Virtual Reality

Here is a photo of Richard testing out our new set of Virtual Reality goggles. These enable us to be "placed" in renderings of our projects and allow us to look around, down, and up in the spaces we create. This is the new immersive medium for exploring design.

The future is here.

1908 Shattuck in San Francisco Chronicle

Pick up your issue of the San Francisco Chronicle this morning and you'll either be joyful or unhappy with the results of this year's presidential election. Flip a couple pages over to this article by John King, however, and you'll read something that is undisputed: 1908 Shattuck is turning heads. 

Read the article by clicking on the link or image below:

"Downtown Berkeley gets an urbane copper update"

1908 Shattuck - Triple Rock Brewery

There was a full house in the "Richter Room" at Triple Rock Brewery (at street level of 1908 Shattuck) this past weekend! People seemed to really be enjoying the space, and many were in awe of the base isolators. 

Good food, drinks, and a one-of-a-kind structural system - what more could you possibly want? Come down to 1908 Shattuck and enjoy these for yourself.

1908 Shattuck - Seismic Isolation Animation

Have you ever wondered what 1908 Shattuck would look like during a major earthquake? Thanks to this new animation from Tipping Structural Engineers, you can get a sense of how the base isolation system would look in action.

Montana Cookhouse in Big Sky Journal

From the article:

True to its name, the Cookhouse was centered on a large, open kitchen and dining area, and a hallway that acts as the spine of the structure. "The spaces that spin off the hall are small; they didn't want a gigantic living room. The kitchen and hall are where they get together," Fernau says. "The last thing they wanted was a lodge; the house is actually an anti-lodge."

Click here or on the image below to read the full article.

1908 Shattuck - Time Lapse Video 2

On June 4 of last year, we posted a time lapse video of the construction progress of 1908 Shattuck in Downtown Berkeley recorded from October 2014 (beginning of construction) up until that date. Today, Tipping Structural Engineers posted this time lapse footage of construction, from start to finish, of 1908 Shattuck - and it's mesmerizing. Take a look below:

Laura Hartman Lecture at Berkeley City Club

Laura Hartman is part of the Berkeley City Club Conservancy lecture series "Women Speak: Four Architects On Design and Urbanism" this year! Come down to the beautiful Julia Morgan-designed Berkeley City Club at 7:30pm on Thursday, October 13 and listen to her talk about the exploration of the relationship between buildings and landscape, and designing to encourage inhabitants to engage with the world around them.

Tickets are still available at the door for $15. See you there!

Richard Fernau Hong Kong University Lecture + Interview

As you all know, Richard lectured at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) in April of this year. For those who were not able to make the long travel to Hong Kong, the University has graciously published the lecture online. 

Click on the image of the flyer below, and you will be redirected to the HKU website to watch Richard's lecture.

Another video posted from the University of Hong Kong is a short interview with Richard used for a MOOC (massive online open course), entitled Vernacular Architecture of Asia: Tradition, Modernity, and Cultural Sustainability. See below to watch Richard's interview: 

Review of "Improvisations on the Land" in AIA Small Projects publication!

Bookstore owner and author Peter Miller of Peter Miller Books in Seattle wrote a very nice review of Improvisations on the Land for the AIA Small Projects Practitioners Journal. Read the entire review below (click to enlarge):

Hay Barn wins 2016 AIA Montana Honor Award

We are proud and excited to announce that the Hay Barn, just completed earlier this year, has won its very first award. The Hay Barn now has the prestigious 2016 AIA Montana Honor Award under its belt, and we could not be more pleased. Our deepest thanks to those who contributed to its design and construction, including craftspeople, engineers, and fabricators.

Behind the Scenes: 1908 Shattuck Photoshoot

Fernau & Hartman spent two days on site at 1908 Shattuck with photographer Richard Barnes, and we captured him at work. See photos from this weekend's photoshoot below:

Women Speak: Four Architects On Design and Urbanism

Join Laura Hartman down at the beautiful Julia Morgan-designed Berkeley City Club at 7:30pm on Thursday, October 13 and be a part of the lecture series "Women Speak: Four Architects On Design and Urbanism"! Each lecture in the series features one Bay Area design leader whose work promotes sustainability, historic revitalization, and urban planning. Be sure to also check out the lectures from three other very accomplished designers featured in this series.

Visit this website for information about tickets:

www.tinyurl.com/B3CWomenSpeak

1908 Shattuck in STRUCTURE Magazine

Subscribers to STRUCTURE Magazine and fans of Fernau & Hartman will notice a familiar project in its most recent issue. 1908 Shattuck - the soon-to-be home of Tipping Structural Engineers, whose office is currently adjacent at 1906 - and its impressive base isolation system superstructure are featured in an article written by Steven Tipping, S.E. 

Click on the images below to read the article on the STRUCTURE Magazine website.

UCSC Hay Barn Photos

Before you scroll through the new gorgeous photographs from the recent photoshoots down at the Hay Barn, take a look at this stunning before-and-after shot:

Left: Before shot (photographer unknown) Right: After shot (© 2016 Cesar Rubio Photography)


All photos below © 2016 Cesar Rubio Photography.

Review of "Improvisations on the Land" in ARCADE Magazine!

The most recent review of our book, Improvisations on the Land: Houses of Fernau + Hartman, appears in ARCADE Magazine. Written by John Parman, a writer, editor, and West Coast adviser to the Architect's Newspaper, the review captures the essence of the firm's practice and history of improvisation and collaboration - from its inception to the office in present day. Parman describes the book as being "a tutorial on how to practice architecture as [Richard Fernau] and Laura Hartman see it, in which place and improvisation provide valid, potent bases for design."

Parman begins the article by referencing the iconic New Yorker cover from March of 1976 - "View of the World from 9th Avenue."

"Far from being provincial," Parman writes, "the tradition in which F+H is situated is wide-eyed about the world around it. To live in the Bay Area is to be immersed in a place that gathers up sense, encourages openness and flow, and discourages anything that seems too predetermined."

READ John Parman's review by clicking here

Dream of the Sea Ranch - Screening and Discussion with Zara Muren, Laura Hartman, and More!

Join Bay Area filmmaker Zara Muren at her screening of "Dream of the Sea Ranch," a documentary about the celebrated Sonoma County development. There will be a panel discussion following the screening with Donlyn Lyndon, George Homsey, and Fernau & Hartman's very own Laura Hartman, who currently serves on The Sea Ranch Design Committee.

Please read the poster below for more information. The event will be held on Sunday, June 5th at 4:15pm at the Smith Rafael Film Center at 1118 Fourth Street in San Rafael. 

Montana Cookhouse in Fine Homebuilding Magazine

The Montana Cookhouse is featured in yet another publication, this time in the May 2016 issue of Fine Homebuilding Magazine. Read the short article by Maureen Friedman:


When the time came to build the main residence for a working ranch in rural Montana, the homeowners wanted an energy-efficient house with generous kitchen, dining, and living spaces for large events. They also wanted it to look as though it had always been part of the existing homestead, which includes a granary and a farmhouse.

"Taking a cue from local hay barns and conceiving the project as an 'anti-lodge,' Richard Fernau and Laura Boutelle of Fernau & Hartman designed this 1 1/2-story broad-eaved, gable-roofed house." 

Located in an area that is subjected to severe storms, 115-degree F temperature fluctuations, and 70-mph winds, the cookhouse fits the climate and the land. Its east-west siting presents the narrow face to the most intense wind and weather and is optimal for solar gain. The rooms on both floors are organized along a central hallway that links the interior spaces but that also functions as a massive air duct connecting the house to the thermal chimney. This keeps the house cool via the stack effect even in the extreme heat of summer, making air-conditioning unnecessary. In colder months, the house is heated with a ground-source heat pump and EPA-rated woodstoves.

UCSC Hay Barn Update: Not Your Ordinary Horse Stable...

To address privacy concerns within the new Hay Barn, steel interior partitions were installed, tucked away between the service core and the north wall. Acting as a divider between the main space and the office program, careful consideration was given to the size of these partitions so as not to disrupt the overall character of the building or to obscure structural elements expressing "old vs. new." 

Richard Fernau Lecture @ The University of Hong Kong

Just last month, Richard gave a lecture on Improvisations on the Land: Houses of Fernau + Hartman at the University of Hong Kong's Department of Architecture. The lecture went incredibly well, and Richard was in good company; Pritzker Prize-winners Wang Shu and Toyo Ito, among many other fellow accomplished architects, were part of the same lecture series (see posters for the HKU Spring 2016 lecture series below).

If you haven't picked up your copy of Improvisations on the Land: Houses of Fernau + Hartman already, head to your local bookstore or click here to place your order!

It's a Copper Building!

The scaffolding on 1908 Shattuck has begun to come down, revealing the building's beautiful copper paneling. We promise to share more photos with you soon, as the project nears completion.

UCSC Hay Barn Update

Earlier this week, Fernau + Hartman spent an entire day with photographer Cesar Rubio to capture the beautifully restored Hay Barn on the UCSC campus (note: the photos you see below were taken by F+H, not Cesar Rubio).

The clouds began rolling in towards the end of the day, but the Hay Barn still looked as stunning as ever.