Things are busy here in the studio. I thought I would post an update on the progress of some of the projects in the studio, and introduce a couple new projects. My project in Danville is out of plan check! The owner picked up the permit about 3 weeks ago. […]
What an Architect does
104 posts
Any successful architectural project needs three quality partners and one healthy attitude. The successful partners are The Client, The Architect, and The Builder. The healthy attitude is that designing and building any architectural project is An Adventure. This post is about The ADVENTURE. These 4 essential pieces to a successful […]
What are “Full Architectural Services”? Architects just draw, right? Wrong! Architects do a lot more than just draw. Whether your project is a house addition, a house remodel, or a kitchen remodel, the services that an architect can provide are extensive. We do research. We design (yes). We draw (yes). […]
What do you do when you have the flu? Do you hunker down with hot soup and ibuprofen to update your web site? No? Just me? It sounds strange, but last week, during which I have had the worst flu I have had in at least a decade, I managed […]
This year I mailed out a mostly monthly newsletter for a small group of people. The newsletter featured information about architecture, pieces about things that inspired me, as well as some updates on projects in the studio. Letting people know what we do is one of the things an architect does. […]
If you follow me on Instagram, you know that one of my recent projects was making a very special cake for Thanksgiving. I thought that I would share the process and offer some tips learned. While there may not seem to be a connection between cake and architecture, I hasten […]
I haven’t posted about this project in a while. I started working on this project in December of 2014. It is a fairly simply 240 square foot extension to a 1950’s ranch house located in San Bruno. We were required to jump through some bureaucratic, and expensive hoops to allow […]
The project to legalize an in-law unit in San Francisco is complete! (Or at least, near enough to complete.) This project was to take an existing “unpermitted” in-law unit in a house in San Francisco, and, within the City’s legalization program, make the changes required to legalize the unit. The […]
Each architect find’s inspiration in different places and from different things. Sometimes that inspiration is easy to spot. Take, for instance, this bank building in Grass Valley, California. It looks very much a civic building to our North American eyes. It’s got the columns and the dome. It has to […]
I recently accompanied my partner to Manila to attend to some family business. While we were there, we jumped on a plane and flew to Singapore to visit some friends. In addition to catching up and eating our way through the city (the food there is amazing), we also did […]
Every project has it’s own challenges. Sometimes it is the siting. Sometimes it is the budget. Sometimes it is a tricky space planning problem. This project, currently in the office, is to add a new Secondary Dwelling Unit to a single family house in Danville. The challenge on this project […]
This is an experiment. I have a project in San Francisco and the client was having trouble visualizing what the skylights were going to look like. Instead of making static drawings of the space, I thought I would use the 3-D capabilities of Chief Architect and make a quick video […]
This picture, on the right, showed up on my FaceBook news feed today. This is a unique design idea. Yes. That is a wine cork floor. I am a fan of cork flooring. But usually, it comes in sheets or rolls. The wine cork floor looks pretty nice. I’m not sure […]
This is the first in an occasional series of posts about what architecture is and how it should be made. I am working on an architectural creed and hope to share it with you soon. The title of this post could be restate as “what is the difference between architecture and […]
The other day I met with a client and the contractor to discuss the project. This project is in the Construction Documents phase – when we make the drawings used to apply for a permit and from which the Contractor will build. The contractor complimented me on the clarity of the drawings. […]
It has been a couple of weeks since I was able to post anything here. I’ve been busy working on projects for my clients. But this past week saw a very important milestone, 25 years since the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law. 25 years is a […]
This is the first post in what will be a short series about Tools of The Trade. Clients, collaborators, and other architects are often interested to know what tools I use. To be honest, I’m also interested in the tools that others use to get through their day. One of […]
Some of my favorite rooms and buildings are libraries. There is just something about the combination of books, buildings, and light, that inspire architects and readers to make better spaces. In this post, I’m going to grapple with an idea about the synergy that happens when the owner and architect […]
Today I am going to spend a little time talking about some improvements that I’ve made here in the Studio and on the website. These improvements are made in order to make providing you with better architectural services or with more information about architectural services. Website I don’t know about […]
Two weeks ago, I posted a brief audio blog post about Existing Conditions Drawings, mentioning that it is a “pre-design” service. I realized that I haven’t really spoken much about the phases of a project. I do discuss it on my Process page, and I’ve mentioned various phases in different […]