WEST COAST CASUAL

EMBRACING ITS SETTING ON A LAGOON, A MARIN COUNTY WEEKEND HOME INVITES INDOOR-OUTDOOR LIVING AT ITS BEST.

- JANICE RANDALL ROHLF

Located 30 miles north and west of the Golden Gate Bridge, Stinson Beach hugs the Pacific Ocean and sits in the shadow of Mount Tamalpais, which rises dramatically in the background. Here, the heartbeat of the Seadrift community is outdoor recreation swimming and sailing in the lagoon, surfing and fishing in the ocean, bicycling and hiking through the hills. Houses, modest in size and eclectic in style, sit on narrow lots with close property lines that impede complete privacy but foster a neighborly bonhomie. Seasonal renters, enchanted by the cadence of the neighborhood, turn into people determined to own a home in the coveted development of Seadrift.

One such family, a couple from Palo Alto with two teenagers, approached architect Cass Calder Smith to design a weekend house on one of the rare empty lots facing the lagoon along its shore. They would use it as a family gathering place for casual living, entertaining, and connecting with nature.

"This area within West Marin is the more bohemian, agricultural, and coastal part of Marin County," says Smith, who collaborated with project architect Björn Steudte on the 2,100-square-foot house built in a "casual contemporary" style, as the architect puts it. "[Seadrift] is mostly weekenders, and the scene isn't fancy," he says. "Most people have dogs, boards, and boats." Everyone has sand and sea air.

To accommodate this easygoing lifestyle, the shape of the house-two volumes straddling a three-sided courtyard-and the location of spaces maximize indoor-outdoor connections. To the north, the rooms are oriented toward the water and the mountain beyond. To the south of the main living area, the courtyard serves as an outdoor room, with views to the west and back through the house.