Bruce Falck had always aspired to emulate his father, the owner of a construction company in Johannesburg, South Africa, with his intention of constructing a house particularly for his family.

“My father, a civil engineer, built the two houses I spent my childhood in,” said Falck, 52, an ex-Twitter executive presently working on a startup. “For me, making a home was always a father’s duty to his family.”

Almost getting there in 2011, Falck and his spouse, Lauren Weitzman, who is 41 and works at Google, purchased a house in San Francisco. They brought on the architectural company Studio Vara to execute a complete renovation. However, on the brink of the construction starting in 2013, the pair had a re-think.

“Children were on the cards,” stated Falck. Suddenly, the thought of enduring a long-term construction project while their family life was in flux didn’t appear as manageable, particularly to Weitzman. (They now are parents to three kids, aged between 4 and 8.) So, they opted to sell their house and acquire one that was prepared for immediate occupancy.

“Bruce was really bummed,” said Christopher Roach, a partner at Studio Vara. “But he said, ‘I promise you, in a few years we’re going to look for some land up in wine country, and we’re going to do a project together.’”

About five years later, in 2018, Roach received a two-word text message from Falck: “It’s time.”

With their architect’s help, the couple began searching for a lot in Healdsburg, in Sonoma County, and found a 15-acre hilltop site with views in all directions. “It felt like the African bush,” said Falck. The couple bought the lot for about $1.5 million in July 2018, before they had even fully explored the land.

Just before closing, Roach camped on the site overnight to study the property further, thinking about where best to situate a house. “I like to see where the sun rises and sets,” he said, “and where the breezes come from in the morning versus the afternoon.”

As the architect surveyed the land, he identified that it was even more promising than initially regarded.

“The topography descends on one side towards a natural creek circled by towering

redwoods,” he shared, the other half is a mixture of oak and pine trees. He continued, “I captured the scene

through photographs, jotted down my impressions, and sketched out the preliminary

design concept. Interestingly, one of the earliest sketches formed the foundational layout

for the building.”

The initial idea was to craft a unique, boomerang-shaped residence at the peak of the plot

along the precipice. The design concept matured into a massive 6,200-square-foot dwelling

comprising 4,000 square feet of indoor living spaces almost entirely surrounded by glass

under a wide roof, providing an additional 2,200 square feet of alfresco living areas.

When the glass doors are pulled wide open, it presents an illusion of an opulent open hut.

“The temperature can get extremely warm,” commented Falck. “However, the house is basically a colossal canopy.”

Drawn by the charm of classic Southern-style wraparound porches, Weitzman found a similar allure in a modern variant.

Resembling a boomerang, the house has two distinct wings adjoined by a contemporarily-designed breezeway. This breezeway facilitates the flow of fresh air through the folding and pivoting glass doors. Geared towards the sunrise and the majestic view of Mount Saint Helena, one of the wings harbors the bedrooms. The other wing, which nestles the kitchen, dining, and living rooms, is oriented towards the captivating sunset.

Fashioning an extended living space, the roof stretches over an outdoor room that features a brise soleil. This outdoor room further connects to other open-air spaces such as the pool deck and the alfresco kitchen and dining area.

The coherence of the house with sustainability and resilience is noteworthy. Fire-resistant attributes like the standing-seam zinc cladding and circumambient walking paths, acting as firebreaks, bolster the house’s safety. In the event of power outages, the house remains independent due to the solar panel powered battery backups. It is also equipped with its unique well and septic system. The construction spearheaded by Fairweather Associates spanned over 2½ years, with COVID-19 and wildfires posing significant hurdles. With an approximate cost of $1,250 per square foot, the project wrapped up in June 2022.

“We watch the sunset, we’re in the pool, we’re in the hot tub, and Bruce is always grilling,” Weitzman said.

It’s exactly the kind of once-in-a-lifetime home Falck had in mind.

“This is a long-term thing,” he said. “For me, success would be having our kids, when they’re in their 80s, having a glass of wine on that patio and watching their grandkids swimming the pool. That’s the metric for success.”

McKeough is a freelance writer. This article originally appeared in The New York Times.