The Middlebrook Studios by CCS

CCS Architecture recently completed The Middlebrook Studios, consisting of four new studios based in the coastal hills of Woodside, CA.
The project was conceived as a memorial to Diane Middlebrook, an accomplished writer and teacher, and late wife of program founder Carl Djerassi. Though the studios are designed to be used by artists of all disciplines, special attention was made to cater to the specific needs of writers, where quiet contemplation, free from distraction, is a welcome amenity.

This new writers’ residence was a dream of Diane’s She was a co-founder of the Djerassi Program with her husband Dr. Carl Djerassi and was influential in its activities throughout the Program’s first three decades of supporting the creativity of artists. She understood that what working artists need most is the gift of time to advance their creative work beyond the responsibilities of their daily lives. These four new live/work studios under an over-arching, solar power-generating canopy increase the capacity of the Djerassi Program to host artists by 50% and, at the same time, strengthen the discipline that was Diane’s own by enabling the Program to award residencies to greater numbers of writers.