News

Schiffman House – Pescadero, CA (Sonoma county)

PROJECT OVERVIEW:

The clients contacted me through my web site.They had a weekend house in The Sea Ranch; I had a couple of Sea Ranch projects on my web site. Their Sea Ranch house was their weekend retreat. They lived in San Mateo County. They had purchased this property on the San Mateo coast.

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Brown House Addition, Plantation, Ca.

PROJECT OVERVIEW:

This is the location of an historic hotel, late 1800’s. It is located 4 or 5 miles inland from Coast Hwy 1. There is a winding gravel road from the coast through Kruse Rhododendron State Park. The existing house had been pieced together from an old building plus a more recent addition.

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Eichler House/ Courtyard House

Thinking about Courtyard Type Houses it occurred to me that Eichler Houses have courtyard like features. Eichler homes can’t really be considered a courtyard homes, but they do have “sort-of” courtyards. I really like the Eichler designed subdivision houses; they are so different from the typical subdivision houses. The clean lines, mostly flat roof, and […]

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Universal Design

Universal Design is a concept that has been around for a while. It is used more in terms of industrial design than applied to architecture, but it is just as valid to apply it to the design of buildings. Like the ipad and the ipod the idea is to design something that is user friendly […]

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Carbon Neutral/ Net Zero (part 2)

All four speakers at the Carbon Neutral/ Net Zero Talk were presenting what, seemed to be, a “new” direction for architects, engineers, and builders to be aware of in dealing with and trying to meet the challenge of a low ,or no carbon future. This is an exciting direction from my point of view, but it’s not […]

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Net Zero – Carbon Neutral

This week I attended a talk mostly for architects, hosted by the City of Santa Rosa, Ca. The topic was Net Zero , Carbon Neutral Buildings. These terms are mostly synonymous. The public generally hears the term “Green Buildings”. This term is somewhat vague; it’s generally thought to mean design and construction practices that are not […]

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Glass E-Coating Considerations for Northern California’s Coastal Homes

Since cooling is not a major livability issue in most coastal or ocean-influence Northern California areas, predictably we use more energy during the winter heating cycle than for our summer cooling period. Lowering winter heating demands by allowing winter sun access to our homes’ interiors reduces the need to burn fossil fuels, thereby reducing carbon […]

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Sonoma County Architect Douglas Murray attended 2011 Pacific Coast Builders Conference

The 2011 Pacific Coast Builders Conference took place Wed-Fri, June 22-24, 2011 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. (Not open to the public.) Under the heading: Outdoor Living PCBC writes (echoing Murray’s Open Air Architecture philosophy): “Since the downturn in the economy, people are now entertaining at home and where people were once putting […]

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Current House Remodel Project, The Sea Ranch California

This is an addition / remodel to one of the early build Sea Ranch Houses. The client viewed a previous house I had designed and wanted to open up his house to the outdoors in a similar way. This client is very much into sustainability and drives an electric car. Photovoltaic panels will be installed […]

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Blagsvedt House – Sebastopol, CA (Sonoma county)

PROJECT OVERVIEW:

Our clients had lived in a little house on this hill side property for 13 years. The house had been water damaged, causing mold problems in the lower level. The couple had done a lot of work developing the property, planting trees, terracing a level area, and adding a landscaped swimming pond.

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