An Unorthodox Houseboat in Sausalito Gives Its Owner Permission to Play

In 2017, lawyer Hanna Bui, who had been living and working in Silicon Valley for 20 years, sought a change of pace from suburbia. Her son was off to college, and she longed to live close to water.

"I love to water-ski. I love the water. Water makes me happy," Hanna says. The setting brings up some harder feelings as well, related to struggles of her childhood. In 1979, her family made a harrowing escape from Vietnam. They fled in a boat that took them—stripped by pirates of their belongings—to a coastal village in Thailand, where, for a short while, before the family found refuge in San Francisco, she had the chance to be a carefree teen, wading at the beach.

To regain that feeling, she rented a houseboat in Sausalito’s Richardson Bay for a weekend. In the mornings, the pageant of sea creatures at her doorstep mesmerized her, and soon she decided to purchase the houseboat.

The community around her new home included aging hippies, quirky artists, and well-heeled newcomers who, "like me, don’t want big houses," Hanna says. "In a suburb you drive into your garage and don’t know the neighbors. Here, you talk to everyone. We know each other well. Neighbors paddle over in boats to say hi. By the water, our lives become intertwined during both good and bad weather, and that’s beautiful."

But she still wanted to build something new. One day, looking online for floating house architects, she found a rendering of a houseboat with a moon gate entryway by San Francisco architect Craig Steely. The traditional Chinese circular opening, which symbolizes birth and renewal, resonated with her. Besides, Steely’s moon gate also exhibited the artful virtuosity of the hippie dwellings that made the area famous. Hanna messaged him, and he was keen to develop the idea for her.