sliver sun shower

a very amateur attempt at time lapse, in an effort to capture the sun's path in the hayes valley remodel

if it isn't obvious...
no tripod
and a point and click was used

modern lovers wake up call

one sip from my cappuccino today and i was transformed into a modern lover

how much is 5,000 barrels a day?

i wanted to understand how much oil was being spilled daily in the gulf. so i calculated the volume of a gallon, a barrel, and then began arranging it in various ways. it dawned on me that it was getting close to a familiar size.

the volume shown is not of barrels stacked together but just the contents of those barrels.

BP is now saying the spill may be as much as 60,000 barrels a day. This is the equivalent of ALL the painted ladies on Steiner.



since posting this, it has been picked up by the architect's newspaper, the wall street journal, and in a story in the washington post.

a common theme i've heard from some is that after seeing this, it doesn't seem so bad. my point in making this was not to highlight how bad it is, but rather get a true sense at the volume of oil. having said that, i think the reaction of it not being that bad relates to two perceptions (or misperceptions).

1) that victorians in san francisco are small. this perception is due, i believe, to the rooms in victorians being so small, the lack of access to natural light in most victorians, the fact that most victorians serve as multiple unit homes, and the fact that they are crammed tight to each other. in actuality, a standard victorian is LARGER than most american homes. in this example, the victorian is 3.5 stories at about 5,500 square feet. with that, at least two floors of the victorian have ceilings of at least 11 feet.

2) the amount of contamination or spread that oil has. in some very brief research on my part, i found that 1 gallon of oil can contaminate up to 1,000,000 gallons of water, and that 1 gallon of oil can create an oil slick as large as 8 acres. this means one day of the spill at 5,000 barrels is potentially contaminating 210 billion gallons of water and potentially creating an oil slick that is 2,526 square miles daily. that is the equivalent of 51 san franciscos or 13+ lake tahoes.

from the washington post article mentioned above is a site developed by a google earth engineer (paul rademacher) that allows you to overlay the actual observed spill onto any geographical site you wish. enter your town and the spill will overlay. it is devastating.

apartment converter

tahoe residence

we try to design experientially.

as we design, we tend to walk through the structure and imagine how the materials, the space, the light quality... how it would all feel as you inhabit the space. our main mode of design expression, however, is always visual, utilizing only one of our senses.

at the tahoe residence, we were able to put in a system of glass doors that can open the entire wall. to sell this idea to the client, it is all about the view... the unencumbered all important VIEW. so at the site yesterday, i decided to throw open the doors to get a photo of the view. i expected to be overcome with another sensation, that of cold, with the weather rushing through the 130 square foot opening in the wall. i was pleasantly surprised that the overwhelming sense was instead aural. it was just about noon, and the lake was quite choppy. the sound of the waves was the overwhelming sense that filled the space.

i tried to capture the roar on video (below), but i think i will have to do it again, opening the doors so that you get the contrast of the silence to sound.

the architect's newspaper

jones | haydu is honored to be featured in the most recent edition of the architect's newspaper for their story on the burgeoning cafe scene.

here is the excerpt on us:


Photo by Matthew Millman
Coffee Bar
San Francisco
Jones | Haydu

In a neighborhood of industrial warehouses already in turnaround, Coffee Bar shows how you can put a corner loading dock to good use. The split-level space in San Francisco’s Media Gulch features a warm-hued swath of Douglas fir that first forms the bar, then travels up the wall and forms a shelf, then continues across the room to create the upper-level railing and seating area, where patrons can peer over their laptops to see who’s just come in. “It’s one long ribbon that ties everything together,” said Hulett Jones of Jones | Haydu. “We were intent on seeing how we could unify the space and create a communal feeling, while sticking to a strict budget.” The largish, 1,700-square-foot cafe has been very popular in the community, and the owners have embarked on a new venture—offering sommelier-led wine tastings. And for the connoisseur, there are gourmet dinners created by “nomadic kitchens,” including one of Ryan Farr’s first whole-pig fests.

for the full article click here

bayview residence addition and remodel

a sketch model walkthrough of a recently completed addition and remodel in the bayview neighborhood.

the addition is the tower at rear (seen at the beginning of the video)

we hope to photograph this project next week... more photos and news on this one soon.