Name: David Tomb and Susan Sweet
Location: San Francisco
Size: Living area 1700 sq. ft., office/studio 700 sq. ft.
Years lived in: 10 years owned
Back in 1996, the architect Bruce Tomb heard about a 1950s dragnet-style police precinct coming up for public auction in San Francisco. At the time, Bruce's brother, the artist David Tomb, and his wife, Susan Sweet, were living in New York, but hoping to come back to the Bay Area to start a family. Together they bought the building at auction—Willie Brown's signature is right there on the deed—and Bruce redesigned the police station, envisioning a kind of compound with live/work spaces for both brothers' families. The result of the two-year renovation is a gorgeous, light-filled space unlike any home we have seen before. Learn more about David and Susan's home after the jump...
Visitors enter the "compound" down a long driveway lined with flowering vines. The live/work spaces are arranged around a parking lot that's been converted into a garden courtyard (with space for parking, too). A native plant garden offers inviting, dappled shade, and nearby a wide glass door leads into David and Susan's home.
The quality of the light inside is so spectacular that it almost feels like you're still outdoors. With its soaring ceilings, numerous well-placed skylights, and open central lightwell, the home is designed to take in natural light from every possible direction. David and Susan have arranged their space to make the most of their abundance of sun and space, painting the walls in bright but soothing yellows and greens and hanging large artworks (some of which are David's own) that would hardly fit in a room with standard ceiling height. They embrace the open plan of their living space, eschewing room dividers and closed-off vignettes in favor of an uncluttered layout in which one space flows easily into the next. Even their son's room, the smaller of the two bedrooms, has a wide-open feel, with an outer playroom leading into a skylit sleeping area.
David's studio and Susan's office are just a short walk away, down an outdoor hallway. The arrangement seems ideal, though we're not sure how anyone could work with such an inviting place to relax nearby!
AT Survey:
My/Our Style: Modern eclectic.
Inspiration: The building was the starting point—a modern utilitarian building.
Favorite Element: Open floor plan and amazing light quality, plus conversion and design of parking lot into California Native garden.
Biggest Challenge: Continuum of building maintenance (good luck in the boiler room).
What Friends Say: Where are the jail cells? (They’re still here, in the other part of the building.)
Biggest Embarrassment: Oh yeah, there was that time the neighbors didn’t really like the concrete cutter noise decibels at 8am.
Proudest DIY: Interior color design.
Biggest Indulgence: The custom-made bookcase in the family room.
Best Advice: Everything will take double the amount of time and money to complete that you think it will, but ultimately is hugely gratifying.
Dream Source: Bruce Tomb, designer and architect; David Tomb, artist; Matarozzi and Pelsinger builders.
Resources:
Main Room:
Knoll furniture (Barcelona chair, Gehry chair)
Herman Miller (Eames chair)
Umbra (Karim Rashid Oh Chairs)
Anthropologie (pillows)
Electric Works Gallery Store (ceramic owl piggy bank)
Marble 1965 dining table salvaged from East Bay bank
Main Room Art :
David Tomb (portraits and birds)
Cathy Liu (volcano print)
Lynn Beldner (sculpture, plaster with objects)
Steve Briscoe (glass bullhorn, pimp drawing)
Matt Gil (ceramic and metal sculptures)
Mata Ortiz (spider pot)
Donald Tomb (salvaged lighthouse lenses)
Atrium:
Yerba Buena nursery
Flora Grubb Gardens
Child’s Room:
Bachmann and Lionel Trains
Oakland school district salvaged map
Steve Briscoe (lamb print)
Master Bedroom:
Turn of the Century Fine Arts (Jane Bench)
Herman Miller (Eames chair)
Master Bedroom Art:
Barry Simons
Merav Tzur
Kenney Mencher
Jurek Bitter
Ethel Sweet
David Tomb
Lynn Beldner
Master Bath:
Bruce Tomb, Infinite Fitting (bronze cast sinks)
Steve Briscoe (plaster bear)
(Thanks, David and Susan!)
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fun and open to creativity... love the parking spot in the kitchen
wish i grew up there
The hanging light in the kitchen looks just like the ones in my elementary school. The light bulbs were silvered to cut down on glare. I loved them. Is it original to the building?
I've always wanted to live in a retired sf firehouse. Preferably with a fireman's pole from the bedroom. : D A police precinct seems like it would be pretty close.
Love the window seat!
Are those lighthouse lenses as side tables?
i love tomb's work!
whoa- i LOVE this place! how fabulous!
I absolutely love your firehouse - - the space, the art work, the vintage furniture, the wall colors(I don't think your choice of colors dulls anything), the layout, the child's room, your room! It's fabulous! Can I come stay with you? You won't even know I'm there :-)
http://girlwhimsy.blogspot.com
I love the wall colors, and I'm going to be that person who is asking the mandatory "what is the wall color in the living room"?
The clatter you just heard was the sound of my jaw hitting the floor and breaking into several pieces.
This is a dream space in one of the most congested cities in the country. Love it. Want it. Am jealous. Also, no jaw.
But where, oh where, did you get the big brown couch?!
Hi there, I can answer some of the questions for you. I'm Susan's sister and David's sister-in-law.
First off, to aaakid - Yes the hanging lamp is original to the building. David tells me they had the same ones in his childhood school in Oakland as well.
Second, that IS a lighthouse lens turned into a side table (good eye, lemonadefish!).
And in terms of the colored walls.. yes, the colors are off slightly due to lighting and photography, But they are not pastel, but a warm yellow ochre and a soothing blue-green. They look wonderful in person.
To Arkansas Traveler...The big brown couch? I'll ask my sister.
laura sweet
If It's Hip, It's Here
http://ifitshipitshere.blogspot.com
Heart palpitations...
This is a clearly a Home-with-a-capital-H. It looks to me like a beautiful, well thought-out space for people who love good things, good living and each other.
Just beautiful!
I'm enamored of the bird painting panels...love it.
Katy
http://fengshuibyfishgirl
Hi Everyone!
Since there are clearly a lot of fans of David's work here, I just wanted to add that he has a show opening soon at the Happy Hour Gallery, 742 Gilman St. in Berkeley. The reception will be on May 29 from 2-5pm.
The bird paintings are incredible in person!!
- Susie
I lived next door to first the police station and then to Bruce and his family as they transformed the place. I moved in '99, when they were in mid-transformation. So impressed with what the station has become. Kudos!!
I love the birds too! Typically there are so many birds in design however I feel these are simple. I saw the most amazing bird wall sculpture on CHDmag.com when I was submitting my dining room photo for their contest.
http://chdmag.com/readers-choice
I preface with the fact that modern is not near the top of any list of mine as a style of design, but I have seen examples that made me re-consider. This isn't one of them, though I applaud that the color scheme is something appreciated by the owners, I think they did a wonderful job with color. Love the child's room!
But for me, there is no sense of harmony here, or even fun. With all of that fabulous art, somehow very little of it can be really seen. I had this flash of some of it hanging from those wonderfully high ceilings, pull some of that furniture out from the walls...all that space and it reminds me of a dorm open area where all the furniture is pushed back for dancing. Modern can be warm! This just feels like big spaces....love the windows! Why not work around them, as they make defined areas by themselves...and the furniture (which is where the people are) seem to be in hiding from that marvelous light
being and artist i think its a need to live where we work.. its lovely..
some kind of wonderful!
very pretty. love the giant wallpaper paintings. by the way, does anyone out there go on designmyroom.com? have you noticed that the site is no longer there and the address directs you to the armstrong site - designaroom.com which is kind of a nothing. will anyone who knows anything about what's going on with this wonderful site please post any info.
thanks.
i don't care for the yellow walls. i think the incredibly fabulous artwork in the living room would look so much more vibrant against a crisp white backdrop. that tiny critique aside, this home is wonderful! the natural light is so inviting
Even better than your NYC digs! Beautiful!
Interesting choice in colors. Not what I would have chosen, but I like the open spaces that a place like that can afford.
Open space and lots of light make ALL the difference.
What I really get a kick out of is the childrens suite. I've thought that if I ever posted my house on AT, I'd show of my teenage sons bedroom, messed up as it usually is with the drum kit that swamps the place.
Seriously, though I aspire to the fastitious perfection of the house tours of the one person acupancy kind.... I gotta actually share my space with folk. And that involves alot of ... I dunno... LIFE!!
i don't want to be rude, but to be honest this place looks like a mess! disorganized colors, furnishings, accents and CLUTTER make me want to run. but it is their space and they can decorate any way they'd like. but as an interior designer i would change EVERYTHING. except maybe that photo collage in the bedroom. that is cool!
the one thing that i absolutely do love? the indoor atrium!!!! how cool is that? i've always wanted one of those!
I love the orange wall. Please, please tell me the paint color name!
this is my favorite house of the whole year.