Dwell’s First Issue Featured This Ship-Like Bay Area Home Seeking $899K
Topped with a crow’s nest and decked out with wooden built-ins, the Lumiere House is on the market for the first time since it was built in 1972.
Location: 331 Western Drive, Point Richmond, California
Price: $899,000
Year Built: 1971
Architect: Walter Thomas Brooks
Footprint: 1,186 Square Feet (2 Beds, 1 Bath)
Lot Size: 6,500 Square Feet
From the Agent: "Lumiere House was built by Walter Thomas Brooks and his family as their private residence on an oceanfront lot in quirky, quiet Port Richmond. The home is surrounded by terraced gardens, mature fruit trees, fish ponds, ferns, and reflecting pools.
Brooks synthesized several design ideas in this house. Crystalline structures create translucent walls that refract light like a prism, while earth shelter principles inspired the building’s small footprint, passive solar, and sleek lines that complement the landscape. His shipbuilding sensibility is also visible in the built-in furniture, prow-shaped front, two mezzanines, and crow’s nest.
Inside, cathedral-like ceilings and walls of ocean-facing windows frame views across San Francisco Bay. Even the detached garage overlooks the Golden Gate Bridge. The two-bedroom, one-bath home has appeared in numerous publications, including Dwell’s inaugural issue in October 2000, as well as, Fine Homebuilding, Sunset, and Newsweek."
Set on a 6,500-square-foot waterfront lot in Point Richmond, California, Lumiere House was designed and built by Walter Thomas Brooks for his family. Terraced gardens, mature trees, and water features surround the home.
Photo by Open Homes Photography
Photo by Open Homes Photography
The two-bedroom, one-bath home appeared in the inaugural October 2000 issue of Dwell.
Photo by Open Homes Photography
Photo by Open Homes Photography
Photo by Open Homes Photography
According to the realtor, the living room’s sunken conversation pit has been temporarily covered with a floor for the sale. The home otherwise retains its original design features.
Photo by Open Homes Photography
Photo by Open Homes Photography
Photo by Open Homes Photography
The living room has a cathedral-like ceiling that rises the full height of the house.
Photo by Open Homes Photography
Photo by Open Homes Photography
A built-in bed platform wraps around the angular ground-floor bedroom, making use of nearly every inch of the compact space.
Photo by Open Homes Photography
Photo by Open Homes Photography
A staircase leads to the second level, where the second bedroom has a cozy platform bed, a built-in desk overlooking San Francisco Bay, and a ladder leading up to the lookout loft.
Photo by Open Homes Photography
Photo by Open Homes Photography
Photo by Open Homes Photography
Photo by Open Homes Photography
Seen from the mezzanine, the prow-shaped front reflects Brooks’s shipbuilding sensibility, also evident in the home’s built-in furnishings and lookout spaces.
Photo by Open Homes Photography
Photo by Open Homes Photography
Photo by Open Homes Photography
A plaque mounted on the exterior identifies Lumiere as "the first plastic shingled house in America," constructed by the Brooks family in 1972.
Photo by Open Homes Photography
Photo by Open Homes Photography
Just inside the gate, a patio seating area is the first in a series of terraces that step down the site toward the water.
Photo by Open Homes Photography
Photo by Open Homes Photography
Photo by Open Homes Photography
A reflecting pool overlooks San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge.
Photo by Open Homes Photography
Photo by Open Homes Photography
Photo by Open Homes Photography
Point Richmond is set on an island on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay. Now linked to the mainland by a tunnel, the hilly neighborhood retains a secluded, village-like feel.
Photo by Open Homes Photography
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