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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
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House Is Perfect ‘Home Theater’ for Viewing San Diego Life

Down a quiet cul-de-sac on a canyon hillside above Mission Hills Park, a sleek, contemporary home overlooking the San Diego skyline is immediately set apart from the surrounding ranch and Mediterranean-style homes that are commonplace to the area.

“You can see the “hip” of it from the moment you pull up,” said Ken Baer, a realtor with Willis Allen Real Estate. “The glass-enclosed garage, a completely contemporary exterior, it’s a very modern vibe, very unique.”

Baer has the listing on the three bedroom, four bath home with 3,074 square feet on a 10,100-square-foot lot. The asking price for the home at 2021 Rodelane in San Diego is $2.499 million.

Baer, who has been in real estate in San Diego for 19 years, said the overall sense that most people get the first time they walk in is a calming, relaxing feeling that soothes the senses.

As soon as the front door opens, a wall of windows draws the eye toward the dynamic and ever-changing view.

“Once you get in there, you’re watching the city, you see a just little bit of the freeways so you have that movement, you see the planes arriving, you see ships in the bay,” Baer said. “You’re just observing and observing.”

Baer said the nighttime view is equally dramatic; the skyline comes to life and brings an energy to the house “that is pretty spectacular.”

The home was designed in 1959 by mid-century architect Lloyd Ruocco, a revered pioneer in the development of post-war contemporary architecture in the San Diego area. Ruocco’s design philosophy was to use the minimum amount of materials to create the “most interesting and functional enclosure of space,” as quoted in a biography in Modern San Diego.

Another of Ruocco’s signature talents was to site a property to follow the natural contours of the land to maximize views and to respect the structure’s relationship to the outdoors.

“At the time, the El Cortez Hotel was the tallest building in the area,” Baer said. “But the skyline and the bay was without a doubt what he framed all the rooms around.”

Baer said the original footprint remains, but about 10 years ago the current owners wanted to modernize and expand the property. And, for this reason, Baer said that the home is not eligible for a historical designation or the Mills Act.

To preserve the spirit of Ruocco’s original design, the homeowners contracted with local architect Marc Tarasuck, principal architect and head designer in his award-winning firm Marc Tarasuck AIA and Associates that was founded in 1979.

“Marc paid homage to Ruocco with a lot of the ’50s design that Ruocco put in there,” Baer said. “He used a lot of walnut, like in the kitchen for a backsplash — kind of an unusual sort of thing, but it worked.”

Tarasuck redesigned and refreshed the property to make a brand new home while maintaining the spirit of the original design.

“And, adding what I refer to as the eighth wonder of the world — the infinity edged pool.” Baer said. “Because it was on a canyon, the design of this pool is remarkable; I’ve looked at the engineering plans and it is a wonder, it may not be the eighth wonder, but it’s a wonder.”

Also added was an entire master retreat downstairs. The previous design did not have a downstairs, so now there is a spacious, private retreat that opens onto the Jacuzzi and the surrounding property.

Baer said the home is also an ideal home for those who collect art.

“One of the biggest complaints we get from buyers who were looking to buy downtown in more contemporary buildings is there is all this window space, all this view, but you don’t have much wall space to hang art.” he said. “And that is the beauty of this house; it gives you both. It’s almost like an art gallery; it’s got that vibe of a contemporary, modern, minimalist art gallery.”

Baer’s metaphor for the home is that it’s like a two-sided painting, one where the artist might paint one scene on the front and another scene on the back.

“One side of the house is all wall space with beautiful fabulous art and the other side is all glass with this incredible view of iconic San Diego, the bay and the bridge,” he said.

Originally all the windows in the living room were “picture-frame” windows that were not full length as they are now.

Baer said Tarasuck took a look at the existing windows and said “why not just open this up.” And that is why this house has been transformed because the entire south wall of the house is glass. It stretches all the way from the living room, to the dining room, all the way to the kitchen.

“It embraces San Diego, it celebrates San Diego, it really does,” Baer said. “You really do see all those buildings downtown that are now iconic — the view speaks for itself, it gives you a sense of place.”

Send luxury real estate items to sglidden@sdbj.com.

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