ORR Design Office designs visionary, luxury dreamhouse projects that seamlessly fuse building, interiors, site, and Landscape Architecture into a single cohesive vision for uncompromising dreamers. Since we started in 1996, our clients proudly report that the projects that we designed specifically for their families and their unique sites, transformed their lives, and exceeded their dreams.
We partner with our clients to exceed their expectations, meet their budget challenges, and design visionary projects that sustain long-term values. ORR has received over 22 professional design awards in all areas of home, interior, landscape, and swimming pool design. We make our whole-vision design process easy, rewarding, and efficient for busy and smart clients that don't have the time or knowledge to communicate their dreams to multiple separate design industry professionals in endless meetings and interviews.

 
Diablo House Renovation (CHASE), Alamo, CA

Starting out as a tattered 1950's Mid-Century Modern house in Alamo, California, with a classic amoeba shaped pool and a site that suffered from multiple poorly designed renovations. The location and stunning view - perched on a steep hilltop mountain with a direct view of Mount Diablo are notable. The outdoor space was hot, over-exposed, unfocused, and had no intimacy or relationship with either the house or view or the native foothill oak chaparral landscape or massive valley oak that loomed over the house. It was extremely disappointing.
From the BBQ area, which feels like cooking on an airplane wing, there is a reverse view back toward the bedroom end of the house through the same olive tree framed view to a massive oak tree "sculpture". A linear cast-in-place concrete planter bisects the yard space from the pool space and thrusts a view toward Diablo. Hidden between the olive trees is a cast concrete linear firepit that is not visible from most of the interior or exterior views. The site is designed for evenings with a cup of coffee or glass of wine, to pull chairs up and watch the stars, or feel the edge of the hill.
Below the pool on the hillside, a deck with a spa in the center allows intimate use out of the views from the home or other spaces. This deck was important because we wanted the hill's precarious slope to be experienced and to feel it extend right up to the edge of the master bedroom. The hill edge of the pool was carved away to create an "infinity landscape" view behind the pool. The landscape plantings are seasonal and almost native in character - gray, untended, simple, and matte in texture. On the technical side, we designed dramatic night lighting, complex drainage, in-ground speakers, and an adaptive Netafim moisture sensing irrigation system.

Modern Farmhouse Outdoor Room (GUDEBSKI), CA

The president of ORR Design Office, a Sacramento-based firm serving most of Northern California, wanted to tie one water element to another. The aquascape started with a simple, elegant water feature placed directly under the gable of the contemporary ranch house designed by Principle Landscape Architect, Gary Orr. The square basin, or "cube of water," sits just outside the house. Water oozes out from all four sides. The rust color of Corten steel gives it an intriguing, rather than industrial, look. Pebbles have been placed at the bottom of the table-height water feature, and the liquid percolates through them before bubbling to the top. "The stones were the logical way to represent the origins from nature, without [it] being too much of a dominant part of the design," Orr says.
This combination of the organic and manufactured provides an attention-gathering, yet serene, element. It was fabricated as one piece, including the underground containment tank and basin. The pool is situated toward the back of the yard. The clients wanted the pool set forward enough so that they could walk completely around it and approach it from any room. While not a pure cube like the fountain, the pool was designed in a simple, geometric shape - a rectangle with one rounded end. It functions as a mirror, reflecting both sky and the home's architecture. Medium gray plaster adds a deep blue cast to the water, enhancing its reflectivity. "We try to be underwhelming with the design of a pool," Orr says. "It's about the water, not the boulders around the pool or the paving, fancy waterfalls, or fountains. It's about the shape, color, and concept of the water."