Designer Docks and Rock-Solid Community Among the Floating Homes of Sausalito
The design inspiration for this complete restoration of this distinctive Sausalito floating home was derived from the beauty of living on the water, the spectacular panoramic views, and the strong sense of community. With this inspiration and the special collaboration with my dear friend and client, Donna Colson, a magical floating home came to life!
Where can you find a neighborhood beloved by a cast of residents including a mayor, a news reporter, a rabbi and multiple CEOs? On the docks of Sausalito’s famed floating homes. Today, more than 400 such dwellings dot several residential marinas with colorful flair, unique embellishments and intriguing names like The Answer, Cool Change and Tranquility Base.
Hanna Bui’s Moon Gate, designed by architect Craig Steely, faces many a Sausalito sunset on Richardson Bay. Here, Bui, left, enjoys a June evening with neighbor, Mimi Towle.
Craig Lee
This scenic hamlet on Richardson Bay grew in phases, initially after the 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed swaths of housing, then from proximity to a military shipyard in the early ’40s. “It was World War II shipping that made this place,” says architect and resident David Spurgeon. “If you could find something that floated, you could live on the water for nothing,” he says of workers who remained after building Liberty ships for the war effort. A fascinating history unfolded as the docks — one of which is named Liberty — became a bohemian refuge in the ’60s. Former visitor Otis Redding watched the ships come in and recorded “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay” in 1968. Then, the “houseboat wars” ensued with county officials in the later ’70s over health-and-safety infrastructure. (Intrigued readers should check out John Byrne Barry’s new novel, Pirates of Sausalito: Houseboat Wars Murder Mystery.)
Today, Spurgeon lives on a passive solar floating home of his own design, just down the dock from another he designed back in 1979 — “the last third-story house approved for this harbor,” he says. Many may recognize Brown Sugar (owned since 2007 by Megan Dixon) from its co-starring role in The Last Thing He Told Me. The Apple TV+ drama, based on the book of the same name, featured Dixon’s home, which was remodeled with San Francisco–based Loczi Design a decade ago, for exterior shots of Jennifer Garner’s residence in the series. “We’re so much closer to nature and to one another than most people,” Dixon says of the level of personal interaction she found after years of city living. “I live almost at the end of the dock, so it’s a quarter of a mile from my house to the parking lot. … I literally have to walk by 90 percent of my neighbors.”
When designing a floating home built for a barge base versus a landed foundation, the key element is equilibrium. “It has to balance,” says Spurgeon. In speaking with a handful of residents who have been drawn to a lifestyle afloat, creative solutions came up again and again, as did the community’s neighborly rapport. “There’s an intimacy in the neighborhood on the docks that lends itself to less individual lives and more community lives, which I love,” says Rabbi Sydney Mintz, who grew up on Lake Michigan and loves the access to open-water swimming and stand-up paddleboarding since moving to the docks in 2021. “On each dock there’s a free box, there’s a mailbox, gathering places where people just informally hang out to chat, to leave food for one another. It’s a bit of a throwback to the way communities used to live when we weren’t having to lock our front doors and be locked into four walls.”
As Sausalito City Council member Melissa Blaustein, who served as mayor of Sausalito in 2023 and once lived on a houseboat in Bridgeway Marina, puts it, “There’s this real sense of being taken care of by each other.” She points to potlucks, Shakespeare on the Water and the row-up concerts that became popular during the pandemic. “In many ways, it still attracts that culture of the outsider, of the creative, of the outside-the-box thinkers, of the people who are looking for a different space, a connection to nature they wouldn’t otherwise have.”
All About Balance
Burlingame Mayor Donna Colson’s Sausalito roots reach back to 1857, when her family first settled in the area. So when a red-tagged, drywalled pocket dock listing came up in 2020, she and husband, Eric Colson, CEO of Artisan Partners, jumped at the opportunity to put down floating roots of their own. “I really felt the energy and the beautiful vibe walking in,” she remembers.
While the panoramic views of Richardson Bay, San Francisco and the Sausalito hills bowled them over originally, it’s neighbors like Burning Man Project CEO Marian Goodell and Peninsula Clean Energy CEO Shawn Marshall who have made them feel grounded while afloat. “This has such a great neighborhood feel, with everyone literally waving out the window to each other,” says Donna Colson. “The cooking scene out here is phenomenal. Sharing food is a really big part of the culture.”
The Colsons’ interior designer, Colleen Dowd Saglimbeni of Hillsborough-based CDS Interiors, also drew inspiration from the community. “What each person does to their home is just incredible,” she says, “whether it’s the way they painted it or their flowerbeds or their nautical accessories. Of course, from a design perspective, Donna and I collaborate so well. She put in as much as I did. It was really all about the focus of the view and living on the water.”Burlingame Mayor Donna Colson’s Sausalito roots reach back to 1857, when her family first settled in the area. So when a red-tagged, drywalled pocket dock listing came up in 2020, she and husband, Eric Colson, CEO of Artisan Partners, jumped at the opportunity to put down floating roots of their own. “I really felt the energy and the beautiful vibe walking in,” she remembers.
While the panoramic views of Richardson Bay, San Francisco and the Sausalito hills bowled them over originally, it’s neighbors like Burning Man Project CEO Marian Goodell and Peninsula Clean Energy CEO Shawn Marshall who have made them feel grounded while afloat. “This has such a great neighborhood feel, with everyone literally waving out the window to each other,” says Donna Colson. “The cooking scene out here is phenomenal. Sharing food is a really big part of the culture.”Burlingame Mayor Donna Colson’s Sausalito roots reach back to 1857, when her family first settled in the area. So when a red-tagged, drywalled pocket dock listing came up in 2020, she and husband, Eric Colson, CEO of Artisan Partners, jumped at the opportunity to put down floating roots of their own. “I really felt the energy and the beautiful vibe walking in,” she remembers.
While the panoramic views of Richardson Bay, San Francisco and the Sausalito hills bowled them over originally, it’s neighbors like Burning Man Project CEO Marian Goodell and Peninsula Clean Energy CEO Shawn Marshall who have made them feel grounded while afloat. “This has such a great neighborhood feel, with everyone literally waving out the window to each other,” says Donna Colson. “The cooking scene out here is phenomenal. Sharing food is a really big part of the culture.”
With the rectangular blank slate afforded by a gutted space, the result — Sassy-Lido — makes personal accommodations (like adding a half-bath on the top entry level) as well as bayfaring ones (like the use of high-performance outdoor fabrics inside and out and kitchen cabinets with the pivot hinges you might find on a ship). “Since we’re out on the end, the tide can move eight feet in one day,” says Colson, likening the resulting twisting and turning to mini-earthquakes. Saglimbeni relied on wallpaper to camouflage inevitable microcracks in the drywall. Other ship-inspired choices include unlacquered brass faucets, marine-grade lighting and the use of soft blues and grays, with a notable Golden Gate Bridge pop of International Orange for the spiral staircase ascending from the main level to the roof deck.
The most important factor again was balance. “We knew all the appliances would go on one side, for the most part,” Colson says of the kitchen. “To offset that weight, we bought a 300-pound marble sink, which you wouldn’t think to put on something that floats, but we needed it to balance the weight on the other side.” Following renovations, which were completed while the home was in dry dock, strategic thought was also given to furniture placement. “Everything was customized, like the little sectional we used, because we basically took up every single inch we could,” says Saglimbeni. “Where the kitchen banquette is, we did a built-in bench there and put storage underneath. So, it was really like building for a tiny home.”
Floating fact: The moving of a floating home, which is hooked up to city services and utilities, can happen only twice a year, during California king tides.