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Threshold
A STUDIO FOR THE FEW
Cross the threshold.
Architecture and real estate for those who notice the difference between a house and a home.
HOVER TO STEP INSIDE36.4823°N · 121.7264°W · EST. 2011
01 - THE STUDIO
We work on three houses a year. Each one begins with a season spent on the site, watching where the light lands before a single line is drawn.
A house is a sequence of thresholds. The gate. The court. The door that is heavier than you expected. We design the order in which a place is revealed to you.
14HOUSES COMPLETED
2011STUDIO FOUNDED
03COMMISSIONS PER YEAR
Currently represented
03 RESIDENCES · BY APPOINTMENT
ON SITE
We do not decorate space. We reveal what the site already wants to be.
ON DETAIL
A corner without a column is not a trick. It is four months of argument with an engineer.
ON TIME
We choose materials that are improved by being lived with. Oak darkens. Brass dulls. The house settles into the family.
SCHEDULE 04 - MATERIALS
BASIN HOUSE · SPECIFIED 2023What the house is made of
ALL FINISHES LEFT UNSEALED
M.01Quarried basaltCut within forty miles of the site. Cold underfoot in July, which is the point.FLOORS · PLINTH
M.02Smoked European oakFumed, not stained. It will be two shades darker by the time the children leave.JOINERY · DOORS
M.03Unlacquered bronzeEvery handle records the hand that opened it. We do not polish them back.IRONMONGERY
M.04Low-iron structural glassTwelve millimetres, no green cast, no mullion at the corner. Four months of argument.GLAZING
How it happens
THREE STAGES · TYPICALLY 9 MONTHS01
Inquire
A letter, not a form response. We ask what you want the first hour of a Saturday to feel like, and whether you have land already.
02
Private Tour
One house, one afternoon, no one else on the property. We schedule it for the hour the light is best, which is rarely the hour that is convenient.
03
Acquire
Counsel, survey, and closing handled by our office. You receive the drawings, the material schedule, and the name of everyone who built it.
LOCATION INTELLIGENCE
Basin House sits nine hundred feet above the valley floor.
08 MINPRIVATE AIRFIELD
12 MINCARMEL VILLAGE
26 MINPACIFIC COASTLINE
02 HRSAN FRANCISCO
36.4823°N · 121.7264°W
CLIENTS
The house does not announce itself from the road. That was the point, and they understood it before we said it.- R. HALSTEAD, ACQUIRED 2025
