Strong Bridge Design

Garay House / Swatt | Miers Architects

The site is a half-acre, south-facing hillside parcel, with complete privacy, and unobstructed 270 degree views from the East Bay hills, across Angel Island , San Francisco, to Mt. Tamelpias to the west. Responding to the physical conditions of the site, the new house is almost entirely opaque on the north side where a new entrance motor court is defined by overlapping retaining walls above a driveway composed of a strong grid of concrete slabs. One hundred and fifty year old Mission Olive trees, and large mature Blue Agave contrast five ‘free-standing’ walls constructed from long horizontal pieces of Jerusalem Stone, custom cut and imported from Israel. The ancient surfaces and materials offer dramatic contrast to the modern architectural features. Slivers of glass bring light into each interior room, and separate the stone panels, creating a strong rhythm while giving little hint of the extraordinary spaces and views on the other side of the entry walls.

A custom built black oak, center pivot door provides entry into the the living space that begins with a low, compressed foyer, leading to a higher circulation spine. Bathed in light from clerestory windows and skylights, the spine overlooks the living, dining and kitchen ‘pavilion’, with fully retracting doors on three sides, designed for indoor-outdoor living. From the entry hallway, visitiors are greated by a beautiful view of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco. Frameless glazing, doors that retract into walls, dramatic cantilevered roof extensions, and the vein cut travertine floors that travels from the rooms to the exterior decks and courts, seamlessly connect interior space to exterior space, blurring the boundary between the two.

Private spaces are located at the ends of the circulation spine – to the west there are two children’s bedrooms with a south facing balcony, and an au pairs room; in-between there are two guest rooms. Towards the east are the master suite and sitting room / office. The courtyard and gardens are south and east facing, developed in a desert like drought tolerant style with Bogenvilla, Agave, and other succulents. The pool is a reflective, meditative pond with the water line flush with the travertine decking. It overlooks a new bocce ball court below and the bay beyond.

The lower level is accessed by a glass, stone and walnut staircase that leads directly to a floor to ceiling, glass wine cellar visible on the descent. The rooms are all faced with floor to ceiling glass to take advantage of the views. Vein cut travertine floors and black walnut cabinets repeat the vocabulary used throughout the house. At the foot of the stairs are the media room, gym and locker room, outdoor shower, and a private office with its own bath. The media room and office have private decks under steel trellis overhangs, — again with views of the Golden Gate Bridge, and creating the illusion that the house is floating off the hillside toward the San Francisco Bay beyond.

Home Improvement Project – Tecolote Canyon #2 « Two Roads Diverged…

Home Improvement Project – Tecolote Canyon #2

As soon as I found out Carrie and I were going to be moving in to our new place above Tecolote Canyon #2 I was beyond excited about having the ability to run trails right from my door. Carrie and I have been using the trail regularly and I’m starting to really feel like it’s my second home. I’m learning all the twists and turns, the dips, and small wash outs that require a less than gracious hurdle technique. It’s not overly long but when I combine it with canyons 1 and 3 I can get some good mileage with very little road. Not only that but once I start running longer and mountain biking, I’ll be able to connect up with Marian Bear Park and Rose Canyon with only a couple miles of road between the two trail heads. Needless to say, I’m loving it.

Unfortunately, just like the new coat of paint our apartment needed to make it feel more like home, the canyon needs a little work too. The city is doing a great re-vegetation project that is really improving the majority of the canyon. The only problem is my favorite sections have been overlooked. The majority of the work has been done along the wider double-track portions of trail leaving the nice single-track to become pretty over grown in some places. After a number of shirtless runs and coming home looking more like I spent the morning in an S&M dungeon as opposed to on the trails it was time to do something about it.

In an effort to give back to what I am now considering my home trails, I stopped by Home Depot for a pair of pruning trimmers and headed down the hill to clean things up a little and hopefully make for a nicer trail. There is still some work that needs to be done but I did what I could with the trimmers. Here are a few before and after pictures, hopefully I was able to create a little nicer trail for the others that use it.

There were a number of other sections but I got distracted working and didn’t take any more pictures of what I was clearing away. The next project I want to undertake in the canyon is finding a way to improve the section in the next pictures. It’s a wide washed out trench. It’s too wide to jump and it’s too steep on each side to run in and out of. There is a section that goes off to the right and goes to an “easier” path over it but even that is really washed out and not a good alternative, especially on a bike.

Seismic bridge design and retrofit -- structural solutions, state-of-art report

Various bridge design issues

Retooling manufacturing, bridging design, materials, and production

Bridge engineering, substructure design

Municipal research, to promote the application of scientific principles to government