Angles Art Complex

This project, nicknamed the Angles Art Complex for obvious reasons, was inspired by the angular design style of architect Frank Gehry and artist Lawrence Argent. I also played the definition of a “roof” with triangular tiles throughout and “wall skylights” on the facade of the gallery.

I arranged the theatre and gallery around a central courtyard that is open to the front box office space.

If walls could dream… they’d dream of supporting triangular roof tiles.

Before I Graduate Wall

Inspired by the public art piece Before I Die, I created a giant chalkboard wall that invites local high school students to complete the sentence “Before I graduate I want to…” with a goal or dream they have for their time in high school. The wall has spent the past month at various high schools in the area and has been filled up over and over with the goals of the students there.
I decided to construct the wall out of three wooden panels (recycled doors), with the “Before I Graduate…” title stretching across the top and “I want to________” prompts on each side.

I cut the stencils out by hand,

and then spray painted them on the recycled doors which were painted with chalkboard paint.

Then I simply screwed the doors together, added a brace across the top and some PVC chalk holders, and took it out to the schools!

The student reaction was overwhelming!

And entertaining!

Before it graduates, this wall dreams of touring the world! Or at least the county school district… And inspiring youth and community members to dream BIG!

Empire Mine Sketch

This afternoon, while listening to a lovely jazz band at the Empire Jazz Festival and enjoying some ice cream, I sketched this building at Empire Mine. I love the layers of space in the structure, which I later learned was an old game house from the mining days with a bowling alley, tennis courts, and more!

Details: Sister Buildings

In celebration of National Architecture Week, I’m sharing a series of posts about architectural details in historic and charming downtown Grass Valley, CA.
Separated by a small one-way road off Main Street, the facades of these two buildings, seen below on Google Maps, are opposites of each other.

On the right is the historic Holbrooke Hotel, built in 1862. Its roofline curves up towards the sky at the front of the building.

Oppositely, the roofline on the left curves out toward the street.

Details: Downtown

In celebration of National Architecture Week, I’m sharing a series of posts about architectural details in historic and charming downtown Grass Valley, CA.
This Thursday I’m “throwing it back” to my talk at TEDxGrassValley, where I spoke about architecture and how it influences our daily lives. I especially want to highlight the section about downtown Grass Valley (about 6 and a half minutes into the video). There are architectural details all around downtown, or anywhere really, that influence the shoppers there.

Details: Electric Signs

In celebration of National Architecture Week, I’m sharing a series of posts about architectural details in historic and charming downtown Grass Valley, CA.
Today I’d like to share a detail that gives you a little hint into a previous use of a space. Currently, this music store has a plain sign advertising their business yet there is an electrical outlet next to the bar the sign hangs from, implying that in a previous life, an electric sign called this space home.

Details: Building “Name Tags”

In celebration of National Architecture Week, I’m sharing a series of posts about architectural details in historic and charming downtown Grass Valley, CA.
Walking downtown one afternoon, I discovered these plaques on the bottom corner of a few storefronts, almost like name tags for the buildings.

This bright plaque says “Taylor Bros. Machine Works G.V. Cal.”
Another Taylor Bros. plaque, this one has been painted over many times and even had the sidewalk concrete poured over it since the bottom half of its “Grass Valley” is submerged!
This plaque says “McCormick Bros.” and then I think “S.F. Cal.”

Details: Furniture Store Auditorium

In celebration of National Architecture Week, I’m sharing a series of posts about architectural details in historic and charming downtown Grass Valley, CA.
The first detail I want to share is something it took me nine years of living here to notice, a set of window-like plaques on the second story of a furniture store. 

The plaques read “Erected anno domini MDCCCC Grass Valley Auditorium K.P. N.S.G.W. I.O.R.M. G.V.M.V. A.O.F.” After some internet research, I discovered that “anno domini MDCCCC” means AD 1900, N.S.G.W. is the Native Sons of the Golden West and I.O.R.M. is the Improved Order of Red Men. So this just begs the question, what was this building originally? A public auditorium with dances and basketball games? And how did it turn into a furniture store?

Happy National Architecture Week!

It’s National Architecture Week, the perfect time to take a moment to appreciate the architects and architecture around us! The built environment often blends so naturally with our experience of it that we barely even know it’s there, but “the details are not the details, they make the design” as Charles Eames once said. So this week I’m going to put extra effort into looking for the magnificent little details of design.

Grandhome

Dreaming of a house small enough for her and her husband yet still large enough for grandchildren who want to visit, my neighbor shared with me her idea for a house with the great room on the center and the master suite to one side and the grandkids’ bedrooms on the other side. So I whipped out my phone and we drew this sketch:

You enter the house from the front, with a kitchen to your left and a dining room to your right. In front of you is the living room and the screened porch. The wing to your left houses the master suite and laundry room. To wing to your right houses the guest bedroom for the grandchildren with a bathroom and an office space.
She loved the idea of a guest bedroom with two queen beds with twin beds above them for her two children and their families yet to be able to divide the room so each family could have some privacy if they wanted.
Delighted with all her ideas, I later designed the floorplan on the computer:


This design reminded me a lot of my final project at Cal Poly’s Architecture Career Workshop last summer. I had designed a model of a house for an elderly couple who still loved to entertain, stacking the great room on top of a flexible guest/entertainment space and putting the master suite next to the great room connected by a porch. I mimicked the mountainous site with dramatically angled roof and deck lines.

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