A New Build with Authenticity

Publishing a weekly blog means we're always on the lookout for interesting topics and unique properties to engage our readers.

Recently, a beauty of a home in Sonoma Valley caught our eye, hitting the market with a price tag at just under $7 million. Unfortunately, that house, at 2979 Wood Valley Road in Sonoma, quickly went into escrow before we could profile it. But the story behind it didn't end there.

We had assumed the 4,000-square-foot home was an updated mid-century modern original, since so much of its look and feel faithfully echoed central design elements of that bygone era.

But we were fooled. In reality, it was brand-new construction from 2022. "How could that be?" we wondered.

Things began to fall into place when we learned that Klopf Architecture, a longtime member of the Eichler Network's Bay Area service team, was behind the Wood Valley design. In fact, their stunning project upped our hopes that well-designed, mid-century-inspired homes can still be a successful house type in today's marketplace.

As it turned out, the project was inspired by the Klopf clients' own mid-century residence, also in Sonoma, and custom built on the new Wood Valley Road site with sweeping views of San Francisco Bay.

"We had done a number of projects for [these clients] on a house in Sonoma, on High Road," points out Klopf Architecture's Geoff Campen, who was the lead architect on the Wood Valley project. "That [High Road] house was a really beautifully built little gem of a mid-century with an amazing view, except that it was 1,100 to 1,200 square feet, and too small [for the owners]."

Klopf's clients were looking to expand their High Road home when they found the lot on Wood Valley, and combined it with another lot. Set on more than 16 acres, the project allowed the clients to check off all of their lifestyle needs in one idyllic setting.

"They wanted it to be inspired by the house they had on High Road," says Campen, "and we went through a few iterations of designs, coming up with a simple plan with open living, dining, and all the bedrooms on one side."

The [High Road] home had just two bedrooms, but the new home was able to accommodate four, and the precise aesthetic the owners were looking for.

"The roof is thicker, there's a lot of insulation in there, the HVAC system is on the roof, and so forth," Campen explains. "There are little things you can see that make it from this time, but the style and proportion of the house was intended to be inspired by the house on High Road."