ASSIGNMENT
Renovation of kitchen, bathroom, and backyard for early 20C home of approximately 1300 square feet.

INSPIRATION
Explored relationships among spatial voids.

DESIGN RESPONSE
The small scale of the rooms and intimate adjacencies accessed over three-floors suggested a palette of oversized tiles for wet areas and vertical wood slats for new interior and exterior boundaries — materials to enlarge spatial experiences. The house sold quickly at a profit because of a jade plant in a Mexican terra-cotta pot carefully placed at the entrance. The buyers insisted that the plant convey with the property.

OUTCOME
It is important to remain surprised by what motivates a person to make an acquisition.

ASSIGNMENT
Restoration of single family home and side yard circa 1880 for a couple who enjoyed entertaining, cooking, and gardening; in the 1920s, the property had been divided into four small apartments.

INSPIRATION
Kinetic sculpture emphasizing horizontal and vertical movement.

DESIGN RESPONSE
Created double-width rooms to break the tension among the stacked apartments and accentuated a mobius function for circulation between the front and rear staircases. Custom designed stainless steel counters, open shelving, and large storage drawers for the kitchen; two studies on separate floors for working from home; and, cultivation of ten-foot tall sunflowers and an asparagus patch to share with neighbors.

OUTCOME
The next owner was a therapist confined to a wheelchair who needed a home office and an expanse of kitchen surfaces for prepared foods. We are reminded that geometric movement is powerful.

ASSIGNMENT
Conceived an addition to a mid-century glass box house set below grade in the woods.

INSPIRATION
Taoism.

DESIGN RESPONSE
We resolved the oppositional forces of nature’s dynamism visible from every facade set within 90-degree angles inherent in mid-century vernacular where functional details are magnified. Designed a small identical addition attached to the main rectilinear form thereby establishing an “L” with views into each structure.  An aesthetically seamless transition was achieved by matching original construction materials of limed cypress, brick pavers, and glass. Extensive landscape stonework was added to direct the transit of water channeled under the house during rainstorms and remained beautiful when dry.

OUTCOME
A visitor, appreciative of the quality and originality of work by artists and artisans, asked if the property was for sale. It sold with half of its mid-century furniture and artworks.

ASSIGNMENT
Assisted a client during her transition to living alone in the same house purchased twenty years earlier with her large family.

INSPIRATION
Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own.”

DESIGN RESPONSE
Repositioned furniture (most importantly her vintage roll top desk previously sequestered in a back room) and brought into bright light with views onto a lake; reviewed and relocated an art collection of photographs and prints; and, explored new layouts, colors, and textures for bedroom, home office, two bathrooms, kitchen, and new large deck with seating elements.  Assisted with fine art acquisitions to replace those she had outgrown.

OUTCOME
It is healing to kern and redefine how spaces and rooms are used to establish new perspectives on how we see ourselves and what we have collected throughout life to enable expansive breaths of fresh air.

ASSIGNMENT
Redevelop and redesign 9500 square foot century old industrial building for an artist’s live-work space and gallery.

INSPIRATION
Owner’s passion for racing motorcycles and the sovereignty of existing of metal, wood, and concrete throughout the structure.

DESIGN RESPONSE
Echoing the inherent simplicity and functionality of open volumetric space, we reused wood from beams, walls, and elevator shafts to design and fabricate tables, doors, and countertops. Corrugated metal and steel became walls to minimize use of sheetrock.  And emphasizing the artist's use of linearity in work process, 18’ movable tables were constructed from ceiling joists to accentuate existing string-courses of brick. New windows were installed and original floors were sanded and finished to reveal history and inspire reverberations.

OUTCOME
Nationally recognized by annual Remodelista Design Award for its fundamental connection and identification between owner and space.

ASSIGNMENT
Conceptual design and art direction to unite spaces with fine art to mirror the owner’s soul.

INSPIRATION
The perspective that aesthetics eclipse reason.

DESIGN RESPONSE
Past collaborations with client over multiple projects at the same site – renovations, organizing a growing art collection, offering design considerations prior to construction – help see anew that which is loved and made a heartbeat.

OUTCOME
Sometimes asset realignments assist appreciation for initial ideas and acquisitions. To be able to grow and change – holding hands with our buildings and objects – is a sensual love affair.

ASSIGNMENT
Create a sanctuary for creative and spiritual connection with the environment.

INSPIRATION
Constant reminder to be humble and defer to nature’s rhythms.

DESIGN RESPONSE
Drone documentation of existing natural assets established views of the ocean and a marsh to locate the project site for a 1500 square foot home with a studio-guest space twelve feet above grade and rising into the tree canopy with a ceiling height of more than twenty feet. The center of the home is a kitchen form accessible from four sides; sunken living room; mutable dining-work area for working alone and large dinner parties; wood-burning fireplace; and, perimeter window seating. Constructed with enduring materials of stone, wood, and reflective glass, the project makes tangible the relationship among art, life, and habitat to support holistic wellbeing.

OUTCOME
Attention to how spaces communicate and evoke quiet reflection with ineffable layerings of experience.  When a building or room advances our sense of self and wholeness, we are on axis.