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!
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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?
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.
Simple
Making a great home simple, this one-bed one-bath house has lots of living space in just over 1000 square feet.
You enter the house into a great room perfect for entertaining.
The kitchen is large and the living room has walls of windows on all three sides. There is a large deck in the back with sliding glass doors from the kitchen and the master bedroom.
Off a small hallway is the master suite complete with his and hers closets. Also off the hallway is a large bathroom, a laundry room, and the one car garage.
If walls could dream… they’d dream of beautiful houses made simple!
Final Model Virtual Tour
Remember my Final Project from Cal Poly’s Summer Architecture Career Workshop?
Well I finally got around to modeling it in SketchUp and then I decided to create a virtual tour of it. You can watch it above or here on If Walls Could Dream’s new YouTube page. Don’t forget to subscribe to the page so you won’t miss upcoming videos and tours!