Roger Thomas
Hilltop Marin Residence

Roger Thomas, the masterful designer behind luxurious casino hotel interiors from Las Vegas to Macau, reinvents a minimalist-modern refuge tucked into a wooded slope in Marin County, north of San Francisco. Designed in the early 1990s by architect Daniel Solomon, the residence perches on eight hilly acres with views of 300 year old Oak Trees.

Approaching the residence, a concrete retaining wall and elevated driveway snake up to the auto-court; varied window patterns wrap the exterior. The floorplan gives each of the rooms a south view to the mountain and a continuous porch with a metal brise-soleil, which modifies sunlight.

The residence was originally built for photographer Howard Schatz, who once photographed the San Francisco Ballet's dancers under water in the property's former indoor pool, which has since been transformed into a guest room and library that houses Thomas' extensive contemporary art and book collections. Thomas added artworks that had been in his widely published Las Vegas home, including a pair of 1981 Andy Warhol portraits of him that join a Donald Judd wall sculpture in the new library. The California property now houses works by Morandi, Close, Dickinson, Arbus, and French design of the 1930’s which he considers sculpture.