Hart Wright Architects has made a gift to the UCSF Coronavirus Relief Fund. We are all in this together and we will get through it. Here are some links to sites that will accept donations: UCSF Coronavirus Relief Fund City of San Francisco is accepting donations for a Covid-19 fund San Francisco Marin Foodbank sfmfoodbank.org created a guide for those who are looking to give back to the community. It.
This project is being built on a site that previously had a house that was destroyed by a wildfire also known as a house in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI). We are aggressively taking the challenge of hardening the building against fire. The evidence from the many houses destroyed in wildfires shows wildfires ignite homes in particular ways. Here are some brief examples of how fire ignites houses and how.
In this piece, we describe a project for a client who wanted a new house to age in place.
The Grand Canyon is one of the best known and visited national parks in the USA. Perhaps what is less known is that a woman architect designed the buildings that serve the visitors of this great site. Many romantic, rustic stone and timber structures there look like they could have been built by native pueblo or were there when explorers discovered the canyon. Actually, they were designed intentionally in from.
Here is a utility shed we built to house our gardening tools and trash containers. We designed the shed to break up the deck and patio area from a service alley accessed through the garage. There is a sunny eddy on the deck backed by the shed, the key was placing it perpendicular to the house. Since its roof is so visible and accessible, we wanted to look at plants.
We have been on many runs through San Francisco. Running is our exercise, our therapy and a way to be out looking around. We’d like to share shots we’ve taken while on runs from now on, a little at a time. There is more to see when you experience the city on foot, not to mention, its easier to stop and observe when there’s no bike, bus or car. On.
Even though a year ended a while back, we’re still excited to post what we saw last year. We always make an effort to see buildings wherever we go and this highlights our favorites. We got to go on a very special tour of the Stahl House in Los Angeles, also known as Case Study House #22, designed by Pierre Koenig. Also last year, we enjoyed a trip to Minnesota..
We are working with clients who had to fire a San Francisco contractor and are hiring a new one. They were not happy with the first one’s performance and now are looking for guidance on how to select the right one who will finish the job. From our experience, the cost estimate a GC provides is just a small portion of what counts in evaluating one. Also in our experience,.
https://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/106717643/list/ultimate-space-boosting-ideas-for-small-homes
Hart Wright Architects recently had a conversation with colleague, general contractor and estimator Lawrence Motta about general contractor payment methods. Below is the meat of our conversation which we think is important to share. Many times GCs use the term T & M (or “time and materials”) to describe billing for the work with an hourly rate and charging for the materials. Interestingly enough, California has specific requirements about how.
This post is a continuation of “What’s the Scope and What’s the Cost? How to get to the Design” Now the scope of work has been established, the next step is to design the project. Designing is drawing and discovering and working with the owner to figure out what the project will look like. Drawings are assembled into documents that are then used to tell a story- one of how.
As the economy heats up we’ve found ourselves discussing the design process and what to expect with potential clients repeatedly. We decided it would be good to share some of this information with you. We know many of you want to build or do a remodel but, like most of our clients, have little idea how much it will cost, how to budget for it or how the process works..
Instead of showing you our work and explaining our ideas, this entry is about some of the places and things that have inspired us. We presented these images in person at the AIA East Bay office when they hosted a “Pecha Kucha” Slide Show to introduce the Home Tour architects. 1. Modernist architects from Northern California This is an example of architecture that’s 50 years old; it expresses the materials.
These are busy times in the Bay Area. Many architects are hiring and there is energy in the air around design and construction. Working with larger firms may get you the brand name you see value in, but you may not get the service you need. At Hart Wright Architects, we work very closely with our clients. We do not send projects onto staff teams or to junior designers and.
We continue to look for places to visit for design inspiration. Now until April 30th, Art is to be found in the Southern California desert. Recently we took a trip to the Coachella Valley, to see Desert X, an inaugural exhibition of site specific art in locations all over the region from Coachella to Desert Hot Springs to Palm Springs. The work draws attention to the desert environment, open spaces,.
In this post, we respond to the article about San Francisco Planning in the San Francisco Chronicle by John King Tuesday April 4: Architect calls San Francisco planners “obstructive.” Spoiler alert: they’re ticked Hart Wright architects does not bemoan the individual planner doing his or her job. We do agree the process is obstructive to most residents and their architects. For John Rahaim of the San Francisco Planning Department to.
Hart Wright Architects recently completed a commercial facade remodel project in the Presidio Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. The building sits on the corner of Sacramento Street and Presidio Avenue, formerly it housed a bank and was in need of a serious upgrade. Now it has a new retailer and the improved facade is an asset to this upscale neighborhood. The previous tenant was a bank and the existing design.
Another year is coming to a close. In this post, we share some favorite buildings we were lucky enough to see in 2016. We always make an effort to see buildings wherever we go. Some brief highlights: we got to go on a very special tour of the Sheats Goldstein residence in Los Angeles, designed by one of our favorite architects of all time, John Lautner. Here in our home.
Hart Wright Architects on Houzz
Construction Administration is one of the services we offer. As we are contracted to be agent of the owner, we use our intimate knowledge of the project, our vision, and our trained eyes to help the contractor solve inevitable problems that arise during construction. A very thorough set of drawings identifies main issues and communicates the intent of the design, but no single set of plans can ever cover everything.
We are often asked by our clients to bid the project to multiple contractors. The argument for this is that they will be able to compare the price offered by the different contractors and go with the lowest price. This is more complicated than it seems because you are not necessarily getting the lowest price when you sign up with the lowest bidder as we will explain below. Multiple bidding.
The Houzz community has saved our photos to their ideabooks 50,000 or more times! Houzz has been an amazing way to get exposure over the years and we’ve loved having the community there to share ideas and images. We appreciate the awards they have given us for design and service, as well as and the constant inspiration for our clients which pushes our design skills into new creative areas we may.
One of the questions we get often when we begin working with clients is how much will the project cost. There are several ways to determine this, and like the design process, there are many elements involved; the earlier it is in the process, the more schematic the pricing will be. A dollar amount per square foot is one way to help establish a budget. For example, residential costs per.
Reclaiming Undeveloped Land Hart Wright Architects recently completed work on a project for the College Hill Reservoir site, a PUC owned, previously empty piece of land, that has now been transformed into an outdoor classroom and environmental systems demonstration garden. It is for the benefit of the neighboring schools and community. The PUC, working with the San Francisco Unified School District and Green Schoolyard Alliance, came up with the idea.
Hart Wright Architects working with a team recently designed the College Hill Learning Garden in Bernal Heights. The client is the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, SFPUC. The goals of the project are to educate about the earth systems and to encourage sustainable design for thriving life. This project aims to demonstrate the who, where, what, why, how, wherefore and joy of sustainable infrastructure and sustainable best practices to K-5.
Our project is listed for sale and got a great write up in SF Curbed. You can see the link to Curbed here!, and also please take a look at the official listing here.
Eliza Hart of Hart Wright Architects is featured in a new video on Houzz.com. You can see the video here.
Back in the late 1980s, our clients bought a former workman’s cottage on a flat lot where they lived and raised a family. They enjoyed seeing Mt. Tam from the backyard and could walk to the trails and downtown shops. They discovered over the course of years that the house had an undersized foundation and a too high water table that caused the foundation to deteriorate to the point of.
We recently completed a renovation of a traditional 1950s house on the Peninsula. It had been added onto in pieces, and had a broken up layout from different families trying to make it their own over the years. This floor plan had all the typical spaces but their arrangement made for awkward living. The “L” shaped kitchen was cramped, the dining room was land locked an the living room was.
As part of a larger plan to redesign San Francisco’s main street, the Market Street Prototyping Festival put on by the San Francisco Department of City Planning partnered with Yerba Buena Center for the Arts San Francisco Planning’s Prototyping link .
Hart Wright Architects
340 Potrero Ave
San Francisco, CA 94103
tel: (415) 503-7071