Reprinted from Sunset Magazine:

A Neutral Frame for Personal Expression

Sunset Magazine Luxuriant skeins in amber, vermilion, cornhusk yellow coil on racks to the ceiling. The floor is vinyl in the textured pattern of diamond-plate steel. Pliant pillows wrap a corner window seat behind a cord-tied ripstop nylon curtains. The walls and ceiling of unfinished Douglas fir boards give the room a barnlike background. Where are we? We are standing inside an environmental tapestry woven by the Sea Ranch, California, artist-owner Dianne McKenzie and Berkeley architect Donlyn Lyndon. – Sunset Magazine

The warp and woof of this design-not withstanding the woof named Yogi so coolly returning our gaze-express the theme of contrast, which the jury found stimulating and provocative.

The house was designed to include a separate art studio and guest area, shown in the large photograph. The jury noted that the wooden post-and-beam structure becomes a simple frame for the elements inside it. Juror Heidi Richardson observed: “The whole woody box has a plain, neutral quality: you can stick almost anything into it.”

Sunset Magazine An industrial aesthetic-playing off against the rustic simplicity of walls and ceiling-governed the selection of key interior materials and finishes, from hand-cast concrete countertops and stainless steel fixtures to the patterned vinyl, slate tile, and painted concrete floors. McKenzie heightened the sense of contrast by placing carved Victorian chairs at the contemporary plastic-laminate dining table and in the living area beyond.

 

 

written by Daniel P. Gregory
Nov 1992 Sunset Magazine