Showing posts with label design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label design. Show all posts

City Walk: Presidio Wall

6.17.2009 Comments: (2)
Since now there are enough daytime hours on the weekends for Dan and I to sleep in, make breakfast, BART into the city and do a walk without rushing, we've decided to take up the urban hiking again. This walk started at 379 feet above sea level and took us around some enormous homes, the Palace of Fine Arts, the Marina area, and skirted alongside the edge of the Presidio. We also wandered through the Letterman Digital Arts Center, which is the home of Lucas Arts. Yes, that George Lucas. Stairs looking down - the Lyon stairway. And looking back up. The hearts are all over SF, each painted by different artists. Kind of like the donkeys/elephants and pandas in DC. These aren't an exhibit anymore, the ones we run into have been purchased and permanently placed where we find them. Welcome to working where George Lucas has enough money to get you an office with a sweet view (Golden Gate Bridge in the background) and great landscaping. So the Letterman Digital Arts Center was named for the Letterman Army Hospital that used to live on the site where Lucas Arts is now housed. It took 5 years to build, has a gold LEED certification, houses 1300 employees and a Starbucks. And this beautiful fountain. Why yes, that is Yoda on top there. Close-up. I maintain that he looks amazingly realistic - like he could talk to you any second. All the ponds and creeks that you saw in the above picture are manmade. Evidence below. Out on a jetty into the Marina is the Wave Organ. It is a scuplture (of marble and granite, recycled of course) with pipes extending down into the bay. The tubes that are above the surface project the acoustics of the water movements, hitting the pipes below. It's pretty awesome. View of SF from the Wave organ Later on in the walk in Pacific Heights - Imposing entrance to a home Someone's fish tank - outside their house. The faucet that fills the tank, also waters the plants above the tank, which grow on the wall. It was a pretty sweet setup. We tried 6 times to take a picture of ourselves with the bridge behind us, and finally jsut gave up and went with the "pseudo-artsy-but-really-just-can't-take-a-good-picture" style.

Hoping to do another this weekend. Stay tuned.

The woods

8.17.2007 Comments: (1)
I'm really excited today about buying a vase!!! 1) now we have a large vase to hold the flowers I bought Kristin, but more imporantly 2) it's a really unique piece of woodwork. Besides, if you drool over a piece for a year, it means you really want it, right? If you didn't aleady know, I really enjoy working with wood. I spent months building a maple pool cue which I posted a picture of last month. This vase is a thin single piece of maple on one side and mahagony on the inside, curled and twisted into the form. It's by designer Colin Schleeh in Montreal; he's got a lot of very unique items for the home and office. http://www.schleehdesign.com/




















Also, made of wood are trees! I went on a hike a couple days ago straight up the Berkeley hills. There are roughly 150 hiking paths weaving up and down the hills and valleys behind us. I started at a path just a few blocks from our place. According to Google Earth, we live 300ft above sea level, and within a mile I was up to 1200ft. I'm no mountain climber like Kristin's dad, but it was steep! Apparently, I one should randomly make loud noises as you hike and keep keep checking behind yourself because of the occasional mountain lion. But I figured the view across Berkeley to San Francisco was worth sharing!















Kristin and her staff are hard at work preparing for opening on Saturday. They stay up late working while I get to be the guy that randomly brings in masses of food for 30 people. Starting tomorrow, the mass of students move in. They have an entire week without classes to be obnoxious and torment Kristin and her staff.

Life of Dan

7.26.2007 Comments: (3)
I realized that Kristin has dominated our blog thus far, so it was time for me to contribute. By dominate, I mean she posted twice. For those of you who don't know, I've come to enjoy the lifestyle of a "kept man." While I doubt reading and enjoying the 80 degree weather will ever get boring, I have begun the hunt to join a consultant group. So if you're not interested in the happenings of creativity, innovation, and design... umm, too bad, you have to keep reading.

The design movement here began in Palo Alto, where Xerox created multi-disciplinary teams back in the 70s to invent cool stuff. Yup, that's the direction I'm looking for: Go discover cool stuff! If you want facts, it's where the laser printer was invented, the ethernet, graphical user interface, and object-oriented programming. Now that Ben, Brian, maybe Franklin, and maybe my brother are the only people left listening....
The companies I'm looking at are all rather elite - but help develop business strategies with respect to innovation, design, and products. They generally don't hire for specific job openings, but rather hire people who have a broad range of expertise. AND, I have an interview with one next week! Jump - http://www.jumpassociates.com/ I'll post some pictures from my portfolio to keep things exciting.
My pool cue designed and built with lots of TLC.
















Our salt & pepper shakers that I made for Kristin.

















A taste of my photography...