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FULL TEXT of ARTICLE
"If the house is the
ego, the garage is the id of the domestic setting.''
-- Kira Obolensky,
"Garage: Reinventing
The Place We Park".
Garages have a grip on
us. Embedded in pop-culture are garage sales, garage bands and garage
workshops. Our reluctance to dispose of our "stuff" means that cleaning
out the garage ranks high on the list of home-chore horrors. Yet some
garages have overcome their humble, prosaic image to become historic as
launching sites of mega-enterprises like Hewlett-Packard, Apple Computer
and Walt Disney's entertainment empire.
Garages can be many
things -- even places to park a car if an owner's beloved stored stuff can
be wrestled aside. Certain classy conversions may even exemplify "garage
chic" -- a term recently noted.
So what might a garage
morph into in aid of whatever practical function or personal fulfillment
is sought in nifty new space?
-- Retreat for jazz
lover (out of earshot of those not necessarily sharing the passion)
-- Playroom/sleep suite
for kids
-- Art, writing or
photography studio
-- Site for home-based
business
-- Party space
-- Guest or in-law
quarters
-- Teen sanctuary
-- Gallery for
displaying collectibles
Planning a conversion
Still, garage
conversions can be challenging -- best approached by the homeowner with
caution and personal research if possible. During a quarter- century of
Bay Area projects, contractor Robert Malone's Baywood Building & Design of
Emeryville has completed "tons" of residential work, including garage
conversions. He highly recommends "a bit of research legwork" at the local
planning and zoning office.
At such a visit, he
suggests speaking with a planner about what's contemplated, showing site
photos and perhaps a simple preliminary sketch. That should produce, he
says, "a lot of initial feasibility feedback."
"One can also request a
zoning classification for the site and handouts describing zoning
regulations and the application and approval process."
Design review issues to
become familiar with include required setbacks from property lines;
parking (will cars evicted from the old garage wind up on the street?);
use to which the new space will be put; and neighborhood impact.
Plus, a conversion must
meet demanding state building code standards for structural integrity
(with possible seismic resistance implications), exits, plumbing, stairs,
ventilation and natural light.
Addressing concerns
In Malone's experience,
San Francisco, Berkeley and Piedmont have "more stringent requirements
regarding impact of remodeled spaces on the neighborhood and on adjacent
neighbors."
Oakland Architect Kurt
Lavenson has a strategy for avoiding or easing bad reactions from
neighbors: communication. It has worked for him, it seems, beginning with
his first garage conversion.
"People are passionate
on both sides,'' he said. At the Alamo home he shared with his wife, Lesly
Avedisian, a spectacular 300-year-old oak tree soared over a somewhat
down-at-the-heels former garage-turned-storage shed that included a small
dressing area for pool users.
"It occupied the best
spot on our property," Lavenson said. But, he needed a home office, and
the building was gutted. A new garage went up behind -- and attached to --
the core space. Completed, the sleek office layout opened via specially
proportioned French doors to the swimming pool and poolside patio.
"Adding onto your house
is a political event," involving both local officialdom and fellow
residents, he said. Before getting his go-ahead, he assured officials that
he did not intend to add a kitchen. He was surprised to find them not only
unsuspicious of him in this regard but eager to be helpful in general.
Neighbors worry about
loss of privacy or a design that is jarring.
"Talk to the neighbors
first," Lavenson said, adding a recommendation to "invite their comment."
Making it habitable
Though the space may
remain the same size, once the garage's function changes, it becomes what
Lavenson says is "conditioned space," requiring improvements such as heat,
insulation, weather-stripping and air circulation to make it habitable,
safe and legal. Then comes the practical concerns -- will it work for its
intended function? -- and the aesthetic.
"I pay a lot of
attention to connecting to the house in a beautiful way," Lavenson said.
He makes sure new
windows are matched to old ones and recommends a particularly eye-catching
stairway if the new layout requires one.
Only an abbreviated set
of interior steps was required in a garage conversion he supervised in
Walnut Creek for Sandy Reeves. Her two-bedroom bungalow was transformed
and expanded with a new front entry, breakfast nook and family room.
Half-walls, slate flooring, French doors and generous windows were key
features. There is space on the lot to add a carport.
Adding space
Many garage conversions
grow out of people's craving for space to carry out activities.
Author Kira Obolensky
also implies that we Americans may see -- and then seek -- more than just
plebian function in eyeing our garages: "It's a container -- for cars,
certainly, but also for the dreams and passions of the house's occupant,"
she noted in her book -- "Garage: Reinventing The Place We Park" (Taunton
Press, 2003) -- which, in its detail, approaches the status of garage-opedia.
Two of Malone's projects
illustrate this idea.
In one, the owner wanted
to fine-tune an earlier conversion of a one- story detached garage behind
a Berkeley brown shingle home. Originally a painting studio and
photography darkroom; the remodel will remove the darkroom, upgrade the
studio, and install new windows.
Another client, Sylvia
Egan, wants an art studio atop her Berkeley hills garage. A bathroom and
other amenities will allow the studio to double, at times, as guest space.
There will be an immense triangular window overlooking Berkeley's Tilden
Park.
Adding space above a
garage is generally more complex, Malone points out, than remodeling an
existing attached garage. There's "the difficulty of the approval process
and construction costs." Going upward, for one thing, will require (in the
absence of existing access) erecting 30 to 40 square feet of stairwell.
Noncompliances are not allowed, Malone said, for health and safety issues.
Even with technical,
legal, financial, practical and aesthetic pitfalls, it appears that this
may be a period of heightened interest in garages as multi-use space. Yet
the concept is long established.
Writes Jennifer Lisle in
her "Garage Chic" (House&Home / Century 21), "The first garages, designed
shortly after the first automobiles, were made to house horses as well."
Freelance writer Norma
J. Shattuck of Oakland can be reached at home@sfchronicle.com.
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