Large stretches of glass front this black house in San Francisco, which local firm Michael Hennessey Architecture designed to exhibit alternatives to "conventional building strategies".

The Franklin Street townhouse occupies a slender lot in San Francisco's Marina District. The building is flanked on both sides by structures dating to the 1920s.
Michael Hennessey Architecture said the townhouse features elements that depart from the norm in San Francisco, such as interior light wells and modern-style windows that project outward like the city's traditional bay windows.

"This two-unit residential building proposes an alternate organisation of conventional building strategies found throughout San Francisco," said Michael Hennessey, who founded his studio in 2009.
Facades are wrapped in dark cement-plaster siding and large windows are set in aluminium. The ample glazing ushers in daylight while also providing views of the city, including the Golden Gate Bridge.
Some elements on the street-facing facade are intended to help the building blend with the surrounding context, including a portion clad in horizontal porcelain tiles that take cues from the area's brick buildings.

A set of minimal bay windows also contribute to "the scale and rhythm of the more traditional bay windows found on this street" according to the firm.
In the rear, sliding glass doors provide a fluid connection to a garden, where the team incorporated cedar walls and a graphi...