To most, the late ’60s and ’70s were the glory days of motorcycle design. America made muscle and the Japanese took over the industry with attractive, simple, reliable machines of all engine sizes. While Triumph’s Bonneville and Honda’s new CB1100 offer something…
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With temperatures rising and the sun staying up into the evening hours in the Northern Hemisphere, the time is right to head to get back to nature. If seeking the most tech-savvy ultralight alpine gear isn’t your vibe, there’s the Meriwether tent from…
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In the Southern California city of Santa Barbara, exploring the picturesque mountains, surf beaches and harbor only tells part of the story. The town boasts a world-class museum, lush botanical gardens and a historic mission; plus its close proximity to fruitful farmlands and ideal climate for vineyards has made the…
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For years Eric Trine and Will Bryant have been both friends and collaborators with Poketo’s Ted Vadakan and Angie Myung. Last year the first installment of Alley-Oop filled…
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This skateboarding ramp floating over the clear waters of Lake Tahoe was put together in just four days by design-and-build team Jerry Blohm and Jeff King for Californian skater Bob Burnquist (+ slideshow).
Brazilian-born Bob Burnquist was part of a group of California residents invited by non-profit organisation Visit California to “make their dreams possible” and “think big”. He came with the idea of skating over water.
“Dreaming big man, that’s what I do every day, I just try to dream as big as I can and then go make it happen,” he says in a video about the project.
Miami art director Jerry Blohm came up with a design for a wooden structure featuring one half pipe, one quarter pipe and one 45-degree ramp.
He also developed a concept for attaching weighted riggers in case the ramp oscillated too much in the water.
Once complete, the wood was stained with different colours to create horizontal stripes. The ramp was then towed out onto the waters of Lake Tahoe, which straddles the border between California and Nevada.
“It took about four hours to get it there going about four knots,” said Blohm, describing the installation.
“We had a host of folks coming up to the ramp on the way out to see what it was exactly. When they got close most could not believe it,” he said. “It looks like it is fake, floating with no supports.”
Footage of Burnquist using his skateboard on the ramp was included as part of a 24-hour stream of footage that Visit California aired on YouTube earlier this year.
The post Floating skateboard ramp installed on
Lake Tahoe for pro-skater Bob Burnquist appeared first on Dezeen.
A wall of windows winches up and down to reveal the interior of this gallery renovation in Los Altos, California, by Seattle architect Tom Kundig (+ slideshow).
Kundig, the principal designer at Olson Kundig Architects, added the new mechanical facade to a vacant 1950s building at the heart of the Silicon Valley community, creating a temporary gallery space able to reveal its contents to the neighbourhood.
The five-metre-high grid of windows is hooked up to a system of gears, pulleys and counterweights. To set them into motion, a pedal must be engaged to unlock the safety mechanism, before a hand wheel can be rotated to begin lifting or lowering the facade.
In this way, 242 State Street is able to “morph from an enclosed structure into an environment that invites the community into the space,” says Kundig.
The interior, previously used as an Italian restaurant, was left largely unchanged to create a flexible space for displaying different types of artwork.
Kundig did however raise the roof by half a storey to create a more generous setting for larger pieces, and inserted a row of skylights to allow more natural light to reach the back of the space.
A pivoting door was also added to provide access to the gallery when the facade is closed, while the steel beams supporting the pulley system could for be used to support signage.
The gallery opened at the end of 2013 as one of the ten venues for Project Los Altos, a local art initiative launched by SF MoMA. Artist Spencer Finch created a site-specific installation at the front of the space – a grid of colourful squares that resonated with the new facade – while Jeremy Blake installed a digital projection behind a temporary screen.
Photography is by Bruce Damonte.
Here’s a short project description from Tom Kundig:
Los Altos, California
Located in downtown Los Altos, the highlight of this 2,500 square foot adaptive re-use project is the introduction of a new facade that enables the circa 1950’s building to morph from an enclosed structure into an environment that invites the community into the space.
The transformation was achieved by essentially replacing the entire front facade with a double-height, floor-to-ceiling window wall that can be raised or lowered depending upon the needs of the user.
The window wall is operated by engaging a pedal – to unlock the safety mechanism – then turning a hand wheel which activates a series of gears and pulleys that opens the sixteen-foot by ten-foot, counterweighted two-thousand pound window wall. When the window wall is closed, visitors to the shop enter through a ten-foot-tall pivot door.
In addition to the front facade, other changes to the building included raising the roof by half-of-one story to create a better proportioned interior volume, and installing skylights to bring in more natural light.
The building most recently served as one of the temporary off-site locations for SF MoMA’s Project Los Altos. Beyond the introduction of the window wall, the interior was relatively untouched, leaving the space as flexible as possible for its future tenant.
The post Tom Kundig hoists California gallery
facade using gears and pulleys appeared first on Dezeen.
News: architecture firm OMA is working on designs for a 167-metre skyscraper on Folsom Street in San Francisco.
OMA has teamed up with property developer Related California and non-profit organisation Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation to plan the tower as part of a residential development offering a mix of homes for sale and rent, of which 27 percent will be affordable.
Led by OMA partner Shohei Shigematsu, the design also features a pair of podium buildings and a row of townhouses.
The development will be constructed on a city-owned plot between First Street and Fremont Street – one of 11 sites being sold off to pay for the $4.2 billion Transbay Transit Centre housing development nearby.
The OMA team is understood to have offered San Francisco’s Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure $72 million for the plot, coming in ahead of bids from developers Millennium Partners and Golub & Co.
The project is OMA’s second recent appointment in California, following a commission for a major mixed-use public building for downtown Santa Monica.
The post OMA plans San Francisco
skyscraper appeared first on Dezeen.
by Heather Stewart Feldman In Sonoma County wine country, Spirit Works Distillery is laboring over something quite different to sip on. Dreaming of working with their hands, making a product that was authentic and sustainable, husband and…
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The three-fingered plan of this rural Californian retreat by Mork-Ulnes Architects is oriented to frame views of a mountain ridge, vineyards and a local landmark named Eagle Rock (+ slideshow).
Mork-Ulnes Architects, which has offices in California and Oslo, designed the Moose Road house as a simple getaway for two young couples, using low-cost engineered materials such as plywood and oriented strand board.
The house’s sprawling volume stretches out across its site like a splayed glove, setting up apertures towards the various landmarks whilst avoiding the roots of several nearby oak trees.
“The main challenge was to frame these three separate views while at the same time, preserving each existing oak tree on site,” explained architect and studio founder Casper Mork-Ulnes.
A solution the architect and team members Greg Ladigin and Andreas Tingulstad came up with was to raise the building off the ground on steel stilts. This also helped to frame the best views through the three floor-to-ceiling windows.
The outer skin of the house comprises a layer of steel siding. Interior walls are lined with birch plywood, while floors display the chipboard aesthetic of oriented strand board, which has been cleaned with a lye soap solution.
“To cut cost as well as meet sustainability goals of the clients, the building was designed using standard-sized, off-the-shelf sheet goods to minimise waste,” said Mork-Ulnes.
Entrance to the house is via a small porch that steps down to meet the ground. This leads through to an open-plan living room and kitchen that offers the view towards Eagle Rock – a rocky outcrop named after its resemblance to an eagle’s head.
Bedrooms are located within the two smaller wings and are screened behind self-contained toilet and closet units that are glazed at the top to allow light to filter through each space.
Furniture was added sparsely to prevent the interior feeling cramped, but includes a selection of burnt wood pieces by San Francisco artist Yvonne Mouser.
Photography is by Bruce Damonte.
Here’s a project description from Mork-Ulnes Architects:
Moose Road
Three locally known land formations can be seen from the site of this project: “Eagle Rock”, a mountain ridge, and the valley of vineyards below. The main challenge was to frame these three separate views while at the same time, preserving each existing oak tree on site.
The three fingers extend precisely in between the existing trees, each oriented toward a land formation. The house was constructed on steel stilts to avoid severing tree roots. To cut cost as well as meet sustainability goals of the clients, the building was designed using standard sized, off-the-shelf sheet goods (unfinished plywood and OSB) to minimise waste. The building was accomplished with a tiny budget (by California standards) at under $190 per square foot.
Architecture firm – Mork-Ulnes Architects
Project Design Team – Greg Ladigin, Casper Mork-Ulnes, Andreas Tingulstad
Contractor – Crossgrain Co. Inc.
Structural Engineer – Double-D Engineering
Site size: 16 acres
Building size: 1,140 square feet
Construction cost per square foot: $190
The post Moose Road house by Mork-Ulnes Architects
frames the Californian landscape appeared first on Dezeen.
Basé en Californie, le photographe Tim Ronca a fait la série intitulée « California Squares » pour représenter l’état dans lequel il habite sous un format carré. Quelques cactus, des vieilles voitures et des stations d’essence abandonnées au beau milieu du désert : voici un échantillon de la Californie.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
