38 DIGS.NET
| 6.12.26
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P R O F I L E | C R A I G S T E E LY
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
conventional house," corrects the noncon-
forming 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 opportunity to build a completely glass
walled house, protected from the direct
rays of the sun, yet filled with dappled
sunlight," Steely explains. Arriving at the
top of the slope, looking over the top of
the oak grove, "You enter the house onto
the conceptual nature of his work, it's not
surprising that Steely is a draw in Silicon
Valley, where he designed a seemingly
roofless house 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,
