Sightglass Coffee/SmithBuilt: In the New York Times

Following in the footsteps of coffee innovators Blue Bottle and Ritual Coffee Roasters in San Francisco, SightGlass Coffee Roasters is my newest completed project. The New York Times T Magazine has published a beautiful slideshow about Sightglass. Read on for the story of how we built it.

Over the past year, Sightglass Coffee, Jared and Justin Morrison’s coffee roastery and cafe on Seventh Street and Folsom, has been selling coffee from a kiosk set inside an old warehouse they’re renovating. Tarps separate the espresso machine from the construction zone, and everyone who stops by for a cappuccino stoops and cranes as they stand in line, trying to see past the plastic.

SmithBuilt worked for months rebuilding the structural steel and beam interior. I am always reminded of a boat every time I look up at the elaborate old ceiling with its’ complex series of trusses.

The epic industrial space (last a sign-painting shop) still looks a mess, but it’s actually nearing completion.  We have just finished polishing the concrete floor, prestained with coffee, and the crew is getting ready to paint the exterior, punch a hole in the ceiling for the roaster’s heat vent, and finish constructing the bars.

It’s a huge space, actually, which will be divided into half cafe, half production; like most microroasters, they’re projecting that wholesale beans will be a big chunk of the business. The coffee roaster occupies a prominent place at the front, and there’s an oval coffee bar in the back and a mezzanine for storage and seating.

The front bar was constructed with a poured-in-place concrete top, diamond-polished to a worn matte finish. The front of the bar is clad in zinc sheets, hand sanded and patina washed to produce a dusted carbon effect.

As an interior wall finish we employed a Japanese wood flaming technique called Soh-sugi-ban a historical technique that has been used in Japan for centuries. The char on the wood helps protect it from water as well as making it harder for the wood to catch fire in the future, as well as just looking beautiful.

SmithBuilt on the American Institute of Architects Tour 2010

Marin Home

Tour lets

nature be

your guide

Tracey Taylor, Special to The Chronicle

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

If there’s one thing the houses featured on the American Institute of Architects’ Marin Home Tour teach us, it’s how to work with, not against, nature when crafting dwellings. Each of the five homes on the May 15 tour embraces the landscape in which it is sited to such an extent that the boundaries between structure and nature are often pleasantly obscure. Whether it’s the Sausalito home that gives itself completely to the panoramic sweep of the bay, the crescent-shaped home in Mill Valley designed 50 years ago to follow precisely the contours of a forest ridge, or the newly built house, also in Mill Valley, that tucks itself into a steep hillside and then uses the resulting verticality to stunning effect: All have grabbed the gorgeous Marin scenery and run with it.

Radius House

Dwyer Design (renovation), Daniel Liebermann (original architect and apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright)

This home of the earth defines the concept of building in harmony with nature. Designed in the early 1960s by Daniel Liebermann, who apprenticed with Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin West, the Radius House is just 1,000 square feet, and its unusual crescent shape was chosen to follow, and nestle snugly into, the contours of the forest’s ridge.

The home gives itself completely to the beautiful giant redwoods that surround it; the ample use of wood and stone inside bring it even closer to the land.

The owners asked contractor Kevin Smith and designer Vivian Dwyer to bring the home up to contemporary standards without in any way deviating from the original vision. The roof was rebuilt to allow for adequate ventilation and for a proper electrical system. A new kitchen was installed and the concrete floors, wood beams and signature metal pipes were all refurbished. The curved exposed brick walls were covered with smooth, white plaster. Idiosyncratic original elements such as the airplane glass shelves that cut into the exterior walls, drawing in light on overcast days, were also restored.

Finally, a new lighting system creates magical effects at night to complement the compelling way the sunlight moves through the house during the day.

Little Lane Studio/SmithBuilt

When my friend Julie asked if I would help her to design Little Lane Studio- a children’s art school, I jumped at the chance. It seemed like a great way to revisit my former teaching career while focusing on something really important-teaching kids art.

Designing a space that is compelling from a kid’s perspective was an intriguing challenge that I couldn’t wait to get started on. Julie and I discussed my collaborative style of working and set up some initial design sessions.

We keyed off of Julie’s inspiration board- a series of images that she had collected to help define the mood and tone of her artistic space.

Through our conversations we decided that building out the space with recycled materials was the appropriate look we were trying to achieve as well as conveying the right inspirational message to the kids.

After deciding that the space should house some large art tables we set out to Heritage Salvage. Our friend and owner of Heritage Michael “Bug” Deacon pointed us towards some re-sawn structural parralam beams that were perfect for our project.

We talked about needing two tables of differing heights and decided that to conserve space that they should be able to nestle.

I welded up some table bases from 2 x 2 x 1/4” galvanized angle iron with 4 x 4 x1/4” galvanized legs and found some heavy duty casters. I sized the smaller table to roll under the larger one for storage when not in use.

I joined the beams together to create a table surface and coated them in an epoxy resin.

We also used the beams as benches and found some beautifully patinaed siding boards that we re-sized and milled for the bench backs.

Lastly, we wanted to create “a nest” serving as a metaphor and a visual focal point -for home and creativity.

And as luck would have it, while on a trip to the San Francisco recycling center, I was able to talk a guy into helping me load a gigantic wisteria vine that he had just pulled out of his mother’s backyard into me truck. Score.

Tillandsia Garden At The Plant Cafe

When the owners of The Plant Cafe Organic, Matthew and Mark first approached me about a vertical garden they were interested in something dynamic and unusual that fit with their dining concept of “the waiting room of a Finnish sauna set in a Tokyo airport”.

Something modern and organic-I suggested a large boarderless Tillandsia piece composed of nine 1/4” plates of cold rolled steel patinaed with a solution of copper suspended acid wash.

My assistant Jesse and I set to work constructing the large “backer panel” receiver on which the steel plates were to be secured. The backer was then preliminarily fitted with the steel panels to mark the positioning of each panel, and the backer was secured to the wall.

We then constructed transport frames to move the steel in order to receive the patina and later to serve as placement rigs while we worked on the plantings.

During assembly, each panel was numbered and secured to the backer in the corresponding location.

This is one of my favorite pieces as the patina, although tricky, is quite unusual and has continued to grow and change over time just like the plants.

Smithbuilt makes the cover of California Home and Design

Our Unique Upgrade Of This Mill Valley Home Is On The November/ December Edition.

Check Out The Article and Photos Here

Radiating history

Artwork

This is a series I did last year with found images. By an odd turn of events, I came to own an enormous collection of years of family photos from a family I have never met. The photos span decades, and are all taken around the Bay Area. Through the photos,  I can watch the family grow up, graduate, take vacations, change houses. Some of the characters have become favorites of mine. The woman in this picture  is a favorite.

They are sublimation dye prints mounted on wood and covered in resin. I have experimented with hanging them outside. I hope to introduce a series this year that can we used in a somewhat protected outdoor condition.

Rose 1957

Cheerleaders

Rose

Hank 1962

Back home

Roadtrip

Texas Tea

Amy

New Tillandsia Garden at Ritual

This is a new Tillandsia garden that is currently hanging in the Ritual Roasters on Valencia Street.

Moss work

This is a detail of a moss garden I did a few months ago.

Vertical Gardens in the press

The vertical gardens I installed with Flora Grubb are in Sunset and Garden Design magazines this month.

This is the Bardessono Hotel Tillandsia Garden

Vertical Garden in Napa

Here is a vertical garden I installed recently. The frame is made of dried liana.