Design Philosophy
Mine is an introspective modernism. What drives my practice is meeting my clients' needs in the contexts of nature, community and economy. I seek to enhance each through careful design of building and site as one.
My approach to materials is based both on their vernacular histories and on my own experience in the building trades, infused with an affinity for contemporary craftsmen and builders. Years of working with restricted budgets and footprints has taught me to push the aesthetic envelope to expand space and form within the confines of regulatory and fiscal controls.
As a general practitioner, I accept that research is preliminary to all workable design. I carefully study the contexts and contingencies of the many building types I have built, whether public or private, commercial or residential, industrial or institutional, urban or rural. I live in a house and work in an office that I designed and built. I continue to learn from those experiences.
Architecture can and should be a considered arrangement of beautiful walls, openings and gardens in which meaningful lives are sheltered, inspired, and enriched. Making every building that I work on meet those basic needs is the essence of what I do.
Publications
Architectural Design
Archetype
Fine Homebuilding
Metropolitan Home
Dwell
Wet
CoEvolutionary Quarterly
Exhibitions
Art Net. London
Harvard Graduate School of Design
Les Halles Competition Entries. Paris
Cedar Street Gallery. Santa Cruz
McPherson Center for Art and History. Santa Cruz
Education
Rhode Island School of Design
Architectural Association of London
Selected Projects
TGV Software. Santa Cruz
Greenhorn Creek Golf Community. Angels Camp
Silver Birches Community.Soquel
Annie Glass Store and factory. Watsonville
Soif Wine Bar and Restaurant. Santa Cruz
Camps Restaurant. Angels Camp
2425 Hyde Street Apartments San Francisco
Santa Cruz City Teen Center. Santa Cruz
Oblates of St. Joseph Church. Santa Cruz
Boyle Residence. Santa Cruz
Swift Street Work/Live. Santa Cruz
Gateway School Renovation. Santa Cruz
Kalish Residence. Bishop
Watson Residence. Angels Camp
Bonny Doon Winery. Santa Cruz
Strawbale Visitors Center. Angels Camp
Primack/Pollock Residence. Santa Cruz
Tigler/Smith studios. Santa Monica
Stegner Residence. Greensboro VT
Homeless Garden Project. Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz Zen Center. Santa Cruz
Basic Exchange store. Santa Cruz
