Beautiful Modern San Francisco Home Built on a Steep Hill

Featured in this year’s American Institute of Architects Home Tour the other weekend, hundreds of people walked through Strachan Forgan's San Francisco, but few of them probably realized that the double-height living room, the dramatic open staircase and the luxurious Italian kitchen with quartz countertops could all be theirs - should they be in the market for a rather stunning modern home priced at around $1,479,000 price.

The two-bedroom residence at 1223 Bosworth St. was designed and built by Forgan, an architect at Sasaki, for him and his wife Melissa in 2007. Forgan said after buying the snug, nonconforming lot overlooking Glen Canyon Park in 2004, the site was "a gaping tooth on the neighborhood block" - but it represented just the sort of challenge he relished: how to create a sunlit, stylish home on a steep infill lot only 25 feet wide.

And for his efforts, the home won Forgan a Custom Home Design Award this year that described it as “a compact jewel of a house that packs a ton of sophisticated living on its speck of urban real estate.” This modern interpretation of a San Francisco row house with a multitude of green features also earned Forgan the respect of his neighbors. In order to ensure one neighbor retained his view, for example, he carved a corner out of the home's facade with its dramatic double-height bay window.

The house has been designed on four stories. The lowest level comprises a generous garage, a built-in wine cellar and storage space. The first floor combines the living and dining areas as well as the kitchen with its Arclinea cabinets, CaesarStone countertops and Italian Graniti Fiandre tile underfoot. Folding Nana-Wall doors open onto a small, beautifully designed rear garden with Ipe hardwood decking, tiled planters, natural gas barbecue and water fountain.

Much consideration has been given to making the home as energy efficient as possible with its high-performance envelope, radiant heating under edge-grain amber bamboo floors, nonporous quartz countertops and Energy Star appliances.

The owners, who are moving on in order to build their next home - they already are scouting another infill site in the city on which to work their magic - say they have loved living in the Glen Park neighborhood with its library, restaurants and markets. Forgan added he will miss the "ping" of balls being hit in the baseball diamond across the street. "There's something very soothing about that sound," he said.

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