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2025
The Wall Street Journal
We are so thrilled to see our Telegraph Hill House featured in The Wall Street Journal. This project was made possible by a dream client who saw architecture as a deeply healing part of her life and envisioned a home that could hold both solitude and connection.
2025
Wallpaper*
We’re honored to share that our Amnesia House, the second home we’ve had the privilege to design for this wonderful family, has been featured in Wallpaper*.
2025
Excellence Award for the Hawthorne
Our multifamily project, The Hawthorne at Bay Meadows, was awarded a coveted SARA California Design Award. Principal Vivian Lee led the interior architecture of the lobby, amenity spaces, and fifty units and four townhouses.
2024
The New York Times for Innovative Kitchen Design Solutions
ELA is featured in The New York Times, discussing innovative design solutions for concealing small kitchen appliances and minimizing clutter. The article highlights the firm’s expertise in creating functional and visually appealing spaces through clever storage strategies, such as appliance garages, pull-out shelves, and modular storage solutions. By incorporating these design elements, ELA enhances the efficiency and aesthetics of residential kitchens, creating organized, streamlined environments that foster a sense of calm and order.
2024
Honorable Mention at 2024 BLT Built Design Awards
ELA is proud to announce that The Hawthorne at Bay Meadows has received an Honorable Mention in the Architectural Design/Residential category at the prestigious 2024 BLT Built Design Awards. This thoughtfully designed multi-family residential complex in San Mateo, California, features 54 units, including townhomes and shared amenity spaces, all showcasing the firm’s commitment to modern aesthetics and sustainable architecture. The design highlights the use of cross-laminated timber, creating warm, inviting interiors with exposed wood ceilings, while also embracing California’s tradition of indoor/outdoor living. This recognition underscores our dedication to innovative, environmentally-conscious design that fosters community and enhances the residential experience.
2023
AIA Silicon Valley
Absolutely delighted to share that our work at MIRO was awarded AIA Silicon Valley’s highest honor in the Interior Architecture category for their 2023 Design Awards. We are proud to have partnered with such a visionary developer, and to have been recognized for our ability to create remarkably lively spaces within a large-scale structure.
2023
Influential Women of Design
Vivian is featured the September issue of LUXE as part of the “Influential Women of Design.
“Trendsetters, tastemakers, and style gurus – the women of design are changing the game. And while many of these creative leaders always dreamt of and planned for a career in the field, some of them took a more circuitous route to their current position. One simple thing that they all seem to have in common: these women love what the do.
Read on to see what drives them, as well as who these visionaries and innovative creators consider to be the industry’s icons. “
2023
The Bristol wins a 2023 SARA National Design Award!
The Bristol, an architectural gem situated along the picturesque San Francisco Bay, has been honored with the distinguished 2023 Society of American Registered Architects (SARA) National Design Award. This prestigious accolade recognizes The Bristol's outstanding contribution to the realm of residential design, with its captivating views of the Bay Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge, and Downtown San Francisco.
2023
Architizer A+Award
Edmonds + Lee Architects is thrilled to announce their special mention award for Best Residential Firm in the highly prestigious Architizer A+ Awards 2023. This recognition highlights their exceptional design solutions, innovative approach, and commitment to creating inspiring and sustainable living spaces.
2023
Beacon House is featured in *Wallpaper
The San Francisco midcentury gem that is Beacon House has an interesting origin story. Built in the 1960s to the era's modernist architecture style, full of wood, soft light and open spaces, it is now the family home of an architect and a biologist, who one day, walking down the street, saw it and joked that this would be their ideal home.
2022
ELA is a 2022 Interior Design Best of Year Winner!
ELA is so proud and delighted to announce that our project MIRO is a winner in the legendary Interior Design Best of Year Awards.
We were so thrilled to be asked to be a part of this extraordinary San Jose residential project and to contribute interior architecture and design of the lobbies and amenity spaces. We loved the experience of getting to bring our livable and sophisticated interpretation of California modernism to this extraordinary addition to the city's changing skyline. Much gratitude to the team at ID magazine for this wonderful recognition of our work.
2022
188 Octavia wins a 2022 SARA National Design Award!
We are pleased to share the news that 188 Octavia was selected as a winner of a 2022 National Design Award by the Society of American Registered Architects (SARA). In this multifamily project, we sought to offer an alternative to the near-ubiquitous five-over-one multifamily construction that abounds in the city, and offer instead a re-reading of the classic Victorian bay window.
On the ground floor, we brought a newly active streetscape to the neighborhood, offering retail spaces that work in concert with the residences above. It is an honor to have our work nationally recognized by SARA, and to be in such good company along with the other winners. Thanks to our client DM Development, the city of San Francisco, and to the design team that brought this project from concept to life.
2021
Axor Interview
Edmonds + Lee Architects have earned international recognition for their contemporary approach to homes and housing. Partners in work and life, Robert Edmonds and Vivian Lee exemplify that approach in the Switchback House, which they designed for themselves and their two children. The architects speak with AXOR about their San Francisco home and the Compact Luxury principles embodied in its design.
2020
Night & Day House is Featured in Wallpaper*
Edmonds + Lee’s latest residential offering is the redesign of a Noe Valley Craftsman house in San Francisco, which maintains the original historic facade untouched, while completely reimagining the interior and rear, following the studio’s acclaimed modern minimalist approach.
2019
Est magazine interviews Robert and Vivian
Robert and Vivian sit down with Est Magazine to share their design insight, experience and how they're designing for the future.
2019
ELA's work is featured in the French publication Artravel.
Architecture of the senses...Elegant, airy, the style of the American architecture firm Edmonds + Lee Architects is often associated with a very fine range of adjectives that capture the spirit of the two architects. A little immersion in the world of Robert Edmonds and Vivian Lee.
2019
ELA's smallest project as published in Dwell.
A Vintage Airstream Trailer Is Now the Ultimate Live/Work Mobile. At just 80 square feet, The Kugelschiff is a renovated Airstream Bambi II that now serves as a tech entrepreneur’s tiny home and office.
2018
Switchback House featured in Casa Vogue Brasil
Minimalism - a difficult word to put into practice, no? Try having a limited budget and lots of ideas in your head: that's how the architects at Edmonds + Lee office arrived at this result. After building many houses for their clients, it was time to build their own home. But what they found was a narrow plot of land in San Francisco, California, on which a 70 m² house could fit. The solution? Verticalize the residence, which resulted in a space of 260 m².
2018
Wallpaper* reviews The Austin
Talk of Californian modernism often conjures up images of low-slung flat roofs, a healthy balance of concrete and timber and large windows looking out to the ocean – or the iconic cityscapes of Los Angeles or San Francisco. Local architecture practice Edmonds & Lee has now offered its own take on the genre in an unusual twist with The Austin project; translating their vision of Californian organic modernism into a multi-family residential scheme in San Francisco's Lower Pacific Heights neighbourhood.
2018
The Esherick Sea Cliff Residence in Wallpaper*
This Renovated Esherick Perfectly Frames the San Francisco Bay. Located in the city's iconic Sea Cliff neighborhood, a historic abode is treated to a stunning renovation. Originally designed by the famed Bay Area architect Joseph Esherick in 1958, the iconic property holds a special sense of place. Not only does it overlook the point where the Pacific Ocean meets the San Francisco Bay, but the home also houses breathtaking views of the Golden Gate Bridge.
2018
Gable House Featured in Dezeen
California studio Edmonds + Lee has refurbished and expanded a gabled-roof dwelling in San Francisco, transforming rooms into light-filled spaces with wood flooring and minimalist decor.
2018
Remember house featured in Casa Vogue Brasil
A narrow house full of spaciousness solutions
Pure white, minimalism, high ceilings and large windows to let in sunlight are some of the strategies that made a spacious residence in California.
2018
Switchback House Featured in Curbed
“As architects, we didn’t want to live in someone else’s architecture, we wanted to live in our own,” says Edmonds. “We started looking for an extreme fixer where we could make a project for ourselves. We were searching for the place nearly everyone else would consider a disaster.”
2018
Wallpaper* Design Awards
The Remember house has been shortlisted for a Wallpaper* 2018 Design Award in the Best New Private House category (!!!).The winners will be announced in the February issue, but we are especially proud to be the only American design firm on the list.
2017
Esherick Sea Cliff House in SF Cottages and Gardens
The Bay Area loves its midcentury modern homes, from Eichler ranches to Neutra rarities, and these architecture gems are highly sought after by a new generation of homebuyers. So when a stylish French couple recently acquired a 1957 Sea Cliff house designed by iconic architect Joseph Esherick, they lavished it with attention.
2017
Contemporary family living in Noe Valley
After designing many houses in the Bay Area over the last decade, architects Robert Edmonds and Vivian Lee were excited to construct a home for themselves and their two young boys. Their Noe Valley site was a mixed blessing: They had the rare opportunity to build from scratch, but also had to stick to a tight construction timeline and a limited budget.
2015
Robert and Vivian speak with Arkitektura Assembly
The architectural firm of Edmonds + Lee has made its home high up in what is the Mission’s tallest building, locally known as the US Bank building (designed in the 60’s by FTM Associates).
Founded in 2005 by partners Vivian Lee and Robert Edmonds, who originally met as grad students at New York’s Columbia University, the practice has really taken off in the last five years with a lot of ground up and large scale commercial works. Today, the office has eight full time architects. Edmonds + Lee bring a different perspective to the table, offering an alternative to a soft modernism with a sharper more tailored look.
We sat down with them in their offices overlooking the city, surrounded by models, material samples and the quiet industry of their design team.
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