In this piece, we describe a project for a client who wanted a new house to age in place.

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,.

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..

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.

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.

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 .

The Victorian houses in San Francisco are typified by wonderful gracious tall ceilings but cozy small individual rooms with a lot of circulation. Lots are only 25 feet wide and a comfortable sized room could easily take up that width, but in Victorian times, the rooms were connected by hallways which made the living spaces even narrower. In addition, kitchens were service areas and they were intentionally separated out from.

1: Interview When you interview your architect you should like them and feel comfortable with them. Since you will be working with them, a lot can be said for how well they communicate and if working together will be a good fit. The architect should have a portfolio of past projects. It is very important to like their work. They will explain their process and you will get a feel.

Just this past weekend, the San Francisco Chronicle featured San Francisco 1950s box houses in the article “Little Boxes, A Different Kind of Painted Ladies.” See the link here. They praised their lack of appreciation and ubiquitousness. When we saw this, we were thrilled! Finally, these great houses are being noticed. What the article did not mention is the rectangular form, in its simplicity as exemplified in the box house,.

Here is a rendered preview of a remodeled house we are working on in the peninsula. Seeing the before and after photos, it is a typical 1950s tract home. Stay tuned with more to come.

And these are the before pictures:

We are always advocates of getting a contractor signed up early in the process and to provide pre-construction services. (see post “An Argument for Negotiated Bidding”) This method allows for cost control and builds a real team. We strongly believe in the team approach: architects and contractors work together with the owners to complete a project efficiently, on schedule and on budget. It is without adversarial issues that come up,.

Once again, Hart Wright Architects is pleased to announce they are featured on Houzz.com! To read the article, please click the title above.

Please click

In our never-ending struggle to explain construction costs to clients, we sometimes resort to the shell cost vs. finish cost estimating method. What is the difference between shell and finish? Finish cost is what most people think of when discussing construction cost. In other words, its the cost of the entire project including all materials from foundation to roof and all exterior and interior finish materials. Finishes are cabinetry, flooring,.

Photos of the project that is featured in this month’s California Home and Design Magazine can now be seen on our portfolio pages!

We are proud to announce Hart Wright Architects is featured in the current issue of California Home and Design. Its the Fall 2013 issue. Our Cole Valley remodel project is featured in this issue. Check back again soon for a blog article about this very fun and exciting project!

What exactly is Mid-Century Modern? It generally describes a period of style immediately following World War Two that influenced American product design and architecture for a generation. This period had its origins in the 1930s and spanned well into the 1960s. Think of the work of Charles and Ray Eames for furniture design as a good example of the style. Their pieces are utilitarian, functional and were created from readily.

Here is a recently completed remodel of a house on the Peninsula. Back to back fireplaces created a block between spaces.  The living room was so disconnected from the rest of the house that it was hardly used. We removed one fireplace and created flow between the dining room and living room. The kitchen was completely remodeled. To save cost, the configuration was only slightly altered but there is more.