Comstock House
Truckee, CAProject Architect: Josh Horne, AIA
Interior Designer: Josh Horne, AIA
Builder: Matthias MedeA simple brief: one level, smaller footprint, nothing wasted. When the average new home in Truckee had grown past 3,000 square feet, there was an opportunity at the other end of the market, a house that didn't ask you to maintain more than you needed.
Neighborhood covenants shaped the front facade almost entirely: garage turned away from the street, covered porch, street-facing door. Rather than resist those requirements, the design absorbed them as its organizing logic. The remaining third of the facade opens into a vaulted great room that draws light into a site shadowed by the old pines the neighborhood was named for.
Homes in this Truckee neighborhood are required to have a Garage that faces away from the street, a large covered front porch, and a street-facing front door. These requirements drove the positioning of 2/3 of the front facade. The other third of the house is a vaulted Great Room, which speaks to the division of necessities by dividing the volume into thirds. The interior of the Great Room opens on three sides to the home’s surrounding environment.