David Baker + Partners worked with Community Housing Partnership and Mercy Housing California to develop the Drs. Julian & Raye Richardson Apartments, which will provide permanent supportive housing for a very-low-income, formerly homeless population.

The building is named in honor of Drs. Julian and Raye Richardson, local activists and founders of Marcus Books, the oldest black bookstore in the country, founded in 1960.

Richardson Apartments includes 120 permanent, supportive residential studio units for adult residents coming out of or at risk for homelessness. Each unit is approximately 300sf and is provided with basic furnishings, a full kitchenette, an accessible or adaptable bathroom, and a secure telephone line to the front desk.

The residents' entrance on Fulton Street features a spacious, secure lobby with a custom reception station. Beyond the lobby, the south-facing courtyard frames an expansive existing mural—a paint-and-glass mosaic of dancers adorning the side of the adjacent Performing Arts garage. Connected by an open-air stair, four levels of fully equipped studio apartments sit atop neighborhood-serving retail and surround the private landscaped courtyard.

Other supportive uses include an on-site medical and counseling center, a residents’ lounge, and a prominent flexible-use community room.

The rooftop deck includes a living roof, allotment garden plots, solar arrays, and City Hall views. The corner retail space is slated for BakeWorks, a bakery featuring a work-training program for residents, and other ground-level retail spaces maintain an active street edge and connect the building to the busy Hayes Street retail corridor.

Construction began in February 2010, with substantial completion in August 2011, and the building opened its doors to tenants in September 2011.

+ Project facts

Richardson Apartments
465 Fulton Street, San Francisco, USA

Architect: David Baker + Partners www.dbarchitect.com | www.dbarchitect.com/RichardsonApartments
Clients: Community Housing Partnership, Mercy Housing California
Affiliated Government Agency: San Francisco Redevelopment Agency

Project square footage: 65,419 sq ft
Number of units: 120
Target market: Extremely low-income homeless adults
Site area: 18,906 sq ft/0.47 acres
Construction cost: $26.8 million
Completed: September 2011
Green Certification: GreenPoint Rated February 2012 (139 points)

General Contractor: Cahill Contractors
Landscape Architect: Andrea Cochran Landscape Architects
Clinic/Health Services: UCSF's Citywide Case Management Program in partnership with the San Francisco Department of Public Health.
Custom Casework: Pacassa Studios
Custom Furnishings: OHIO Design
Courtyard Furnishings: Green Waste Recycle Yard/Custom Metal Manufacturing (benches); Concreteworks (tables)
Public Art: Evelyn Reyes, Creativity Explored
Mural (existing on adjacent garage): Dancing in the Curve of the World by Josef Norris
Photographer credit: Bruce Damonte

Project Team: David Baker FAIA LEED AP (design principal); Peter MacKenzie AIA (principal-in-charge); Amit C. Price Patel AIA LEED AP (project architect); Brit Epperson LEED AP Homes; Amanda Loper AIA LEED AP; Sara Mae Martens LEED AP; Angela Thomason; John Thompson, AIA

+ All images courtesy David Baker + Partners | Photo by Bruce Damonte

This project is preparing with ARUMJIGI Culture Keepers Foundation for discovering practicality in tradition.

Beauty in Everyday Living Furniture : Discovering Practicality in Tradition

In the process of discovering the identity of Korean furniture while working on this project, I found it very interesting that the archetype of tradition ironically has elements of contemporary design in many respects.

Simple Joseon furniture looks very modern. Traditional Korean architecture shows simple and understated beauty without being artificial.

With this in mind, I intended to create furniture that reflects the natural beauty found in tradition and yet should aesthetically suit the modern lifestyle (Natural X Modern).

I tried to forge a connection between mass production that is typical of home furniture (Handmade X Mass Production). This was the starting point as well as the finishing point in design for this project.

In order to embrace these opposing elements upon their encounter with each other. I completely excluded new materials, trendy colors, or futuristic elements,

and instead concentrated on the most Korean wood, that is, ‘ash’ and the ‘proportion and formative beauty’ that Koreans consider most comfortable and appropriate.

Also, in order to give the user a sense of the furniture being handmade, I decorated the upper part of the armrests of the sofa and the side of daybed with an incised linear pattern in a natural way.

The naturalness created by repeating irregular lines makes the furniture look outstanding from a functional respect not to mention decorative.

Design: dialoguemethod | http://www.dialoguemethod.com

I. 3 seated sofa
Size; 2300*860*580(H) / Material; Ash, fabric

II. Stool
Size; 680*680*340(H) / Material; Ash, fabric

III. Day bed
Sizel 2000*900*340(H) / Material; Ash, fabric

+ All image courtesy Lee, Jong Keun

When Silicon Valley auto dealer Adam Simms chose a site on busy El Camino Real for his Fisker Automotive and McLaren Automotive dealerships, the new buildings had to stand out in the same way that the manufacturers' cool, cleanly tailored vehicles stand out from the competition. Valerio Dewalt Train Associates designed two showrooms, each designed to reflect the unique brand and style of the automobiles within.

The 2,500-square-foot showroom for Fisker, a California-based manufacturer of premium plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, occupies a rectangular volume with a polished concrete floor, exposed steel beams, and a cantilevered roof. Sliding panels allow the showroom to open up to the outdoors, connecting interior and exterior vehicle display spaces under one large canopy. The use of raw materials and an art gallery aesthetic contrasts with the refined design of the Fisker cars.

To reflect the environmental responsibility of the automobiles for sale, the design for Fisker minimizes the amount of material resources required: the beams and roof deck are perforated, while the exterior walls and soffit consist of thin transparent polycarbonate layers reinforced by a honeycomb pattern. The roof overhang protects the glass from the sun, reducing cooling costs, and a total of four car charging stations are available to the public. Eighty percent of construction materials can be recycled. Solar panels power the Fisker sign outside, while a sustainably harvested wood panel connects the two showrooms.

For McLaren, a British manufacturer of high-performance sports cars, the showroom is designed around the pedigree of McLaren Racing, featuring new cars at the leading edge of innovation. An existing 4,000-square-foot showroom was fully remodeled and accentuated by a new circular glass enclosure. The interior has a museum-like minimal aesthetic with white finishes, gray porcelain floor tiles, and a circular white floor. A lounge with leather sofas and a kitchenette contains multimedia displays and allows customers to watch videos of McLaren race cars in action.

The complex is designed to achieve a level of sustainability equivalent to LEED Silver, which is required by the City of Palo Alto.

+ Project facts

Green Showroom for Fisker-McLaren Dealership
Palo Alto, California

Architect: Valerio Dewalt Train Associates
Project Team: Joe Valerio, Erik Rogers
Location: 4190 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA 94306
Client: Adam Simms
Date of occupancy: November 2011

Gross square footage: Total Project Square Feet (all 4 buildings =13,400 sf)

Square feet for each building:

Fisker:
Total Building: 2,590 sf
Office: 900 sf

Display (Showroom): 1,690 sf
McLaren:
Total Building: 3,560 sf
Office: 1,060 sq ft
Display (Showroom): 2,500 sf

The service and shop buildings will be shared by both Fisker and McLaren:

Vehicle Detail Building: 3,250 sf
Vehicle Repair Building: 4,000 sf

Consultants:

Civil Engineer – BKF
Structural Engineer – Louie International
Mechanical and Plumbing Engineer- Kinetics Mechanical Services, Inc.
Project Manager – Ralph Dorotinsky
Electrical Engineer- Red Top Electric
Project Engineer – Jason Melo
Landscape Architect – W. Jeffrey Heid

Construction cost: $3.9m
Key materials (type/brand): FSC certified wood, Aluminum, Polycarbonate, exposed steel frame.
Contractor: Plant Construction Company, L.P.
Software used: Revit, Microstation
Awards/certifications: City of Palo Alto equivalent to LEED Silver
Photographer credit: David Wakely

+ All images courtesy Valerio Dewalt Train Associates | Photo by David Wakely