Construction and Restoration
I have extensive construction and restoration experience. This background has been invaluable in helping me to design architecture that is buildable and partner smoothly with contractors.
Substructure and Hydrology
Prior to my Masters in Architecture degree, I worked with my father to restore homes that we owned as investments. During my degree and afterwards I worked for a construction firm in Berkeley that focused on structural repairs to homes. This included jacking up houses in order to then level them and rebuild foundations. We also replacing termite damage substructures and stabilized homes, mainly through better hydrology, on the slopes of the Berkeley and Oakland hills. I spent several years with the firm and worked my way up to Foreman.
Rescuing Victorians
Following my work in Berkeley, I was a foreman for a restoration company, San Francisco Local Color, that focuses on the painting and restoration of Victorians.
I was the foreman for the exterior restoration of the building on the right (710 Steiner Street) and Assistant Foreman for the exterior restoration of the building on the right (722 Steiner Street).
Maybe the hardest part of the 722 Steiner Street job was not annoying neighbor and author Alice Walker. We had specific instructions to “keep the noise down”.
National Award
The restoration company won “Best Residential Restoration” for 1994 in America” from the Painting and Decorating Contractors Association for our restoration of this Venetian Style residence at 4354 24th Street in Noe Valley.
As the foreman for the job, I very proud of the team and this project. The project included hand repairing the garlands - which were made of a mix of horse hair and plaster - as well as dry rot remediation with penetrating and sculptural epoxies, gold leafing, and extensive stripping with torches.
Victorian Restoration
After working for Local Color, I worked on San Francisco’s Victorians on my own. My focus was restoration and trim carpentry - interior and exterior.
Here are some before and afters of my work.
Full Restoration
The work was very rewarding. In this project for both the stairs and balustrade, I designed from scratch the details, sourced the materials, and then built and painted the final work.
Doing the Work
Contributing to the beauty of San Francisco and working daily under marine sunlight in the crisp ocean air made for a fantastic time in my architecture career. I chose to do this while my peers were starting their careers by working in architecture offices.
For a time though, I thought I had made a mistake by going into the trades after working so hard to get my Masters in Architecture. I became frustrated in the years following that I had delayed by a decade getting on with architecture and working towards my license. I was crawling under houses or hanging off of Victorians while my peers were cranking up their studios or working with large architecture firms.
But now that some time has passed since then, I realize I lucked out by giving myself the opportunity to really go deep into the physical reality of buildings and to work with my hands.
It has had a huge impact on how I work as an architect that I can’t begin to explain.