American architect George W. Homsey designed some of the earliest Sea Ranch homes in the 1960s, but it was his own San Francisco home that served as a testbed for his pioneering ideas. Now, the storied Bay property is about to come to market for the first time ever via Suprstructur.

Homsey was a founding partner of the firm EHDD Architects, which brought the iconic, shingled Sea Ranch housing development to life on a rugged stretch of coast north of San Francisco. The houses were built in what would later be called the Third Bay Tradition, a Northern California Modernist aesthetic that fellow Sea Ranch architect Charles Moore described as an ‘instant tradition of shed-roofed, free-windowed, sliced cubistic forms’ that favoured verticality, asymmetry, and restraint.

The Homsey House dates from 1961 and is located on Liberty Hill, just a few blocks west of Dolores Park, above the Castro and Mission districts, where it enjoys sweeping views across San Francisco. From the outset, the modernist property stood apart from its Victorian neighbours as an early forerunner of the Third Bay Tradition, with a stacked, shingle-clad design punctuated by oversized picture windows and capped by a flat roof.

Its interiors are rich and luminous, thanks to expanses of textured Douglas fir cladding and carefully placed windows and skylights, which frame views and draw light into recesses. A formal entry hall leads into the main level, housing the dining room, kitchen, garden room, and living room, with a double-height volume connecting the galleried second-floor studio space (formerly Homsey’s office).

Two bedrooms, a bathroom (plus a half bath), and the primary suite complete the upper level, the latter with dressing rooms and backyard access, while the partly finished basement level, envisaged as a guest suite, currently serves as a hobby room.

Homsey passed away in April 2019 at the age of 93 and the property remains in near-original condition. It’s seeking a buyer who understands its provenance and will carefully restore the San Francisco property and preserve it for future generations. Interested parties can contact Jack Byron and Charlie Barraclough at Suprstructur directly to register their interest in the unique home.

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