Essays
Faith and Design
I launched this blog about a year ago because I was turning 50 and wanted to share what I was interested in. My father had his first heart attack at
Designer and Teacher Closes His Store on Union Street
My friend and frequent collaborator David Wakely told me that after 45 years, interior designer John Wheatman has retired and closed his shop at 1933 Union Street. I first saw
Faith Inside Out? Random Thoughts on the 40th Anniversary of the Manson Murders
This isn’t a blog about design. The structures I’m mentioning weren’t architecturally significant, and most of them no longer exist. It’s a rumination about faith turned inside out. Forty years
CAMP Notes
More and more articles keep appearing about the new design for the Contemporary Art Museum at the Presidio (CAMP) in San Francisco, intended to house Gap founder Donald Fisher’s art
Too Little To Save?
The Strange Journey of Jacqueline Johnson’s Neutra Cottage in Los Altos You can’t go home again. Sawing up and moving a historic house for eventual public use without taxpayer support
A Couple of Celebrations and Laments
I have been out of touch since the first two entries – in January I will be writing a bit more to make up! One thing about staying in the
Reflections on Visiting a Hillside of Crosses
All kinds of people from church-goers to gangsta-rappers wear crosses. It’s a powerful and almost universal aesthetic device that pre-dates Christianity by many thousands of years; what began as a
Mid-Century Musings
Today I turn fifty, an auspicious day to launch out on a new adventure, albeit one I can start at my dining room table in my terry-cloth robe. The half-century