Average vs. Half-ass vs. Bad-ass

I'm so sick of average stuff. It's everywhere. Particularly architecture. I was at the Dwell On Design show at the LA Convention Center last Friday. There were a couple of cool things (I'll post them later, cuz they deserve it), but for the most part, nothing mind-blowing. But dammit, I'm ready to get my mind blown!
I mean...I get it. There are certain inevitable constraints. The number one constraint is typically budget. I'm familiar with that one. If I had an unlimited budget I'd....well...you'll see.
And the half-ass sucks too. Half-ass is the result of average designers trying to be bad-ass. Jeez this sounds critical and egotistical... but how 'bout this - Anyone wanna take me on? Let's get out the pencil & paper, clay, Legos, papier mache, Lincoln Logs, 2x4's....or lets just grab a stick and find some wet sand and see who can come up with what. I mean, it's not like this is a new idea. Most contemporary designers can't keep up with the Egyptians or Greeks. I'm not saying there isn't any cool stuff out there. There is. And it's MIND BLOWING! But it's rare. And it's the exception to the rule.
Think about it this way: When you're driving around (or riding) take a look at all of the stuff you pass....all of the objects. Take a look at the cars, the mailboxes, the landscaping, but mostly the buildings. There's so many of them. They're everywhere! Everybody's got at least one, but how many of them would qualify as bad-ass? Not enough. That's how many.
Well, anyhow...if you need some examples, here's a guy I like - Art Dyson. There's others of course, but he's the first that comes to mind.
Now let me get some dough together so I can go visually squash some fools.

This-Into-That Stepladder

I was talking with Jim of This Into That (one of our neighbors at the Sawtooth building in Berkeley), and the subject of my stepladder project came up. He invited me into his studio and showed me his most recent acquisition: A stepladder.
I was immediately jealous, and told him that I wish he hadn't shown it to me. Oh well.

Pretty nice, huh?

If you find yourself at the Sawtooth (Kawneer) building on 8th & Dwight some time, stop in and give Jim a visit. His stuff is great.

Jean Prouve Inspired Stepladder

Jonathan Taylor is the designer for one of my current clients in San Francisco. They're having me create all kinds of interesting stuff, and I'm really enjoying working with them. Their latest request is for a rolling stepladder, based on this 1951 design from Jean Prouve. Although many of Jean Prouve's pieces have been mass produced, there doesn't seem to be any reproductions of the stepladder. Our version will differ in many ways. Not only do I want to avoid infringing on anyone else's stuff, but the overall dimensions of the original don't quite suit our client's needs.

Here is the original Jean Prouve Stepladder. After studying it carefully, I decided that it is a nearly perfect design. I rarely draw this conclusion when studying a piece, but when it's good, it's good. So where do we go from perfect? I'm not sure what the client will ultimately want, but I decided to head in a different direction, just to satisfy my own curiosity.

This is my favorite variation so far. It is somewhat inspired by Star Wars, but not really. One of the few things I thot I could actually improve was the shape of the grab rail. I think the original grab rail protrudes a little bit too far, so I held these rails a little closer to the piece. These images don't include wheels (I got lazy). Those who know me may find elements they might consider my "trademark" details, but I won't point them out.

This elevation view shows the streamlined grab rail. Both the grab rail, and the back of the stair treads hold a vertical line.

Here's the cool, and completely superfluous tread detail from the top. The top tread is rectangular, but as they go down, each tread gets deeper, with a graduating arc. The actual standing area remains the same all the way down, but you get this neat effect at the back, which reminds me of some kind of cooling fin, or exoskeleton.

I took the ladder to my Uncle George, who is the retired master fabricator of the Ganshorn family. He liked the original Prouve better than my variations. A practical man, he thot I was "some kind of jack ass" for trying to complicate things "with all those extra curves and corners!" It's hard to argue with practicality.

This week on HOW ITS MADE: Airstream Kitchens

Our Airstream client wanted a minimal place to prepare food. We gave him a small convection oven (microwaves just don't make good food) a fridge with separate freezer, and one of those water boiling electric teapots.
In the following photos, the bulk of the cabinetry is complete, so it's mostly just pictures of us applying the Formica tops.

I doubled up layers of ply, to get a nice 1-1/2" countertop thickness. I created the curves using different types of moulding. The white part is a pretty standard door casing. Clever.

Josh Ganshorn and Tom Brown. A winning team. In this photo, Josh is trying to burn Toms hand.

I don't know if this looks easy or not, but It's really a pain bending this stuff and making it stick correctly.

The final touch, the standard plastic trailer molding from Vintage Trailer Supply.

The finished bench, ready to install. What some people don't realize is that beyond the obvious benefits of a bench, it's really just a way to hide the wheel wells. Hence, the shallow depth in the lower portion. I tried to make the most out of every square inch, so I created the small but deep cubbies for books and sketch pads. The owner is an artist, after all.

The morning after drill. Tom and Josh load in the pieces. I think Andrew Benson is around here somewhere.

....And Voila. Ready for appliances. Notice the small opening where the fridge goes (on the right). It's the service access for the hot water heater.

The semi-symmetrical layout turned out pretty good. All these curves are sexy (and a pain-in-the-ass to create).

Pocket Door in the Making

I just saw the most recent issue of Sunset magazine and found someone else that converted an Airstream into an office, so it seemed like an appropriate time to revisit our own recent Airstream project.
After we finished our project, we got a chance to show it a couple of times, and one of the most common questions about the interior was, "Where did you get all of these cabinets, and how did you get it to fit so well?", or "So what part did you do? Did you just find a way to move around the interior and make it fit?"
The simple answer is that we custom fabricated nearly the entire interior (excluding the bathroom sink and tub), and as proof, we thot we would show a few samples of the work in progress, beginning with the interior pocket door.

Everything starts with a template. For this unusual shape, I sacrificed 2 sheets of cheap luan ply.

This place is so dusty.

The door gets glued up.
This is a "Go-bar" table. Kind of an old-fashioned way to keep something flat.
Works great.

A test fitting. Ball bearing rollers (Cheap hardware drives me nuts). Smooove.

The finished installation. This sides all Walnut.

My favorite part is these dope curves on the door jamb. The original door was the width of the bottom half. It couldn't be any wider at the bottom because of the bathroom countertop and tub, as you can kind-of see in this photo. There were also other obstructions which I dealt with cleverly. The result is a 4" wider opening in the top half, which makes it sort-of ergonomic for those of us with arms.

On the lavatory side, the door is maple.

Now that it's gone, and I don't get to see it any more, I kinda forget how bad-ass our work is.

Today is the first day of the rest of my week

Blogging is new for me. What a dumb word, "blog". Crude. I feel a little embarassed everytime I say or type it. I guess it's easier to say than "Digital Online Journal".

Since this is a relatively new experience, I haven't exactly known what thots and experiences were "blog-worthy". So far, I've restricted my entries to things that are specific to construction mostly, since that's my job, and this is linked directly to my business site. But I'm not always doing the most interesting work. At least, not so interesting that I feel the need to document it on a weekly basis.

Then, last night, while eating dinner at Quinn's Lighthouse (my regular spot in the East Bay) it occurred to me that beyond my work, people hiring me (and perhaps others) might be interested in other aspects of my life. After all, it is my cumulative life experience that has helped me to define my opinions and passions, and these are the things that define my work.

So, from now on, I hope my entries create a more well-rounded view of my life, and how I live it. I intend to include my thoughts on design, architecture, art, the way people live, how we treat each other, and anything else worth writing down. I'll also include excerpts from my book-in-progress, "Always Carry A Sharpie" (working title). It's a book of advice and opinions, mostly from me, which makes it the most egotistical thing I've ever done.

For now, I'll just leave you with this: A giant lemon that looks like Grampa Simpson. My Niece brot (brought) it home from her Grandparents lemon tree. The green butter dish in the background is there for scale. Don't say "Gi-normous". We'll look back on that word combo as a mistake.

Cool Skylight and Ceiling in Master Bath

We're doing a remodel on a 1964 Eichler-esque home near Davis, CA. The Master bath is not on an exterior wall, and had no windows. It also had a drop ceiling to house the exhaust fan and electrical. Other rooms in the house had a beautiful knotty-pine T&G ceiling, and we were hoping this would be the case once we removed the drywall ceiling. We were in luck.

We redesigned the ceiling with a new skylight. The large opening lands on the existing 4x12 beams at each end. To support the long sides of the opening, we installed 3x9 glulam beams using Simpson Concealed Joist Ties, so no big metal brackets. We could have used a smaller beam, but the 9" depth gave us the necessary room to install a new exhaust fan.

We designed a custom flashing for the low pitch roof, made by Crown Sheet Metal, in Berkeley.

The finished ceiling.

Since the new skylight was so large, it left little space for central lighting on the ceiling. Instead, we ran the wiring through a channel concealed in the beams, and brought it out through the sides, where we will eventually install custom sconces.

A box was built to house the fan by continuing the new beams to the wall and re-using the T&G removed from the skylight opening for a cohesive look. The T&G was made into a removable panel, allowing access to a junction box and ductwork.

Lights off, and on a rainy day! Before the skylight, it would've been pitch black.

The tub is a Kohler whirlpool, with custom designed tile made in Sausalito at Heath Ceramics