In California right now, there is a significant amount of interest in “accessory dwelling units” (ADUs). These used to be called “granny flats”, “in-law units”, or “back yard cottages”. Now they are most commonly called “accessory dwelling units” or “secondary dwelling units”. By definition, an ADU is a smaller dwelling […]
Thanks to everybody who came out to the San Francisco Earthquake Safety Fair last Thursday. It was a very successful event. I shared a booth with Mike Miranda of MEMGC, a contractor with whom I’ve worked for a while. Mike is something of a force of nature once he gets […]
Are you thinking about working on a project in San Francisco? It could be remodeling, or legalizing an in-law unit. Maybe you are thinking about adding a rental unit. Whatever it is, you probably have lots of questions. This week there is an event at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium […]
The project in Danville, adding a retirement apartment for the owners onto a house they will be deeding over to their children, has finally broken ground. This project has been in my studio since the late Autumn of 2015. We applied for permits back in the early Autumn of 2016. We […]
Projects are rarely, if ever, perfect from their immediate conception. Some come together quickly. Others take longer. This project in Berkeley is somewhere in between. But it is coming together fairly quickly. We are working within the city’s planning regulations for Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs). The projects need to be […]
Every project has it’s own pace. Some are quick. Some are slow. Some hit road blocks. Some are paused and come back. One of my projects, which had been put on “hold” back in December, has come back to life. The project is in Sunnyvale. It was a project that […]
Do you like watching HGTV or DIYTV? If you do, you are going to LOVE Grand Designs, a British TV series now in it’s 17th season. I discovered it streaming on NetFlix. I believe the current season may be available on Hulu. Some episodes are available on YouTube. It’s worth […]
I kicked off a new project about a month ago. It is for a backyard cottage, an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU), in Berkeley. We have been working on getting the plan arrangements right. Still in Schematic Design, I’m starting to look at what this little house might look like. The […]
Good news! The project in Danville is moving forward, breaking ground this month. The owners have been comparing bids and think they have settled on a builder. The project in Danville is a 1000 square foot, two story addition to a 1960’s ranch. We are eager to get the construction […]
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. […]
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 […]
Continuing my occasional series about people and things that inspire me as a designer, here is a brief video about two of my favorite architects, Alison + Peter Smithson. The Smithsons were remarkable and influential architects, teachers, and thinkers in the UK, active from the late 1940’s until their deaths […]
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). […]
You want to remodel your house, or build an addition. Maybe you want to build your dream home. Do you hire an architect? You hear from one person an architect is essential. You hear from another person that you don’t need one. Besides, they are expensive, right? What does an […]
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 […]
I like movies with architects in them. No surprise, really. In most cases, it is clear that the writers had no idea what an architect does, or what construction is really like. But the 1948 classic, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, is the exception to that rule. Staring Cary […]
Is 2017 the year you’re going to remodel your kitchen? It is dark and disconnected from the rest of the house. It doesn’t have any storage, and there’s no place for the kids to the the homework. I recently came across this article about 10 steps to take when planning […]
I am more or less recovered from a nasty cold. If you’ve had this year’s cold virus, you know what I’m talking about. We are more than 3 weeks into this thing and my nose is still running…but the worst of it is over. And thankfully, the end came in […]
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 […]