Shamir Shah Goes West to Update a San Francisco Home

Shamir Shah Design has left its signature imprint all over the Manhattan residential map. So much so that when a sophisticated, world-traveled couple visited a lower Park Avenue loft principal Shamir Shah had created for friends, the pair was determined to bring the designer West—specifically to San Francisco, where a recently purchased Pacific Heights house was in need of a gut renovation. “All the things he did—art, furniture, textures, textiles, scale—spoke to each other,” the wife says of what initially attracted them to Shah’s distinctive style. An ensuing dinner party established that designer and clients had mutual respect and the right chemistry—prescient planning since the project took six years to complete, thanks to COVID erupting during the construction phase.

“We do interiors and architectural design,” Shah says of his practice, “mostly in New York, where we generally don’t work with an architect on smaller residential projects.” Thousands of miles away, San Francisco’s infamously labyrinthine permitting process presented another story: “We needed a local architect to shepherd the renovation through the building department, take charge of the house’s core and shell, and work in a truly collaborative spirit.” Enter Geddes Ulinskas Architects. In a flip of the usual procedure, it was the designer who brought on the architect after diligently interviewing three other prospects. “We enhanced each other’s roles,” principal Geddes Ulinskas reports, lauding the thoroughness of Shah’s drawings. “He produced a brilliant package that was a fantastic way of communicating and transmitting his passion for the project to the entire team.”

The Home Renovation Features Seismic Upgrades

The house, originally a 4,000-square-foot, three-level, wood-sided structure dating to 1947, was lackluster in design and substandard in construction. What it did have was location. At an elevation of 340 feet, the site offers panoramic views of San Francisco Bay. And in a city given to a mélange of residential styles, the property was located in a cul-de-sac of pedigree modernist houses by Gardner Dailey, Joseph Esherick, and William Wurster. In fact, the enclave is up for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

The second level is given over to private quarters: the main suite, two bedrooms, one doubling as a larger office, and a sitting room. The penthouse, which opens to a roof deck, is designated as a game room while more things recreational—a gym and a capacious wine cellar—join two additional bedrooms, a laundry, and a mudroom in the basement.

“In general, our work is quiet and serene,” Shah says of the furnishings and materials, which are frequently custom and used plentifully “for a rich, layered approach.” Pale creams and grays dominate the color palette, while bronze is the metal of choice. A characteristic vignette centers on the living room fireplace, which is surrounded by planes of travertine and flanked by a pair of oak-lined niches with custom bronze pedestals topped by Ju Ming sculptures, part of the family’s art collection.

“We wanted large walls for art,” Shah continues. Whether existing, purchased, or commissioned, the pieces were curated by the designer. An impressive Max Neumann canvas, one of the first works acquired and a Shah favorite, anchors the living room. A pair of Julian Watts stained-maple bas-reliefs adorn the adjoining wall, across from which hangs a Katherine Hogan wire sculpture, a ghostly presence reminiscent of the late San Francisco artist Ruth Asawa’s iconic pieces. Arguably closest to home is the commissioned site-specific mixed-media work spanning a media-room wall. Made of canvas, burlap, rope, and wood, it’s by Malcolm Hill, Shah’s life partner.

Inside the Curated, Art-Filled Home by Shamir Shah Design

shamir shah design: nely cuzo; cailen messersmith; olivia manzano; wendy wahlert

geddes ulinskas architects: alla agafonov; roma olišauskaitė

lutsko associates landscape architects: landscape consultant

jon brody structural engineers: structural engineer

matarozzi pelsinger builders: general contractor

todd merrill studio: custom sofas (living room)

through fair: floor lamp

through ralph pucci international: daybed

through galerie bsl: loveseat

la cividina: armchair

argosy designs: custom pedestal

Woven: custom rugs (living room, media room)

neolith: sintered stone (kitchen)

Holly Hunt: sconces (stair), chairs (dining room), armchairs (media room)

through maison gerard: sconce, shelf (entry)

Lindsey adelman studio: pendant fixture (entry), chandelier (dining room)

bddw: table (dining room)

chris french metal: custom front door (exterior)

amuneal: custom coffee table (media room)

emmemobili: table (penthouse)

dwr: chairs

garde: pendant fixture

phillip jeffries: wallcovering (bedroom)

bruno moinard éditions: armchairs (bedroom), sconces (penthouse)

B&B Italia: sectional (penthouse)

galanter & jones: seating (terrace)

erickson æsthetics: chair (office)

caste design: tables

Sacco: custom rugs

Resawn Timber Co.: accoya siding

amari: windows

benjamin moore & co.: paint

This Napoli Home by Giuliano Andrea dell’Uva Architetti is a Hidden Gem

Italy’s third largest city, Naples, is not exactly known as a locus of peace and quiet. “The city is certainly chaotic,” says architect Giuliano Andrea dell’Uva, who has lived most of his 41 years there. “Its charm also comes from managing to find the serene and calm in that chaos.” That is precisely what he accomplished with his redesign of a three-bedroom, four-bath flat in the upscale Posillipo quarter for art/design collectors Irene and Teodoro Falco and their teenage daughter and son.

In a twist of fate, the 3,400-square-foot apartment, located in a 1956 building by Davide Pacanowski, has roots in dell’Uva’s youth, when he first became acquainted with the work of the Polish-born architect, a student of Le Corbusier’s. “I lived in a stretch of the Posillipo hill and was fascinated by the sight of Villa Crespi, a bold project of rationalist architecture that Pacanowski designed in 1955,” he recalls. The cliffside residence, with cantilevered slabs wedged between ancient pine trees, “was, for me, a symbol of the direct relationship between architecture and sea.”

Alas, his clients’ flat, though retaining some historical elements like porthole windows, had been restored in the 1990s “to a more neoclassical taste that eradicated its original charm,” dell’Uva recounts. “I really tried to get it back.”

Doing so entailed reconfiguring the floor plan around sea views, so that the public areas and main bedroom face the Gulf of Naples. Dell’Uva forewent corridors and divisions in favor of making the space as open as possible. The entry leads to conjoined living and dining areas (the Falcos requested a statement salon in which to receive guests) separated from the eat-in kitchen by full-height brass-frame glass doors. To the left of the living area’s fireplace—a steel marvel designed by the French sculptor Robert Ascain in 1972—a curved wall subtly directs foot traffic to a row of sleeping quarters: first the main suite, followed by bedrooms for the kids, as well as their own youthful sitting room. The son gets a custom berth tucked into a space-age aluminum enclosure.

The gulf also inspired the color scheme: sparsely deployed yellows and blues (see the cipollino marble paving the entry and cladding the primary bath walls) against a background of sparkling white. The city’s world-class cultural scene also figures prominently in the form of the couple’s blue-chip art collection as well as covetable vintage furnishings from a cadre of specialist dealers. Elements by maestri of design invariably factor into any dell’Uva project. He grew up surrounded by the work of Gio Ponti, Franco Albini, and others, which instilled a love of design in him from an early age. “Even as a little boy I would draw houses and interiors,” he recalls. (Dell’Uva was certainly precocious: his first project, at the tender age of 17, was the renovation of a family home his architect great-grandfather had designed in 1924; and he launched his own studio at 23, shortly after graduating from the Università di Napoli Federico II.)

cc tapis: rug (living area)

la cividina: sofas

through galleria francesco: coffee table

tacchini: armchairs

rezina: resin floor

through dimore gallery: floor lamp

through robertaebasta: chimney breast (living area), chandelier (dining area)

Nilufar: custom table, chairs (dining area)

paola c.: glass centerpiece

through galleria massimo caiafa: leather armchair (son’s room)

cassina: chairs (kitchen)

abimis: island

B&B Italia: sofa (kids’ lounge)

through galleria rossella colombari: vintage ceiling light

alimonti milano: marble (bathroom)

Dornbracht: sink and shower fittings

galleria elena: tilework (primary bedroom)

Nilufar: sofa