CCS Architecture

Glen Park Residence | San Francisco, CA

This view home was carefully created for a San Francisco entrepreneur. This is his first residence and he worked avidly with the design team while also becoming cultivated in architecture and design. The design team consisted of CCS Architecture, headed by Cass Calder Smith and the owner’s creative director, Akemi Tamaribuchi, from Subject to Change, who brought CCS onto the project. The collaboration resulted in an overall creative alliance where CCS handled the architecture and finishes, while Subject to Change handled the furniture, art, styling, and was the conduit to the owner.

The house was created for everyday living, intimate meetings, and occasional entertaining.  It’s meant to be a ‘place’ to share ideas with others and foster a sense of community. Architecturally, the building is designed to capture the views, bring in the daylight, and establish a sense of calm through simplicity and open space. Since the views progress from great to amazing as one moves up through the house, the main living space is at the top, which is the fourth floor. This space opens up on both ends – with the living room to city views one way and with the kitchen to the terraced yard at the other. Within this main space are three notable design elements: the floating fireplace wall, the polished stainless steel ceiling over the dining table, and the steel/glass/wood staircase, which drops down thru all of the floors and acts as a vertical counterpoint. Overall, it’s restrained white minimalism balanced with wood, color, and the city beyond.

Casa Amate | Andaz Mayakoba Hotel, Riviera Maya, Mexico

Casa Amate is Hyatt Andaz’s signature dining destination, a unique restaurant and bar located on a rock outcropping overlooking an inland lagoon. Like all venues, it is reachable by cart but distinctively accessed by foot via a nearby pedestrian bridge. The building is designed as a rural house that may have been created and lived in by an eclectic world traveler with interests in exploration, ecology, astronomy, and artifacts- particularly in Latin America.

As a house, it has domestic rooms that surround a courtyard with a special tree. Each intimate room, converted as it would have been the archaeologist’s house has a specific design, each with dining for 16 to 20 people.

The design was inspired by traditional Mexican materials applied in a modern way. A layer of domestic warmth and authenticity is drawn from the furniture, fabric and patterns of rugs, tiles and the many accessories all sourced for their uniqueness and historical connection to Mexican culture. The collections are displayed throughout each of the various rooms as though they have been accumulated over the years and passed down from generation to generation. They provide a glimpse into the Explorer’s life, connecting the past to the present.

Aptos Retreat | Aptos, CA

This project was designed for a San Francisco couple with six children – with ages ranging from high school to college. The property is located inland from the beach town of Aptos, California in the Santa Cruz Mountains, near the city of Santa Cruz.  The 20-acre site has ocean and mountain views and is about five miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. The family desired a setting that would be casual and rustic, and that would incorporate sustainable features to minimize the home’s carbon footprint. Diverse activities were part of the design program, including; entertaining, cooking, tanning, swimming, archery, horseshoes, gardening, and wood-splitting.

The project has 2 primary buildings, the main house, and the barn, plus accessory buildings and recreational components that were designed to work together as a country compound.

Haus Martin | San Francisco, CA

This new single-family house replaces an existing home with the same footprint and number of stories.  Designed for a single European man, this 1800 square foot house is located in the Buena Vista Park District.

Aside from the client’s program, the house is designed to respond to two contextual influences: the excellent views of the park to the east and of the ocean to the west, plus the richly ornate facades of the adjacent neighbors.  The existing house, which was demolished, was a small home with little distinction wedged between a flamboyant turn of the century Victorian and an elaborate 1920’s Craftsman-style mansion.