Thoughts on House Design (and Anything Creative)

Spring is Nigh – a Warning
I learned something on my ride tonight. You know when the snow melts on a well-used trail? Yep. The dog poop on top of the snow melts, too. You might think that brown stuff on me and my bike is

It Gets Better Than This (But Not Much)
Floating on early morning powder, cutting the first tracks through the trees, my lungs scream for more of that damn, thin air. I stop to suck in a few cubic yards. Motionless, except for my pounding heart (which is attempting to break through my

It’s like showering inside a soda can – but less sticky
This modern bathroom is comprised of a cylindrical shower set within a planter, within a bathroom, within a closet (within a bedroom, within a house – it just keeps going!). The two sides of the his/hers bathroom share the cylindrical,

A little bit of Austria, as seen by my pencil
Austria: a more picturesque setting is tough to find, yet easy to sketch. It almost sketches itself. Just give it a pencil. And some paper. And guide its hand a bit. And voila! Adding color to the sketch, on the

Modern Hawaii Glass Home Preview
Context is everything when it comes to designing a home. While a Victorian style home fits beautifully in San Francisco, a rustic log style home in the mountains of Montana, or an adobe style home in Arizona, none of them

A Kitchen Fit for a Villain
Stainless steel? Check. Birdseye maple? Check. Curvy concrete? Check. The only thing missing from this kitchen is Goldfinger chuckling, “No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!” Conceptual images: During construction:

A Modern California Kitchen Schooled in the Three R’s – Rough, Rustic & Romantic
Character comes in many forms and from surprising sources. Industrial materials like concrete, raw steel and heavy timber provide rough, rustic and romantic charm in this California kitchen.

I Like it When the Tonka Toys Roll in.
Before you know it, this will be a modern, new house in Calabasas, California. It’s a big job for these *little* machines: remove ten feet of poor soils from the entire building site to prevent the new house from sliding

An Architect’s Guide to 50 Cool Pens 2019
Let’s face it, you hold a pen more often than you hold your spouse. For those of you still using cheap, disposable pens, I ask you, would you prefer a cheap, disposable spouse, too? …Sorry, I can’t see with all

Yup, I’m a Farmer!
Farmer Tim and the lil’ missus sitting on the ruins of ye ol’ farmhouse (there’s a rocking chair under there, somewhere!) Sitting at the breakfast table one morning, I pointed an emaciated finger at the bowl of gruel in front

Rugged Luxury – Mountain Timber House at the Yellowstone Club, Montana
What was the driving factor in the design of this mountain home? Context. I designed this modern, rustic mountain home at the Yellowstone Club in Montana with an aesthetic of rugged luxury specifically to integrate with the other mountain homes

The Tawdry, Musical Odyssey of a Flute Tramp
This is the story of one man’s search for the perfect flute and the secret he discovered: Having been a guitar player all my life (but without the sex and drugs part. Damn it), I was pushing 40 years on