Design despotism is dead. Michael Taylor, the emperor of California design in the ’70s and ’80s, who created superbly structural rooms with overscale tables, massive sofas, and timeless antiques for his favorite Pacific Heights clients—and gave those who dithered or quibbled a muddle of chintz—must be spinning in the hereafter. Yet the glamour, intelligence, worldliness, and confidence that drove Taylor, John Dickinson, Anthony Hail, and San Francisco’s other top designers for decades have not gone the way of the shag carpet and the over­wrought sofa. A second generation of trendsetting city designers, now in their late 30s and 40s, have come fully into their own in this new century. It is time to announce their striking talent.

For nearly two decades, I’ve been watching the rise of this group as they have apprenticed in the studios of San Francisco’s boldest-name designers, often working anonymously as part of a team. Their employers have included detail-obsessed Paul Wiseman; modernist Orlando Diaz-Azcuy; Ann Getty, a classicist with an eye for fine antiques; and the chic, family-friendly Kendall Wilkinson, a favorite of the Pacific Heights set. These new masters have worked their way up the ranks from design assistants: Dorothy Greene started out with visionary Pamela Babey, known for her daring color sense, two years after Babey’s firm, BaMo, launched in 1991. Greg Elich was one of the first hires at the firm started by superbly restrained designer Douglas Durkin seven years ago. Melissa Warner recently formed a design partnership with Julie Massucco and Carrie Miller after all three graduated from top firms in California, including Wilkinson’s.

Over time, the rooms I’ve seen from each of these 11 designers have grown increasingly polished, inventive, and world-class. What has transformed these creatives from underlings to distinctive talents is the opposite of Taylor’s or Hail’s imperiousness. Instead, they have mastered the modern-day skill of working closely alongside Bay Area and international clients who now arrive full of opinions, wielding tear sheets—and who also want their budgets to balance.

Gone are the days when the ’50s social set’s favorite decorator, Frances Elkins, would leave “position maps” for her clients (and their housekeepers), showing precisely where ashtrays and lamps were to be placed on tables, as well as which flowers to arrange (dozens of white carnations in a cut-crystal vase, for example). Clued-in clients now read the top design blogs, collect clips from Elle Decor and House Beautiful in itemized files, and bring to the project knowledge about materials, appliances, and technologies. They find their own treasures on 1stdibs and eBay, at auctions, or on trips to Paris. As a result, meeting a client’s brief at the highest level has become a minutely detailed process. “We are getting fewer ‘Here are the keys, just do it’ requests,” Miller says. “Taking clients shopping to sit on sofas and see pieces in person is becoming more the norm.” Adds Warner, “Our clients want to know that their house will showcase their own style.”

Yet the ultimate goal remains the same as it was for Dickinson, Taylor, Elkins, and Hail in the 20th century: what Greene calls the “integrity, rigor, and timelessness” of great design. Just as architecture has long been known as “an old man’s game” (few architects have masterminded an entire new building before age 40), the art of designing an expensive room or a complete house in a cohesive and professional manner cannot be perfected in your mid-20s. Decorating may start with clicking away on antiques websites or paging through the Williams-Sonoma Home catalog, but it takes years to develop the distinctive talent and gain the experience necessary to handle the highest echelon of clients and the large budgets for their four-bedroom high-rise apartments and Pebble Beach lodges.

At the level of these top 11 creatives, design means first learning to develop a concept, focus on a plan, and work closely with architects and experts in engineering and lighting. Then they must acquire the knowledge to craft custom-made elements, buy art and antiques, and consider every detail for comfort, elegance, originality, quality, and lasting style. As Dickinson often said, this is design in millimeters, not centimeters. The new generation of San Francisco interior-design stars have this 21st-century dance down, and they’re using it to produce a contemporary aesthetic—but not with a single style or look.

Cold, modern rooms with a checklist of Bauhaus clichés are out. Sexy living rooms with velvet sofas and colorful paintings are in. Heavy-handed, overscale sofas and overly elaborate puddling curtains look dated. Lighthearted linen curtains and svelte sofas look modern, and skyscraping apartments are regaining popularity. Designers and their clients favor rooms with a witty mix of found objects, treasured heirlooms, crisp photography, stacks of books, flea-market finds, and custom-crafted tables or handmade pottery. Innovative materials matter: A designer is more likely to spend time locating high-tech upholstery that’s kid-friendly and stain-resistant than she is finding a roomful of perfectly matched antiques. Soulless theme design and delivered-all-on-the-same-day furniture are definitely out, as is fretting about the pedigree of pieces. “Twenty years ago, clients and designers were obsessed with the ‘right’ chair or displaying the ‘right’ European antique,” says Greene. “Things were too carefully considered. There’s been a stripping away of these trappings of history and status. Interiors have moved to a more fresh and contemporary aesthetic.”

Antiques and vintage pieces are still used, but more sparingly and often alongside materials like brushed steel and aluminum, and, most excitingly, art furniture. Colors are lighter, not as heavy and earthy. Modern art and accessories do a lot of the work of making a room feel contemporary. Greene loves this more pared-down, artistic direction. “Clients want simple—not simple as in intellectually undemanding or plain, but as in sophisticated and smart. That means straightforward decor that’s well considered and beautifully crafted.”

The new urban aesthetic—a departure from strict modernism and Edwardian clutter—has gained a boost from all the high-rises soaring above the Bay Bridge and SFMOMA. “This is a much more vertical city than it was, and as designers, we must respond,” says David Oldroyd, who has worked for almost 20 years with Diaz-Azcuy. Floor-to-ceiling glass, rare in a Pacific Heights house or a Peninsula mansion, has become a normal and even expected part of a commission, one that almost begs designers to break with past conventions. “It is no longer necessary to have a room full of traditional furniture to create a feeling of warmth and luxury,” Oldroyd says. “We are now using line, shape, contrast, texture, openness, and space to accomplish the same thing.”

The shrinking globe promotes this expanding palette—the ability to travel freely and to work online helps these designers judiciously navigate today’s fast-changing trends and colors, which enables them to deliver rooms that age well. “With immediate access to the world’s design community, we aren’t restricted to a narrow range of styles,” says Maria Quiros, who has worked with Getty for more than 16 years. “Designers can experience different cultures and bring those influences home. This multi­cultural perspective is so dramatic: Everything in the world of design is accessible. We can easily compare prices on a Swedish carpet at a local source with one available in Stockholm. It makes the possibilities so much broader.”

As endless as contemporary design possibilities are, top designers have always known that it takes years of working with highly experienced mentors like Babey, Gerry Jue (also at BaMo), Durkin, and Diaz-Azcuy to develop a laser-sharp eye, an unerring sense of balance and harmony, and a knowledge of all the right resources and craftspeople. Botched rooms, fads that sweep in and out of fashion, and houses that need to be redone every five years are the traps that these well-trained designers know how to avoid. “I often wonder what it is like to enter into the design world today with no rules, no limitations,” Greene says, reflecting on the trend toward disposable design. “In many ways, it must be liberating. But as wonderful as it is to be expressive and playful, I don’t believe in throwaway design.” Practitioners who have been schooled to understand the heritage of great design, on the other hand, can take advantage of the multitude of options the 21st century has brought them. “We aren’t losing the ability to set boundaries for ourselves,” says Elich.

I asked Greg Stewart, of ODADA, how he dreams up the spectacularly original, detailed, and luscious decor for which he’s known. His reply was a testament to creativity. “I’m working on a house in the country that’s an explor­ation of blues,” he began. “It starts with a fairly comme il faut hand-painted, Portuguese-blue-and-white-tiled kitchen. The kitchen island and stove hood were tiled in white, with one-and-a-half-inch-wide patterned blue tiles around the edges to make it crisper. The living room has a peacock blue linen–draped center table and aqueous blue-green Oushak rugs, livened up with green linen drapes. The master bedroom was done in a pale blue-gray glazed linen. All of that is unified with beige integral plaster walls and pale limestone floors, and bronze doors and windows.”

Given the foundation of his talent and his training under Diaz-Azcuy, Stewart has clearly enjoyed the blessing of creative freedom—he, Oldroyd, Quiros, Elich, Brenda Mickel (of the Wiseman Group), Matthew Leverone, Greene, and Steve Henry are working on projects around the globe, including private houses in Hong Kong, apartments in New York, a hotel in Mumbai, and houses around California.

Taylor, believe it or not, never had access to such an international range of commissions. Bob Garcia, a partner at Therien & Co., a 32-year-old antiques firm based in San Fran­cisco and L.A., says he envies these designers. “There is such freedom of style and expression in their work, which I could never have imagined during the ’60s and even up through the ’90s. My generation’s rigorous training established defined parameters of taste and style, but these designers relish the looseness of a look, defying an established style but remaining grounded in principles of proportion, appropriateness, and plain old good design.” Long live this new aesthetic.

Brenda Mickel
YEARS TOILING: 20, at the Wiseman Group since 2001. CALLING CARD: “I always like to do custom furniture or lighting and to mix modern pieces with antiques. I think it’s better if the items in the space complement each other but don’t match—woods should have a slightly different finish.” NEW DIRECTION IN DESIGN: “Edit and refine rooms, clear visual noise, and clear out too many patterns. It is not necessary to rid yourself of special and meaningful things—just put them away and rotate them in.”

Greg Stewart, David Oldroyd
YEARS TOILING: Stewart: 25; Oldroyd: almost 25; both at Orlando Diaz-Azcuy Design Associates since 1990. CALLING CARD: Oldroyd: “We clean up a room’s architecture and give it good bones, crisp geometric shapes, and a restrained look.” NEW DIRECTION IN DESIGN: Stewart: “I’ve been working on an apartment in a downtown high-rise, and my client wanted a bold statement. Well, you don’t get bolder than a glossy, black-lacquer dining room.” Oldroyd: “I love the idea of not using tile in a bathroom. I’m constantly looking for functional and practical new mat­erials to use on the wet walls of a shower. My current favorite is exterior plaster, smooth troweled.”

Melissa Warner, Carrie Miller, Julie Massucco
YEARS TOILING: Warner: 9; Miller: 9; Massucco: 14; started Massucco Warner Miller Interior Design and Decoration in 2008. CALLING CARD: Warner: “We try to create rooms that strike a balance between being well thought out and detailed, with a mix of color, textures, and furniture styles. Yet they are approachable at the same time, and they always have a pattern that pops. It’s all in the details: We love embellishing upholstery, window treatments, and soft goods with custom details.” NEW DIRECTION IN DESIGN: Massucco: “I’m obsessed with the combination of yellow and charcoal gray, so I’ve been mixing my Tiffany Audubon china with bright yellow ’60s vintage pottery.” Warner: “My clients are becoming more open-minded about using unconventional materials in unpredictable ways: a glazed linen coffee table or an upholstered leather side table.” Miller: “Wrapping entire rooms in grasscloth wall covering, but not your typical ’70s grasscloth. We use shimmering new weaves in creams or grays, or deep colors, like midnight blue. If the budget is tight, we splash shiny satin paint in a rich color on the walls and all moldings to sweep the room in color and texture.”

Maria Quiros
YEARS TOILING: More than 16 at Ann Getty and Associates. CALLING CARD: “There is always something in the room that is unique to that project—custom-made and designed specifically for the client. This could be a custom carpet, a chair that incor­porates hand-stitched embroidery, or a piece of furniture.” NEW DIRECTION IN DESIGN: “I love the Indian Mughal aesthetic of arches and embellishments. We just commissioned hand-carved arches from Jaipur based on Mughal arches found in the Red Fort of Agra.”

Greg Elich
YEARS TOILING: 22, at Douglas Durkin Design since 2002. CALLING CARD: “I joke that an architect must make a building durable and permanent-looking, while a decorator’s challenge is to make a room durable but spontaneous-looking. Ideally, no one should know the decorator has even been there, much less identify who it was! Our goal is always to establish a certain order to a room, but without over­programming it.” NEW DIRECTION IN DESIGN: “We’re doing a Tribeca loft, a modern Venice Beach house, a Spanish colonial in Houston, an Edwardian in San Francisco, and new contemporary Bay Area houses. We keep our work eclectic and col­lab­orate very closely with architects.”

Dorothy Greene, Steve Henry
YEARS TOILING: Greene: More than 19; Henry: 29 (“But it doesn’t feel like a day over 28”); both at BaMo since 1993. CALLING CARD: Greene: “Our rooms always have a fine-tuned sense of color. We’re also drawn to warm woods with lots of patina. A contemporary classic background with a sense of order and architectural continuity between rooms is also really important.” NEW DIRECTION IN DESIGN: Greene: “Clients want simple—not simple as in intel­lectually undemanding or plain, but as in sophisticated and smart.” Henry: “We are bombarded with so much that is mass-produced that to see a gorgeously propor­tioned piece of clay with a muscular volcanic glaze is thrilling.”

Matthew Leverone
YEARS TOILING: 25 for various firms, including Barbara Scavullo Design, Hendler Design, and Wheeler Design Group. CALLING CARD: “I have a more modern aesthetic, and my rooms tend to have tailored details and a sophisticated edge. I use textured fabrics, neutral linens, fresh, clean colors, and nothing muddy; scale and pro­portion are really important.” NEW DIRECTION IN DESIGN: “Designing custom furniture with knowledgeable and talented Bay Area artisans and craftspeople lets me focus on surface details, such as the addition of perfectly placed welts, flanges, or nail heads on chairs or sofas, or on structural details, like adding a hand-forged iron leg to a console. I love to combine materials—like designing a cabinet using natural walnut with upholstered linen doors.”

Diane Dorrans Saeks is San Francisco's contributing interior design editor.