Project: Residency of Lawrence Livingston Jr.

Architect: John Carl Warnecke A.I.A.
Landscape Architect: Lawrence Halprin
Photographers: Ernest Braun, Morley Baer, Fred Lyon, Moulin Studios
Date Completed: 1955
Award: A.I.A. - SUNSET Western Home Award

A tree-house overlooking San Francisco Bay for a family of four.

When renowned Bay Area city planner Lawrence Livingston Jr. built this house on his “arboreous parcel” in the city of Sausalito, he had to keep all of his two dozen or more, 100-foot high Pine and Live Oak trees. The former owner, who lived next door to the parcel, refused to sell it until Livingston agreed to plan and construct the dwelling without removing a single tree.

“Accordingly, architect John Carl Warnecke planned the siting of this two-story structure from the careful fitting of the indoor and outdoor areas among the trees standing on the hillside. For this reason, the Livingston residence floats on a broad platform partly sheltered by the roof which folds along its diagonal; a tree-house in effect.”