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The myth of the architect as the lone creator is a pervasive one. Whether it is the fictionalized architect of novels, toiling away in his office or the starchitect being lauded for the work of a five hundred person firm, our culture seems determined to avoid thinking of creation as an act of collaboration. We recently had the pleasure of working on a project that is great example of how even a small project requires a great amount of collaboration.

The project was to update a fireplace mantle to fit in better with the rest of the house. Every other part of the house had been remodeled and the only remaining incongruous note was the fireplace. We designed a steel surround with a reclaimed wood beam mantle and clear fir casework. The casework has led lighting to back light the removable wine rack. The design itself was a collaboration between ourselves and the client, as always. In order to actually realize the design, we called on some of our friends that we work with fairly often. The steel was done by Morgan Elliot (http://morganrobertelliott.com/), The casework was built by Eric Nation (http://ericnation.com/), and the lighting was done by Lumenkraft Electric. As always, Brad Hanson from Hanson Construction was with us for the install work.

Here are a couple of pics of the finished job.

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Michael Pollan – A Place of My Own – The Architecture of Daydreams

Occasionally we will be doing a short book review/recommendation over here.  We are going to focus on books about architecture or building that would be a good read for the non professional because frankly, reading architecture books written by architects for architects can often be incredibly painful. As a profession, we are generally not all that good with language.  We make up words with abandon, we misappropriate theories and we will almost always use a four syllable word when a two syllable one will do. Sit in on an architectural ‘theory’ class and you will see what I mean. We even have a term for our abuse of the English language: Archi-babble.This is why reading books on architecture written by non architects is such a pleasure.

Michael Pollans ‘A Place of My Own’ is a great example of a book that talks about architecture yet manages to do so in a simple and human way without reducing the complexity of the subject. The basic premise is that Pollan has decided he wants to build a writing hut in his backyard. He goes deeply into the why of the project before tackling the how of it and in doing so touches on philosophy, theory,...