Using color -  particularly paint can be intimidating for many people.  Small chips don't always look the same when put on a large wall and they change when put next to other colors and finishes.  It may be hard to keep in mind an entire pallete of colors and finishes to visualize the whole experience. 

Full color renderings are great, but even with sophisticated computer programs, it isn't that easy to do a quick study for discussions with a client.  
We use a simplified process that works in most cases.  We prepare 3D sketches of the new design and place images of the proposed  colors and materials keyed to their location. 

Together with actual samples we can provide, our clients get a better feeling for the entire look of the space(s).  This allows use to quickly explore options and arrive at better solutions.

Corten steel has been around since at least the early sixties. 

Here it's used to sheath a building in Manhattan.  There's no need to paint the steel as it naturally rusts and forms a natural weather resistant coating.  The coating has a nice patina, but the rust stains the surfaces below.  When it runs onto light colored concrete, the results aren't too nice.  A detail where the rust falls onto something that conceals this discoloring would be a nice touch.

Brenda's at Polk and Eddy Streets in San Francisco features great New Orleans style cuisine.  It was an immediate success when it opened and now has doubled its size by taking over the adjoining retail space.

Although newly remodelled, the designers had a vintage looking mural painted on the exposed concrete walls.  The concrete wall had cracks and vestiges of previous embedments.  The last time I was there, I noticed how they positioned the mural so that an existing crack in the wall was placed between "San Francisco" and "California".  That crack with the word "voyage" above made me think about San Francisco being earthquake country. 

Does your building need attention?

Lincoln Avenue, the mainstreet of Calistoga in the Napa Valley, still retains the small town feeling where people live and work.  Small shops with 3 hour free parking line the streets leading to the spa resorts with natural hot springs.  This handsome weathered storefront features cast iron columns.  They are a reminder of the first explosion of possibilities of the dawning industrial age in the 19th Century that continues to this day.  Change is constant.

On January 26, 2012, the Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board approved our plans for the renovation of 1040 University Avenue in Berkeley.  The 73 unit 1920's era building is owned by Resources for Community Development, non-profit housing developers located in Berkeley.

710 Ellis Street is in the heart of the rundown Tenderloin Distrist, an area of San Francisco with many long neglected inexpensive residential hotels.  That wasn't the case when these buildings were built.  The entrance to this building is embelished with a carved granite surround featuring a classical Greek acanthus leaf motif. At first I thought it might be glazed tile, but it was actually granite.  There are many undiscovered treasures right in plain site. 

Dieter Ram's
Ten Principles for Good Design

Dieter Ram's 10th principle  addresses design on multiple levels in terms of philosophy and aesthetics.  What does he mean by inessentials and does this change by culture and time?  Who is to judge?

I'm searching for good examples.  Please stay tuned. 

Glazed terra cotta was extremely popular in the first half of the 20th Century.  Clay could be inexpensively molded to complicated shapes and could be glazed to give it a stone-like appearance.  Gladden McBean was a local manufacturer of glazed terra cotta and continues to make ceramic products in Northern California to this day.  I try and keep Gladding McBean in mind because they are local and ceramic tile is pretty sustainable -- earning possible LEED points.

Built in 1937, this building at 9th and Harrison in San Francisco was a Gladding McBean office  building -- just a block from our office.  It is completely clad in glazed terra cotta and is now the home of the Salvation Army.  I once thought glazed terra cotta was great, but if it was chipped it was gone for good.  I had noticed the nicks and chips on the building, but last a few months ago I noticed someone was repairing the damaged terra cotta.  He said it was no problem repairing it.  You fill in the voids and then they can "re-glaze" it in place.  The restoration was completed by Lewis Restoration and Consulting of San Francisco.  Now it looks good to go for another 70 years. 

Dieter Ram's
Ten Principles for Good Design 

The Brelli Umbrella

An  umbrella is not given a lot of thought until we need it.  How many times during a rainstorm do we see the discarded skeletons of collapsed metal and fabric?  Sometimes we need to look back at traditional methods and designs to see if new technologies are actually better.  

The Brelli Umbrella replaces the traditional lacquered paper canopy bamboo umbrella with a bio-degradable plasic film canopy.  Light and flexible, bamboo is actually superior to steel in strong winds.  The bamboo framework, refined over centuries, appeals to all the senses -- visually slender and graceful, smooth to the touch, fragrant when wet, and mellow sounding when struck.  All compostable when its useful life is over.     
 

Last month I wrote about the process of fitting a countertop to existing walls and noted on construction drawings as "scribe to wall".  This work was done by Fox Marble of San Francisco.  The preparation of the marble slab is also fascinating.  After looking at the actual slab, you can manipulate the shapes of the cut pieces on top of a computer image and get the best features of the slab in the right spot.  Thanks Fox Marble. 

I also moved the deck mounted faucet set to the wall in order to keep the countertop free of obstacles - both for easier maintenance and for a cleaner appearance.