In Situ represents a unique and rich intersection of art, design, and food, each augmenting the other to reimagine museum dining, and our relationships with food. In support of Chef Corey Lee’s vision and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s (SFMOMA) greater mission, the design emphasizes visibility from the street, open accessibility to visitors and a sense of the ephemeral within a simple, comfortable environment.
Coffeebar is a contemporary space in the heart of Silicon Valley’s venture capital center, Menlo Park, California. The design teams collaborated with Coffeebar founder Greg Buchheister to reimagine a building that was once a nail salon and an Asian food market into a curated, modern café that would draw in commuters and residents alike. The exterior was transformed from a simple commodity building to a bespoke retail destination. A simple material palette of steel, cypress, and glass creates a contemporary ambiance while offering durability in a heavy traffic environment. Elliptically-shaped, exterior wooden louvers float in front of the oversized glass windows and doors to provide sun protection and soft natural light into the interior. The steel trim and blackened standing-seam metal panels convey a sophisticated, industrial quality that complements the interiors.
Guests coming up the front steps of this hilltop home are met with a Carrera marble sculpture by Richard Erdman, titled Serenade, selected by our clients, whose devotion to the process made this an especially joyful collaboration. Also part of the team were Robert Wright and Jason York of McCormick and Wright, who did the interior design and were a distinct pleasure to work with. There are a lot of details and non-standard finishes in this house – personal taste, not trendy taste.
It is always our ambition for our clients to experience an emotional and sensory reaction upon entering a house of our design. “Ahh” and “Wow,” mean we’ve succeeded. Usually this initial response comes passing through the entry, or looking out to the horizon from inside the central living area. But for this project, located in the Outpost Estates area of the Hollywood Hills, the thrill begins while still in your car. “The property is situated at the end of a cul-de-sac, and we pushed the site out as far as possible on the slope, so the house is well below street level,” Marc Whipple explains. “This allowed us to do an upside down house; the approach is a curvy elevated driveway that’s pretty steep, as you go down the views just get better and better, the gates open and you are onto the roof of the house completely surrounded by south-facing “jetliner” views. So, the whole experience for the homeowner or a guest, just getting to the house, is very dramatic.”
Sited in the foothills of the Mayacamas Mountains in Sonoma California, this single-family residence floats over the hillside with commanding views of Sonoma Valley.
The intent was to design an extremely restrained home both in scale and cost, that intimately embraces the terrain both near and far. The homeowners requested a home that effortlessly links the indoor experience to the surrounding landscape. The tripartite diagram is quite simple: two masses, clad in standing seam black zinc, rise up out of the earth and support a third floating glass pavilion that performs as a bridge connecting the two solid volumes. The first two masses, housing the guest bedrooms, a kitchen, and the entry are positioned on the crest of the hillside, while the master suite, library, living room, and dining rooms embrace the panoramic valley views to the West. A circulation spine running through the center of the home connects all three wings, creating a highly efficient plan.
For the San Francisco offices of Publicis Groupe, Blitz employed its new workplace design approach to create a space that promotes a culture of connection, inclusivity, and agility. The offices were designed with the aim to colocate and consolidate the firm’s 11 national and international brands in San Francisco, which employ 550 people previously spread across 120,000 square feet in multiple locations. The result is a dynamic and energetic workspace that reflects the Groupe’s mantra, the Power of One, which served as the key driver for the decision to move all brand agencies under one roof.
Expanding upon the principles of activity‐based workplace design, Blitz provided agile spaces for teams and individuals, while acknowledging the needs of a new mobile workforce. Diverse workstations empower team members to be more effective and engaged than at a traditional assigned desk. Flexible spaces, both open and enclosed, seamlessly integrate access to data, AV, and video conferencing to support a variety of activities throughout the day and encourage crosspollination among brands.
Located in the heart of Napa Valley, Cakebread is one of Napa’s oldest family-run wineries. The new 10,000 SF addition blends seamlessly with the existing 43,000 SF main building by ensuring a continuity of form and materials. The architectural style relies on a restrained use of natural materials and textures that harmonize with the surrounding vines and cherished vegetable garden.
Bambu Shoppe is and dessert and drink restaurant located along historic El Camino Real, which dates to California’s Spanish colonial past. It is a counter-service cafe for Chè, a Vietnamese word for home-made beverages, dessert drinks, and puddings. Bambu Shoppe Chè is made to order using daily prepared, fresh, colorful, and nutritious ingredients.
The space was originally built in the early 1900s, features 14-foot high ceilings, a glass facade with bar seating, and concrete floors. The interior architecture is clean, minimalist, and inviting. The architects inserted into the light-filled dining space, a warm wood slat wall that curves to the ceiling. The space is calm and serene. Its restrained color palette is a foil to the naturally colorful food ingredients.
Three residences sit on three small and narrow up-hill lots in the Hollywood Hills. M u t u o ’s design for this project aims to maximize indoor residential areas as well as outdoor living areas. It also seeks to craft intricate details through the interplay of different construction methods and materials.
Situated on a sloping site in the Santa Lucia Preserve, an ecological preserve in Carmel Valley, this house is both responsive and respectful towards its environment in a community that emphasizes living in harmony with nature.
The eastern side of the house burrows into the hillside while the west cantilevers dramatically over the falling topography below. Monolithic walls of board-formed concrete and integrally colored plaster anchor the home to the site, while glass and natural materials such as cedar siding, walnut flooring and ipe decks provide a sense of lightness, serenity, and connectivity to the landscape.
The unique shape of the roof is derived from both performance and context. From the exterior, the roof appears to be a simple shed roof. From the interior, however, the bottom of the roof is sculpted in response to the sun and to the quality and scale of interior spaces.
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