MOJAVE DESERT FOREST SERVICE RANGER STATION
ArchDaily | Architect Magazine | Inhabitant | Archello
Situated in the Antelope Valley, along the Western edge of the Mojave Desert, the Mojave Rivers Ranger Station is designed for administrative and fire personnel from the USDA Forest Service Mojave Rivers Ranger District. Both client and architect aspired to achieve a building appropriate to its context and to the function of the agency. In keeping with the Forest Service’s principles, the ranger station is designed to convey the agency’s roots as an institution with “an ethic of conservation and stewardship, a close tie to the land, and an orientation of service to current and future generations.” The result is a facility whose form and aesthetic is largely shaped by its desert site and climate…
HOUSE FOR TWO ARTISTS
ArchDaily | Architect Magazine | SFGate | AECCafe | CASAS International | ARTE Architectural Design
Designed by Marcy Wong Donn Logan Architects, the House for Two Artists replaces a dilapidated shack that was on their secluded property. The clients, a composer and a photographer, desired a home that could be a refuge drawing from and connected to the land. Their view of their role as custodians of this beautiful site bolstered their motivation to design and build as sustainability as possible—an objective shared by the architects as well. The surrounding vistas consist of rolling hills with dense covers of various species of native California trees. This context in concert with the owners’ and designers’ principles of environmental stewardship, were the guiding inspirations for the placement, form, and materials of the house…
FORD ASSEMBLY BUILDING: CULTURAL AND PUBLIC ENTERTAINMENT CENTER
ArchDaily | Architect Magazine | Architect Magazine | Architectural Record | American Builders Quarterly
This 525,000 SQF multi-million waterfront project rejuvenated the formerly abandoned and dilapidated Ford Assembly Building originally designed by Albert Kahn for Henry Ford. A 2011 AIA Honor Award winner, the historical factory was transformed into a vibrant center of 21st-century building uses, including entertainment, dining, office, and a visitor center. Today, it has a lively mix of public/private uses and accommodates a range of commercial tenants with offices, Research & Development facilities, light industrial, retail functions, and the NPS Visitor Center celebrating WWII’s “Rosie the Riveter.” The project also incorporates significant sustainability features...
ORANGE PARK COMMUNITY RECREATION CENTER
ArchDaily | Architectural Record | Contemporist
Orange Memorial Park is the most important public recreation venue for the citizens of South San Francisco, and is the context for the new 6,400 SQF recreation building which is encircled by soccer, basketball, picnic and other outdoor amenities. The facility's function is to serve cultural, recreational, celebratory, and educational activities. But more importantly, the recreation building is conceived as a pavilion in a park and an icon for the community. Toward that goal, the use of natural materials that are sustainable, have a sense of quality and longevity, are complementary to each other and to the park context, and that are attractive, was of fundamental importance to the designers and the client. For that reason, wood—in particular Cedar—and natural basalt stone are two of the most defining materials in the building's architectural palette...
ROSIE THE RIVETOR VISITOR EDUCATION CENTER
ArchDaily | Arquitectura y Empresa
The Rosie the Riveter Visitor is the final piece in the restoration of the Ford Assembly Building complex, a former car factory that served as Ford’s West Coast manufacturing center from 1931 through 1955. During World War II the Ford plant turned out tanks assembled by the famed Rosie the Riveters, women metal-workers and machinists contributing to the war effort. The Visitor Center commemorates the contributions of these women...
HOUSE IN THE HIGH DESERT
Architect Magazine | Builder Online
A photographer’s search for the site of his future house required a majestic environment with vast natural vistas found only in the American West. Early on, during travels for a photography shoot, he fortuitously came across a structure embodying his vision for a house. He found the architect's identity, after which ten years passed before he found the site with his ideals. The requested program consists of live and work spaces connected by a display gallery. The brief further dictates that the forms consist of simple shapes and the materials requiring minimal long term maintenance requirements...
THE FREIGHT & SALVAGE MUSIC PRESERVATION CENTER
ArchDaily | AECCafe
The Freight & Salvage (whose non-profit organization is incorporated as the Berkeley Society for the Preservation of Traditional Music) has long been the most venerable institution dedicated to presenting the best in folk and traditional music west of the Mississippi. It was vital to the client that the new venue be designed to continue evoking the vibe of the Freight as an intimate folk music venue despite the introduction of cutting-edge technology and increased auditorium capacity...
SUNPOWER CORPORATION OFFICE HEADQUARTERS
ARCHDAILY // AEC CAFE // ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW
The design strategy for this office headquarters project for a solar power company in an historic Ford auto factory grew out of the multiple objectives of the client and architect: aesthetics, function, and sustainability. Since the company is a leading developer and manufacturer of solar power technology all aspects of the project needed to reflect the company’s culture and commitment to sustainability. More photographs and drawings following the break...
BANCROFT GREEN OFFICE BUILDING
The owners of the project developed the 15,000 square foot, two-story two building complex that included space for their architectural design firm. The corner site is located in a West Berkeley neighborhood with an eclectic mixture of uses including manufacturing, office, artist, residential, restaurant, and laboratory. Due to the request by a member of the local zoning board that the complex’s uses reflect the neighborhood’s manufacturing heritage, part of the project was required to be “light industrial”. Currently, an organic sauerkraut manufacturer occupies that component on the ground level of the south building wing, and the architects occupy the rest of that building. An environmental engineering company fills both floors of the north building wing...
CONFERENCE CENTER AT THE PUBLIC POLICY INSTITUTE OF CALIFORNIA
The Bechtel Conference Center is designed to communicate the values of The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), a San-Francisco-based think-tank dedicated to public policy decision-making through nonpartisan research and dialogue. The Center, located on the ground floor of PPIC’s downtown San Francisco office building, reflects the organization’s ideals of openness and cooperative communication...