As architects we do a lot of different things. It’s more than making drawings. As an example, in August I finished the permit drawings for a commercial project in San Francisco, an accessory dwelling unit in Sunnyvale, the conversion of an existing garage into an accessory dwelling unit in Oakland. […]
Accessory Dwelling Unit
29 posts
With the recent changes to state law regarding Accessory Dwelling Units, you can see how various municipalities are dealing with changing their planning ordinances to come into compliance with the state legislation. In Oakland, they are allowing development within a house, and development attached to a house. They are allowing […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]