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BROWN
ADDITION
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA
Photography: Public
This project is a 1,000 square foot addition housing a new kitchen, master suite, and painting studio. The austerity of the existing 1920’s Spanish home, with its simple geometry and very light detailing, has a counterpart in the newly created masonry adjacent to it.
The concrete block is ground, giving a rich surface to this most basic of materials. The beautiful block is exposed on the inside as well. The architect worked with the local block manufacturer to custom spec the color of the aggregate prior to the grinding of the block faces. The doors and windows are Jarrah, a species of eucalyptus. Likewise, the kitchen cabinets are eucalyptus plywood. The flooring is reclaimed bowling alley wood (clear yellow pine) rescued from the demolished Aztec Bowl in North Park.
When the plans for the addition were chalked out on the ground, it was discovered that four dwarf citrus trees lie just outside of the new walls – and too close to survive for long. It was decided to relocate them vertically so that they appeared to merely float up the walls of the new structure and become affixed. The trees were simply levitated upward and attached. Hot-dipped brackets were fixed to the sturdy masonry walls of the addition to hold the wooded pots in place. There is poetry in the lifting and maintaining of the trees.
ARCHITECT:
Public
4441 Park Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92116
James
Brown
Principal
STRUCTURAL
ENGINEER:
Envision Engineering
GENERAL
CONTRACTOR:
James Brown
MASONRY
CONTRACTOR:
Masonry Unlimited
BLOCK
PRODUCER:
RCP Block & Brick
OWNER:
Isabel Dutra and James Brown
