Residential & Adaptive Reuse — Est. Pacific Coast

Architecture measured in shadow and structure.

Cantilever designs houses, pavilions, and conversions that hold their shape under real weather, real budgets, and real light — not renderings.

Scroll ↓ Drawing Set
SCALE 1 : 100 — SHEET A—000
Meeting Your Needs

Where the studio works.

New Construction

Ground-up residential

Single-family and small multi-unit homes designed from the site up — grading, orientation, and structure resolved together, not in sequence.

Adaptive Reuse

Buildings, not lots

Warehouses, foundries, and outdated commercial stock converted into homes and studios — keeping what still works, replacing only what doesn't.

Feasibility & Siting

Before the first drawing

Zoning review, slope and sun studies, and early cost feasibility — so a project's constraints are known before its form is decided.

Selected Work — Drawing Set

Three projects, three sites, one discipline.

A—101 1:150

Ridgeline Residence

A single-family house set into a sloped site, split across two stepped volumes so no room loses its view of the ridge behind it. Board-formed concrete at the base, cedar above.

Site
0.8-acre hillside lot, coastal foothills
Program
4 bed / 3 bath, detached studio
Materials
Board-formed concrete, cedar, steel
Status
Concept — schematic design
Gray concrete building precedent

PrecedentPhoto: Ricardo Gomez Angel, Unsplash

A—201 1:100

Pavilion at Kelp Cove

An open-air gathering pavilion for a coastal preserve, built as a single flat-roofed plane on a slender steel colonnade — meant to disappear into the tree line from the water.

Site
Public coastal preserve, easement-restricted
Program
Open pavilion, 1,400 sq ft covered area
Materials
Painted steel, glulam, glass
Status
Concept — competition entry
Glass and steel facade precedent

PrecedentPhoto: Sebastian Schuster, Unsplash

A—301 1:120

Foundry Loft Conversion

Adaptive reuse of a decommissioned ironworks building into six live-work lofts, keeping the original sawtooth clerestory and steel bones exposed throughout.

Site
Former foundry, industrial corridor
Program
6 live-work units, shared ground floor
Materials
Existing steel + masonry, new glazing
Status
Concept — feasibility study
Old industrial building precedent

PrecedentPhoto: Anna Kharkivska, Unsplash

A—401 1:100

Reading Room Addition

A glazed sawtooth-roofed reading room grafted onto the side of a 1920s masonry library, bringing north light into a wing that previously had none.

Site
Existing masonry library, historic district
Program
1,100 sq ft reading room + stack access
Materials
Steel sawtooth glazing, existing brick
Status
Concept — schematic design
Modern library interior precedent

PrecedentPhoto: Fer Troulik, Unsplash

A—501 1:150

Courtyard Duplex

Two mirrored two-bedroom units wrapping a shared planted courtyard — every main room faces inward, away from the street, toward the garden.

Site
Infill lot, mixed-density residential block
Program
2 units, 2 bed / 2 bath each
Materials
CMU block, painted stucco, timber screens
Status
Concept — design development
Modern concrete courtyard architecture precedent

PrecedentPhoto: Neon Wang, Unsplash

A—601 1:75

Studio Above the Garage

A detached ADU set above an open carport — a single gabled room with a sleeping loft, built for a client's adult son and future rental flexibility.

Site
Rear-yard ADU, single-family lot
Program
420 sq ft studio + loft, open carport below
Materials
Wood frame, standing-seam metal roof
Status
Concept — permitted, unbuilt
Minimal modern black structure precedent

PrecedentPhoto: Klim Musalimov, Unsplash

Material Palette

What the studio builds with.

Reference material studies, not photographs of a specific building — the textures Cantilever draws on across the practice: board-formed concrete, weathered cedar, and oxidized steel.

Board-formed concrete texture
ConcreteBoard-formed, left to weather
Weathered, cracked wood texture
CedarUnfinished, allowed to grey
Brushed, weathered steel texture
SteelOxidized where exposure allows
Approach

How the studio works.

"A building should be legible from its section before it's legible from its facade."

Cantilever starts every project on the site, not at the desk — reading slope, light, and wind before drawing a single wall. The goal isn't a signature look; it's a building that could only sit where it sits.

Materials are chosen for how they age, not how they render. Concrete is left to weather. Steel is left to oxidize where it's safe to. Nothing is finished to hide what it's made of.

Let's draw the next site.

hello@cantileverstudio.com