idea is……..well…….way out there.
What if I want to watch tv on some cold, wet, damp, foggy nite? I want my fp going, but don’t want to melt the damn tv.
I wanna be able to have them both on, when I want. Period.
Just don’t put the damn tv over the fp…ever.
Hey, it was actually EBGuy’s idea. I just “improved” it. EBGuy’s configuration burns the screen whereas mine will only burn the rear of the chassis.
I hear ya about enjoying both fire and video. I’m lucky to be configured with the fireplace on a wall 90 degrees from the TV allowing simultaneous toasting and viewing.
Plus I like the high mantle, handy whenever I want to lean my elbow up there and strike the pose. And a martini is a fine substitute for the snifter of brandy.
A rotating tv/art is a good option, and it exists. You have to design for it so the TV doesn’t end up so high.
man, is that ugly.
I meant the mechanism not the cabinet. The cabinet is ugly. You can have any cabinet built you want.
The pictures look great but you have to walk through to see the reality. The kitchen cabinets are from Ikea. The Fisher Paykel dishwashers were nowhere near “new”. And once you go downstairs to the bedroom level, you see that the bathrooms on this level were not included in the remodel.
So looking at the facade, it seems that every car driving down the street will shine its lights through the house. Much more distracting than an over-the-fireplace-TV. Ugh.
And BTW, when do you all think this project began? Good luck to the seller…
The list price for 50 Mountain Spring Avenue has just been reduced $100,000 (3%), now asking $2,899,000.
The listing for 50 Mountain Spring Avenue has been withdrawn from the MLS after 94 days on the market without a reported sale.