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!