VISITING ARTISTS HOUSE

Geyserville, California

2003

The building – on the crest of a hill at a former sheep ranch that is now home to commissioned sculptures by Richard Serra, Bruce Nauman, Ursula von Rydingsvard and others – is a bipartite residence for artists on site. Two seemingly parallel poured-in place concrete walls cut through the hill, diverging at the north and converging at the south. The stepped floor creates a shifting section through the length of the building to accentuate the perspectival phenomena of elongation and foreshortening of space. A site-specific, expansively gestural work by David Rabinowitch is carved directly into the inward-facing surfaces of the concrete walls, concert and in dialogue with the architecture.

Very beautiful, very sculptural and elegant.

Progressive Architecture 01/92: Annual Awards

The simple plan generates a rich set of spatial experiences that engage the land in a visually intriguing way.

Architectural Record 04/03: Record Houses

Visiting Artists House is one of the most imaginative dwellings of the current era. The interior has a magical continuity with the outside; the same pristine clarity that’s notable in the structure also prevails in the interior layout. It is groundbreaking architecture.

Art-Sites San Francisco 2003

Jennings has styled a retreat where the most tactile and demanding artist should feel blessed.

San Francisco Chronicle 04/14/05: AIA Awards

The studios were conceived as an intervention in the land rather than as a construction on the land. A masterpiece of earth and light… One can think of few works of architecture that approach pure art as closely as this work.