Del Mar, CA | Home of the Year – San Diego Home/Garden Magazine
Our Pine Needles Residence showcases Coastal Industrial Modernism with a heavy focus on high-end, hillside integration.
The style beautifully pairs geometric, box-like architecture with raw industrial materials and crisp, bright interiors designed to maximize sweeping coastal views.
- Core Architectural Style
- Industrial Modernism / Warm Industrial: The home embraces a bold, geometric silhouette with clean lines and flat roofs. However, it avoids feeling clinical by using a material palette that patinas over time, grounding the structure in its environment.
- Hillside Coastal Design: The architecture is specifically engineered to handle a steep grade. The structure steps down the hillside, utilizing a terraced landscape strategy that turns a challenging elevation into a feature with multiple layers of indoor-outdoor living spaces.
- Defining Exterior Materiality & Terracing
- Corten Steel (Weathering Steel): The most striking feature of the exterior is the extensive use of pre-patinated, rust-orange Corten steel panels. This material is highly durable as the outer layer of rust actually protects the metal underneath from deeper corrosion while providing a rich, textured, earthy color.
- Steel-Plate Retaining Walls & Planters: The hillside landscape layout utilizes thick plates of weathering steel to hold back the earth. This material forms the terraced steps, integrated planters for drought-tolerant grasses, and the prominent street-number monument wall.
- Exposed Black Metal Framing: Heavy black industrial steel posts and wire-cable railings provide sleek, transparent barriers that don’t block the ocean views.
- Interior Architecture & Space Planning
While the exterior is rugged and industrial, the interior shifts into an ultra-clean, minimalist aesthetic:
- The “Great Room” Concept: The main living spaces feature massive open floor plans where the high-end kitchen, dining space, and living area flow together seamlessly without structural walls.
- Architectural Minimalism: The interiors focus on flat-panel, handleless cabinetry within a stark white and dark gray kitchen that’s reminiscing coastal fog, flush baseboard transitions, and integrated linear lighting.
- Floating Structural Elements: The interior features a dramatic, open-riser floating staircase with a single steel spine, allowing light to pass directly through the center of the home.
- Clerestory & Corner Glazing: Pocketing glass doors and floor-to-ceiling corner windows dissolve the barrier between the indoor living spaces and the outdoor pool decks.
- Luxury Utility Spaces
- Indoor-Outdoor Home Gym: A massive garage-style opening features a glass sectional roll-up door, instantly converting a private home gym into an open-air workout pavilion.
- Spa-Like Master Bath: The bathroom architecture embraces a bright, gallery-white aesthetic with a freestanding soaking tub positioned to take advantage of the coastal view, flanked by minimalist floating vanities.