Architectural Gem Series 1

Architectural Gem Series 1

Santa Monica Self-Styled Eclectic

 

Siting Santa Monica: Ocean to Beach

Siting Santa Monica: Ocean to Beach

There is a magical walkway between Street and Santa Monica Beach.

On Ocean…beguiling architecture can be seen…

complete with detail of tile, brick and terracotta.

To the side..wooden shutters and pattern upon pattern,

giving new meaning to “white picket fence”.

As one moves down the walkway from Ocean to beach….one sees more layers, of pattern and material, plants and metal. Santa Monica knows from gates…weathered, imposing, architectural, artsy.

At the bottom of the walkway, is another magnificent building that manages to combine quaintness and stateliness.

More texture.  This side faces the beach.

Heading back up the walkway, towards Ocean Street again, one passes more brick, banked with foliage and flowers.

Palms, succulents, flowering plants and a mix of materials soften the concrete.

The walkway weaves its magic…feeling for all the world like a picturesque country lane…

Albeit one with some interesting signs, which betray its origins in the world’s entertainment capitol.

More gates, and a visual archway created.

These could be the gates to an Tuscan Villa, if one didn’t see the Pacific Ocean to the right, directly West.

True to ever artful Santa Monica, brick pattern and mosaic design add just enough visual interest to a garden wall to arrest and entice.

It is no accident that the mosaic design leads our eye to the gate, and what lays behind it.

I turn, to take in the Western view…from where I walked,than back Eastward, to Ocean, where I am walking to.

For now.

Contemplating Color – Three Year Round Up

Contemplating Color – Three Year Round Up

In the spirit of the process of the necessity of the…well…updating, overhauling, revamping, refurbishing, and just re-ing the online presence of the ArtiFactory Studio, and Artissima ventures…and, about to add/subtract/move around work from my site, I thought I would share some of the color design work completed since my last site update…er, 2010…and spend a few happy moments contemplating color, and its magic.

This Berkeley bungalow went from nondescript drab to warm and inviting, all due to a color shift. The owners were really ready for this, but finding the right colors which worked on the structure, integrated into the neighborhood, and didn’t get washed out by the strong sunlight, took awhile to find.

The welcoming red door reflects the red in the plant, contrasting just enough from house body color to  become an accent. To me, this combo looks “good enough to eat”, and fits with the intimate and accessible bungalow style.

The new colors, a chocolatey brown framed in cream, completely transformed the garage and made it clean, attractive and integrated. Color can do that.

This modern condo building  graces the urban landscape in San Francisco’s Twin Peaks neighborhood. It’s quasi-industrial style called for a streamlined color scheme that made the most of its details: a wall of windows, large garage door, metal house numbers, and a  bright wood front entry door. Though urban, green trees flank the building.

The green-gray body color is set off by a darker green-gray hue on the garage door and trim, which grounds the building. The many window sashes are called out by a deep burgundy red, relating to the bright entry. The palette emerges industrial yet elegant.

The story of this quaint cottage-like house extends back through two paint jobs! The owners were not happy with colors original to the home when they purchased it, nor with a new palette designed by another consultant. They decided to keep the strong purple and green trim and accent colors, but tone them down with a deeper body hue which would tie to them, and thus minimize their visual impact. Red plantings in the window boxes add a splash of accent color that animates the scheme.

The lower part of the house is painted in a stronger (more heavily tinted) concentration of the body color,  making it appear darker and more solid. This feeling of solidity makes the viewer feel reassured that this foundation can support the upper part of the house. The quiet field color makes an effective foil for the accent colors, plantings, foliage, and beautiful trees which grace the property.

San Francisco is famous for its Victorian-style homes, and their multitude of decorative architectural details, can make designing a color palette both challenging and fun, to say nothing of gratifying.  The owners of this Victorian wanted an integrated scheme that highlighted its details and design, but in more subtle and retrained manner then some of the nearby “Painted Ladies“!

Thus we chose paint “specs” (specifications, IE, the paint colors) within one color spectrum, including the pale trim, which, with its greenish undertone, related to the rest of the colors. The front and service doors, window sashes, undersides of the overhangs, and architectural details were painted in a total of seven colors.

The front door, service door (shown above) and garage doors were each painted in a different, yet related hue. The colors range from the creamy trim, to the deep bronze-hued front door, and ornaments painted in metallic bronze. A great deal of effort, but worth it!

This apartment building , called  ARIA, is in Canoga Park, in the San Fernando Valley Area of Los Angeles. The color scheme ideas, in coordination with the builders, operations manager and director of capitol improvements involved, ranged from brick and black colors, to earthy browns, ochers, greens and roses. Quite a process. Out of all this emerged an inviting palette which accentuated the clean lines of the building, and played a bit with its details, doors and balconies.

The service door is painted in a more intense version of the balcony color.

The inner courtyard serves a a central “boulevard” for the residents.

The bright doors, and brown accents identify important areas, and assist in path finding.

The devil is in the details!  Residents personalize their spaces.  Some like skulls, apparently.

The play of light on the painted surface affects the way we see the colors. Warm light will make the color appear to be just that.

The building on the other end of the block, SONATA, is a different style, but  color design of the two buildings, including their interior courtyards, was done as one integrated job.

Using the same color on the exterior balconies on both buildings serves as a sort of “color connective” tissue.

A “tri-play” of color: foundation, body and accents hues, set off by the white trim color..

The green-toned hue on the stucco foundation of the building grounds it, as discussed above, and ties it to the surrounding plantings.

Sonata’s inner courtyard. As I understand it, plants will be added. Awnings add a homey touch.

My favorite image from the project- the back of SONATA. The muted colors on stucco, and the stairway,  railings, and balcony remind me of time spent as a student in Southern France.

Who knew?

Give me your color weary, your peeling paint, your faded siding and scuffed up stucco!  It is my pleasure, my joy, my challenge and my calling  to recreate your architectural color to as near perfection as I can and give new life to your buildings, your spaces, your environment, and maybe even your soul!

Color on…Cheers!

Straight is the Gate: NOT!

Straight is the Gate: NOT!

The Venice Canals are a fantasy-land of visual whimsey.  Art and architecture, design and details, color, form, texture and landscaping intersect with the natural world of earth and water, mingling in a magical way.  Here, the lines between privacy and the public are both diffused and defined.  Visitors stroll past homes that buttress right up to the sidewalk, but often are shaded by trees, and hidden behind hedges, walls and gates, or a combination of all three.

Metal, wood, and foliage flow together  to create both art and utility.  We are are so caught up in observing the material mix, we forget to peer beyond the gate.  Mission accomplished.

Creative cutouts provide contrast to the wood and metal geometry below, and make of this gate a work of art, both two and three dimensional.

No-one is getting past this gate, unless the owner wants you to.  So arrested by its beauty, we forget how formidable it is. Flanked by bamboo, the strength of its materials, shape and detailing stops us in our tracks.

The simplicity of repeated squares which form a pattern is further softened by curving grasses, and enlivened by the use of stones on the ground in front.

A similar repeated shape creates a grid, reflecting the larger tile-like stones before it, creating a starker, and more stream-lined feeling.

What magnificent and magical gates have been in YOUR purview lately?

If you feel so inclined, please share about them with us here.

We love to hear from you.

Remember, we are all traversing this thing we call Life, together.

Cheers!

Hedge Funz

Hedge Funz

Peekaboo…

The use of hedges in Los Angeles…specifically Santa Monica and Venice, is fascinating.   In a place where folks seem completely at ease leaving their door wide open of a warm night, extraordinary arrangements of hedges which seem to be there to provide privacy, rule.

They may frame a doorway,

or a passageway, to be more exact.

changing size, height and shape.

They may enhance the mystery of a portal,

the thickness of a wall,

or the function of a fence.

They may be created from bamboo,

or have a topiary feel.

Or, they may define the distance from front to back, to front again.

Whatever their apparent purpose, the ubiquitous, albeit, creatively engineered hedge seems to have one function underneath it all.

To create privacy using the materials of nature.

In the process, they create some very interesting spaces indeed.

What sort of hedge funz do YOU have?

If you feel so inclined, please share about it with us here.

We love to hear from you.

Remember, we are all hedging our betz in this Life, Together.