Upwardly Expanded University City Palmer & Krisel For Sale – San Diego, CA

Built in 1962 is this butterfly-roofed Palmer & Krisel-designed home in San Diego’s University City neighborhood that’s relatively new to the market. It’s been vertically expanded with a two-story addition that significantly alters the appearance of the home; however the addition has been in place for several years and was not a decision made by the current sellers. With the addition, this home includes five bedrooms, three bathrooms in 2,494 square feet, a two car garage and a 6,500 square foot lot with an asking price of $899,000.

Entryway

The front yard offers great curb appeal to the home, with a drought-tolerant low-water use landscape with lots of succulents, palms and agaves. A courtyard entry welcomes visitors to the home, which is accessed through a subdued orange door.

Living Room

Living, Dining and Loft

Living Room as viewed from loft

The rear of the home is essentially a separate structure, as the living and dining rooms were blown out to create the second story addition. They now incorporate a raised, vaulted ceiling creating an open, voluminous space. Interestingly enough, the original fireplace is still in place in the living room, with a raised chimney hood to accommodate the heightened ceiling. The windows and exterior door openings were kept proportional to the original design, and appear to be in their original intended locations, letting plenty of natural light into the space.

Kitchen and breakfast nook

Kitchen

The kitchen and breakfast nook are just about two of the only rooms to accommodate the original butterfly  ceiling, with original acoustical tiles and beams still in place. The kitchen appears to have been last updated in the mid 1980s, with white laminate cabinetry and white laminate countertops.

Guest bathroom

Guest room - lowered ceilings change the volume of the space

Guest room

Second floor loft

Second floor loft

Upstairs Master bedroom

Upstairs master bathroom

Upstairs guest room

The upstairs addition incorporates a large open loft space, secondary bedroom and master suite. The remaining bedrooms are downstairs, and now incorporate flat ceilings. The clerestories have been removed, as their context has been changed, cutting down on the amount of natural light entering the rooms. The remaining bathrooms appear to have last been updated when the addition was placed on the home, and are more Spanish-style than modernist.

Backyard - only the lower level windows indicate that this is a Krisel-designed home

This home presents an interesting design challenge, as half of it is Palmer & Krisel midcentury modern, while the addition reads from the era it was built, mid-1980s. The addition was done well, and even though it is not at all the style of the home, adds valuable square footage onto the home. There’s always the option to mitigate the appearance of the addition, through paint, a revised roofline, or for the deep-pocketed buyer, restoration.

Check out the full listing on Redfin.com here: 5842 Stresemann Street

Or Zillow.com here: 5842 Stresemann Street