As a child Cass Calder Smith spent much of his time at a commune in Woodside, California, where he helped construct houses from recycled lumber. Now a celebrated architect with offices in San Francisco and New York, he proved just as resourceful when devising a recent project—four cabins at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, also in Woodside. Eco-friendly materials such as Forest Stewardship Council–certified wood and concrete made with fly ash (a by-product of coal combustion) compose the units, which Smith set at slightly different angles for maximum privacy and optimal views of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Over the roofs a steel canopy supports solar panels that generate a surplus of energy and provide visiting writers power of a more personally sustaining kind: the sense that they’re part of a community. That was the hope of Carl Djerassi, who cofounded the program in 1979. Given his goal to inspire creativity, Smith says, “I knew I had to do something a little bold.” djerassirg
