AIA Redwood Empire

Located on ten acres of rolling hillside above the town of Sonoma in Northern California this private retreat is a freestanding structure adjacent to an existing rammed earth house. Partially hidden amongst a grove of Oaks, Manzanita and Madrone, two curved earthen walls gently carve into the landscape to create the entry to the intimate retreat below. Topography, orientation and landscape are all considered in the choreography of experience, heightening one’s sense of discovery, privacy and ultimately the serenity of escape.

The building’s form is defined by a collection of simple rustic cedar boxes that provide a counterpoint to the surrounding landscape. These boxes not only define and anchor the contiguous spaces, but they create apertures that act as the entry to the retreat and outdoor shower. The rectilinear forms are in turn cradled by the curving walls, which allow the resultant space to burrow into the earth. A wood deck of reclaimed teak extends interior space out into the landscape, obscuring the boundaries between inside and outside. A canopy of cantilevered lodgepole pine floats above the roof, providing much needed shade to the southern face of the building and its’ sundeck. Trees to the south provide additional dappled shade at times opening to reveal the nearby foothills and views of San Francisco beyond.

As a place of exchange, Scribe Vineyards celebrates the interface between earth and sky, nature and technology, art and science, past and present. The exchange is cultural, biological and geological. Located on a foothill bench at the threshold between a thriving commercial-agricultural zone and a relatively undisturbed natural habitat, Scribe Vineyards is an ecotone – a transitional area of dynamic intermingling between adjacent ecological communities. As such, it is a place of great diversity and activity wherein the natural environment, agriculture, artisans and guests not only coexist, but mutually enrich one another.

The winery is arranged along a long wall of native stone that cuts into the natural grade, partially burying the facility. This reduces its profile in the landscape, protecting it from southeastern sun and providing passive geothermal cooling. This retaining wall also enables the use of gravity in the production process. A sculptural roof canopy floats above this wall, undulating to accommodate a variety of operations while offering an occasional glimpse to tasting-room visitors. The upper portion supports photovoltaic panels while the lower roof is planted to capture water. A catwalk threads through the folding roof plane, providing access to fermentation tanks inside, roof gardens outside, and framed views of the surrounding land.

The Obelisk has marked public space for millennia. The “Cyclisk” is a unique interpretation of monumental public art for Santa Rosa, California. The project is a sixty-five foot (65’) traditional obelisk made of discarded bicycles. Shaping a landfill-bound material into a “polished form” creates a series of intersecting rhythms – a visual metaphor for the human experience exploring technology and the humanities – history and possible futures – individual as well as collective. The City of Santa Rosa now has a new landmark, evoking a “world of possibilities,” relevant for years to come….

The Obelisk was constructed using a steel superstructure resting upon a formal concrete base. Unusable bicycles were collected and cleaned, then welded to a steel superstructure to create the obelisk form.

This residence sits on a secluded hillside overlooking Anderson Valley, tucked into a large grove of mature oak trees. The primary design objective was to integrate a single-family retreat into this beautiful setting. This single story structure is comprised of three building masses along two linear circulation paths. We wanted the approach to the house to be viewed from above in order to perceive the strength of the linear form. The building’s single story, horizontal configuration maximizes the panorama of the valley below.

The rooms are designed to intimately accommodate a couple while offering an additional space for visiting family and friends. They were each seeking to create a space where they might enjoy their respective passions: gardening and woodworking. Design decisions focused on integrating the regional aesthetic, maximizing views, and minimizing energy consumption. (Between the insulation, the solar water heating system, and the photovoltaic cells, the house is almost energy self-sufficient. PG&E bills have averaged about $30 a month over the past year.)

The three building masses are divided by program. The northwestern mass consists of a master bedroom suite and home office as well as a project room and media room/library. Below the mater bedroom portion of this wing, are the guest bedrooms. The central building mass contains an integral living, kitchen and dining area. Between this space and the garage is a large covered, outdoor dining and living area. It opens to the east and west and capitalizes on the natural breeze broad vistas of oak grove and valley below. The southern mass accommodates a woodworking shop, guest bedroom/exercise room and a bath and pool house. The hot tub and pool form a fourth rectangular element contoured by a bed of lavender with a view of the ridge to the north.

The Library entrance is the activity center for all circulation into the building. It provides access the community room, café, stacks and media, and all programs located on the second floor. The entrance opens to the north facilitating a transparent façade that offers views into the interior and inversely back toward the outdoor public space. This organization of functions and uses creates a concentration of activity at the scale and intensity of an urban space. Users interact with students and faculty members through chance encounters, as well as, planned meetings within the space of functional overlap.

The 300’ long linear lightwell creates a receding edge to the main library space and juxtaposes the primary character of the library’s main volume. This device separates and stitches the main library to the rest of the LLRC program. Second floor stair access and the second floor circulation spine use the lightwell as an instrument to overlook ground floor activity, remain connected to the library floor and entry, and connect to distant vistas of the campus and beyond. The lightwell is instrumental in the implementation of stack ventilation and day-lighting strategies.

First Certified Passive House in California
First Certified Passive House Retrofit in North America
Registered LEED for Homes(tracking platinum rating)

The original house was an awkward configuration of two nondescript structures linked by a breezeway. There was no street-side entry or insulation.

Today a large, covered porch creates a warmly inviting entry and shades the home from summer sun. Triple pane windows in a clean, traditional style promote passive solar gain. The super-sealed front door is painted a welcoming green (low voc, of course) a quiet nod to Catherine’s Scottish heritage.

A blanket of insulation rests between the concrete slab and an exquisite, wide-planked, reclaimed wood floor. The effect is an airtight surface that “gives” to the foot like a gymnasium floor.

The most striking feature, when you enter the home is the absolute quiet, a function of the ventilation system, insulation and super-sealed joints. The denatured ethanol fireplace in the living room requires no chimney.

Where the breezeway stood, sunlight floods through a wall-spanning, sliding glass-door and illuminates a sleek new kitchen which separates public and private spaces.

The new Ashland Youth Center houses a rich array of youth-centered services within a singular and iconic building identity. The 31,500 square foot sustainably designed two story structure includes: a library; a public cafe; media production, dance and fitness rooms; class rooms; a computer lab; a visual arts room; a childcare center; a health clinic; a career center; a courtyard; and, building support and administrative spaces. The building design emphasizes transparency, openness and flexibility between the different functions to promote exploration, social connectivity and programming flexibility.

The Youth Center site is located on East 14th Street, in unincorporated Alameda County. The site is on a commercial arterial, adjacent to a middle school, near to single- and multi-family residences, and directly within the new Holland Park recreational open space. The youth center bridges between the two primary qualities of the immediate context--commercial highway and neighborhood park--addressing both in equal measure. The massing and orientation of the building volume is based on the pattern of commercial buildings in the area, with the spatial experience of the building more attuned to the openness and flow of the adjacent park environment.

The Noyo Center for Science and Education combines a world-class marine research laboratory and an interpretive center focused on increasing public understanding and knowledge of marine research and actions that visitors can take to reduce their impacts on the ocean, rivers, forests and sensitive coastal prairie. Associated with the marine research center is lodging for the marine research teams that will utilize the center during their research residencies.

The Noyo Center is a first step in Ft. Bragg’s restoration and renewal of the former lumber mill site that dominated the oceanfront for the past 100 years. Seen from afar from Highway One, from the nearby oceanfront this new ensemble will harken visitors. On arriving visitors will at once feel the essence and diversity of the location --- from the stewardship and history of the Mill Site and the spectacular coast --- to the inviting sense of place for research, interpretation and learning. The Noyo Center is planned as a net-zero energy, zero-carbon footprint project.

The Noyo Discovery Center will educate 60,000 to 80,000 visitors, residents, fisherman, and school children per year - increasing public understanding and knowledge of marine and coastal resources by providing high quality visitor exhibits that are directly tied to the research of the Center and actions that visitors can take to reduce their impacts on the ocean, rivers, forests and coastal prairie. A Whale Exhibit housing one of only ten complete Blue Whale skeleton’s commemorates the significant, yet unsuccessful, community efforts to save this whale that beached at Ft. Bragg in 2009.

Designed to feel like a rustic gold-miner’s saloon serving its local community - in this case, the patrons of a grocery store - the Coddingtown Tap Room stands inside a Whole Foods Market, serving 16 local drafts and a 330-bottle inventory. The aesthetic is reminiscent of a dilapidated shed. The bold design leads the patron to feel as though the structure were thrown together, using whatever scraps might be found laying about a miner’s camp. We set out to construct the Tap Room primarily of salvaged, reclaimed, and reused materials. Framed with reclaimed lumber and clad with salvaged redwood, a variety of responsibly sourced woods fill the space, including a 90 year old Eastern White Oak bar top from a levee road in Placer County and Elm table-tops from the Silicon Valley.

The design succeeds in creating a comfortable environment within its unique context, sheltered from the routine of a grocery store, yet enlivened by the bustle outside of its windows. Dim lighting inside complements dramatic stripes of light and shadow produced by gaps between and knots within the redwood siding. Shed-like shutters swing inward, creating a dropped ceiling over each individual table. To further the Tap Room’s makeshift character, bar shelving matches the exposed framing aesthetic and an unfinished soft pine floor welcomes dents and scuffs to offer an immediately aged appeal.

The site-built barn doors and dutch-door complete the feel by providing moveable tactile surfaces to complete the user’s experience. Built in just over a month, the 500 square foot pub is the first of its kind in a Whole Foods Market and has proven to be quite popular among its neighboring community.

The Falls Environmental Center nestles into a south facing slope; lowering the mass on the site and letting the earth shelter the northern exposure. The crescent shaped floor plan envelops the visitor and allows the exterior form of the building to be experienced strongly from the inside. Viewed from the north, the undulating roof line mirrors the hills in the distance, and the living roof makes it appear as if the building is growing out of the ground. From the interior, the ceiling flows dynamically across the space, a metaphor for the adjacent creek and watershed that gives the center its name and purpose. Recalling the cliff dwellings of the Anasazi, the deep projecting overhang shades the tall south facing window wall from direct sun in the summer while allowing the lower arc of the winter sun to flood the space with daylight and warmth. A high north facing clerestory balances the daylight. Recycled steel frames at the southern façade, allow a wall of glass that dissolves the separation to the outside and brings the sunlit meadow and towering redwoods into the building.

The building serves several critical needs. The school needed an enclosed cafeteria, and meeting space. The ecological community needed a central command post, and gathering place. The local community needed a small performance/theatrical venue.