Thoughts at Ski Bowl

This weekend I went up to Ski Bowl with the kids. The weather was surprisingly nice and it snowed off and on all day. The little lodge that sits between the bottom of the ski hill and the top of the tubing hill is a busy place. I must've gone in and out of that building 15 times that day through each of it's three entrances. The drifts had made stairs into ramps and first floor windows snow viewports, like a submarine in white fluff. As the kids quickly climbed onto the roof and rested on it's easy pitch it made me think of how much the snow changes the dynamic of this building. How incorporating an ever-changing dynamic like snow into a design allows that unexpected quality to emerge, something that will never be the same twice and can be experienced in many different ways. 

Years ago I saw an image of the Shaw House, a Vancouver house by Patkau Architects, that incorporated a slender pool's shadows as art. This image has stuck in my head since architecture school and whenever I see unexpected shadows cast by water droplets on my car's moon roof I see that image. It was stunning and ridiculously inspiring, of course that's on my dream wish list! So I took a stroll through the interwebs to see what other double-duty homes I could find.

My first find was a clever house that is actually two distinct pieces, a glassy inner cube and a more solid outer shell that slides on a hidden track based on how much of the home wants to be exposed. I love how this looks like a big red barn in it's quaint British countryside site, aside from the sliding goodness hiding in the works.

The second find is this house termed the Tattoo House, which uses vinyl super graphics on the exterior of it's glassy floor to ceiling windows. Similar to the Shaw House, the tree limb shadows fill the space with an ever changing mural. This building is really simple and mostly glass, which works well in letting the graphics be the main element.

The third building was a proposal for the Solar Decathlon which uses elements of both of the above houses. The building is a series of planes that can slide based on solar orientation and wind paths. The perforations in the panels let the light filter in and dapple the interior. The texture and color of the building harkens to local materials making it sensitive to it's site, as well. 

Who knew that a day spent up on Mt Hood would remind me of that initial pool photo that rocked my world back in the day, but I'm glad it did!

Friday night on Alberta Avenue

courtesy of neighborhoodnotes.comLast Friday I spent the evening hanging out with my friend Christine walking down Alberta Avenue. It had been awhile since either of us had been over in that neighborhood, and the last couple times I had been there it was morning not at night, which is a completely different experience. Initially the plan was to go to collage for one of their $5 Friday night art classes, but timing didn't quite work out for that. When we happened to walk by the large picture windows fronting collage's class space, it was definitely the popular place to be. I'm really interested in taking the "Let's Get Waxy" class detailing encaustic painting, I've been digging on artists layering and incorporating mixed media without it looking hodge podge. I think the overall beeswax nature of the encaustic process gives the pieces enough cohesion that the hodge podgy'ness is limited, anyway, I guess we'll see.

courtesy of urbanspoonWalking down Alberta Street on a Friday night was fun, there were a lot of people out, although it was early so not as many people as were going to be out. The stores, restaurants, bars, galleries, tons of bakeries, stretched on and on. That's something that I wish we had in my neighborhood, but unfortunately we have a really finite space to develop here in Hillsdale and it's my understanding that most of the commercial spaces are owned by one family, so there hasn't been as much growth and change as on Alberta. Every restaurant seemed to have the luxury of a patio, many heated and covered so they're good to go all year long. A particularly lively place sported a couple of ping pong tables on their patio with pints of beers perilously balanced on them. We ended up eating dinner in one of these double-duty spaces seated in front of a roaring outdoor fire place. The Tin Shed was cozy and welcoming, loud -with groups of people talking over each other, like a big Italian family.

courtesy of neighborhoodnotes.com

The appeal of Alberta Avenue was more than the amount of retail eye candy bounding the street, it was the diversity of buildings and how they individually occupied their part of the strip. There was the obvious infill of two story, concrete, wood and aluminum storefront windows. Sprinkled throughout with former homes now shops, with those lovely color palettes that make bungalows sing. Ochre yellow, burnt red, moss green, plumbs, maroons.  Whole blocks with hanging signs affixed to buildings with the elegance of a pair of hung earings, perfectly in scale with the next but uniquely identifying it's wares beneath. 

courtesy of Hammer & Hand ContractorsWe capped the evening with a stop at Salt & Straw, an evidently ridiculously popular ice cream place. I couldn't tell if the long line of people were mostly neighborhood regulars or people that had traveled there specifically, but everybody was in a good mood regardless. Of course, it's ice cream, well worth the wait. Sea salt with ribbons of caramel, very salty light on the caramel. Cinnamon snickerdoodle, very spicy and light on the snickerdoodle chuncks. I guess, we'll just have to go back and try some other flavors, there's no lack of options, although I'm avoiding the Bone Marrow & Smoked Bing Cherry flavor....

Early spring inspiration

This spate of warm Portland weather has really made me start daydreaming about spring. Nature hikes were rewarded with budding pink flowers and chartreuse green leaves, coiled in a tight package ready to explode if given the right dose of warmth and rain.  

These colors are spring time inspiration! I've recently signed up for daily color hits via Design Seeds.com, it's a godsend on those incredibly grey days that seem to populate our winter. Here's a recent color dose that's channeling this weekend's nature walk, titled Spring Brights:

I'm always impressed with designers who can channel a certain mood or experience with color. Check out this lovely pink sofa with built-ins backed in pinks and purples. The organic elements are conveyed through the branch art panels and the woody floral stems. The white field color is clean, modern and lets the textures take center stage. This palette is incredibly cool, the white floors, the white walls - the only hint of warmth peeks out as wooden chair legs.  

Courtesy of Shawn Penoy Interiors 

This interior pairs the vibrant greens with pops of the reds and oranges so popular today. The graphic nature of the reading chair with the punchy Marimekko fabric gets all the attention in this citrus hued room. 

 Courtesy of Living Etc.

These living rooms, although more traditional in styling, rely on pillows with strong floral graphics and rich saturated colors of fuchsia and coral. In these examples I particular like the fact that the sofas are very neutral, a white and a grey.  By themselves, on a showroom floor they would probably not stand out, but paired with bright accents like the pillows, the red-orange walls and the green lattice wallpaper - the sofas become the foundation by which all these fun colors can succeed.

I've always loved color, and so I'm definitely attracted to these spaces. But everyone has an enviroment that they find the most comfortable and inspiring based on a memory, a vision or even springtime hikes. So as much as you remember the event, take time to make a mental note of the colors and the textures and re-invent your space accordingly!

The wedding centerpiece & the cultural mood

Earlier this year I was happily tasked with the opportunity to help my younger sister with her wedding and reception. After a jaunty walk through the coastal rain forest awash with moss and mushrooms, the wedding nuptials took place on a beach south of Manzanita. The intimate reception later that evening was a spectacle in candle light and miniature succulents ensconced in moss. Earlier that week, as I was organizing the flower arrangements and finding that must-have reindeer moss in a spectacular chartreuse hue for the mini succulents, I started wondering why moss is currently so popular.  It's not new either, it's been gong on 3 years now, that a perfectly appropriate centerpiece item can be found wedged behind my recycling bin. So what is the appeal? The color is stunning and fresh, but just as much so as the popular wheat grass craze preceding our present day moss obsession. 

There's no doubt, that the wheat grass centerpiece of yesterday would be today's mossy terrarium showstopper, in all it's unruly glory!

That is where I suspect the fascination lies, mosses can grow most everywhere and under myriad conditions, without much human intervention. The sight of moss acknowledges the presence of a certain level of water and of sun, a satisfaction of knowing that nature is in balance. Moss grows in sidewalk cracks, up stream banks, on our patios - the clingy green plants visually masquerading as a luxurious natural carpet. The idea of the well manicured wheat grass centerpiece being overtaken by a "wild" ground cover is not a stretch when taken in context with today's Gen Y couple. 

In response to years of economic slump, today's younger demographic embraces a mentality of inventiveness, resourcefulness and perseverance - the calling card of the humble moss terrarium. As described by Micahel Cannell's April 2011 article for the New York Times entitled Design Well Within Reach, "...whereas modernism represented an ideal of frugality for lean times, the "undecorate" movement offers a kind of populist authenticity in opposition to the polished trappings of a design establishment. The “democratization of design” has been a fashionable phrase for years. It may finally have arrived."

It will be interesting to see what will usurp the mossy terrarium centerpiece in the next few years, but it is clear that whatever nature delivers, it is certainly a mirror to society's cultural mood. As for me, I would be content if it remains near my recycling bin and not in it, worm bin glass urns anyone?

Ta da!!!!!

I wear many hats, a commercial project designer by day, mom by afternoon and, when given the opportunity to create, I go by Yellow Wood Design.  I love photography, jewelry, fashion, font. All of these interests inform how I see the world and how I create space, this blog is my attempt to curate those passions.

This is the beginning of my adventure. To cultivate a culture unique in it's modern sensibility and local context. My goal is to start way in the future and work backwards, to cultivate that 10 year plan and kick it's butt!! What is the 10 year backwards plan? 

I love photography, jewelry, fashion, font.

What do I see in my future? Updating coastal homes, making them more energy efficient for the next 100 years, but allowing the coastal history to carry through, the remnants of coastal holidays. The coast is also a perfect place to engage the prefab revolution. Those tight home sites with amazing trees and limited utilities, the prefab modules are ideal. Plus they would be easy to add to as families grew and generations created a coastal haven.

Moving on from the coast (can you tell I need to get away!), I look forward to working with families to expand their homes and add to the existing Portland architectural fabric with local commercial projects as well.  Which also entails engaging with local businesses, collaborating with local governments for available grant monies and support. 

With this blog I hope to inspire and cultivate an ongoing dialogue of what is comfortably modern, one that is effortless and simple as it looks to both the past and the future for it's inspiration.