This studio for a writer and art critic was originally a decrepit storage space over a garage. In the course of the remodel the building was stripped to framing. A patio was carved out of the hillside on one side, and the existing roof was replaced with a folded plane sheathed in sheet metal on the exterior and birch paneling on the interior. The high windows give selected strips of view without compromising the introverted nature of the space requested by the client.