36 DIGS.NET
| 4.8.2022
P R O F I L E | C R A I G S T E E LY
before completing the 2,600-square-foot Pam and Paul's House.
Tucked in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, the latter
house exploits its extravagant connection to the natural setting
and is another unequivocal, almost transgressively minimal
modern form from Steely. But this house, with all its glass,
appears to hover over a grove of matures oaks—a heaven
above the earth.
It is also a haven and, all observable evidence to the contrary, a
grounding for its owners—technology workers eager to embrace
nature. "They wanted a life that encompassed both," Steely says of
the pretext for the project. Only, the site was sold as an unbuildable
lot. And it was unbuildable, or would have been, "…for a conven-
tional house," corrects the nonconforming Steely. This is not that.
"This is a house that would not fit anywhere else."
Primarily composed of steel and glass, with an observation
deck and a garage and foyer of zinc panels and mirrored glass
meant to reflect both the sky and surround, the concept for the
house came to Steely clearly and quickly—float a glass box
in the leaves of the trees on two trunk-like columns, disrupting
as few oaks as possible. "The dense tree canopy offered the
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