Although technically a renovation project, none of the original 1,700-square-foot building exists in the 9,200-square-foot Kearney residence in Sebastopol, CA. Everything was changed, including the materials used to reconstruct the house. Kevin Kearney, president of Kearney & O'Banion, Inc., served as the chief designer and general contractor of this project, which would become his home. With the help of the firm's in-house designer, Ramsay Metcalf, Kearney initiated a design heavily influenced by the 19th century American shingle-style home of the East Coast, which included a good deal of stonework, especially slate.
Exemplified by McKim, Mead and White, the renowned New England architectural firm of the late 19th century, this shingle-style was idealistic to Kearney. "Where I grew up in Maryland, a lot of the houses had old stone foundations," Kearney said. "I grew up in a working class Irish neighborhood in Baltimore, where our house was brick and had a slate roof. Considered expensive building materials today, everyone used these materials to build their houses back then because they would last forever. It's a look I came to appreciate and still love."