1908 Shattuck Wins Berkeley Design Advocates Award

We are excited and honored to announce that 1908 Shattuck is one of seven projects to receive the 12th Biennial BDA Design Award! 

In the spirit of this award, please enjoy this animation (courtesy of Tipping Structural Engineers) of the engineering behind this structure and the base isolators in action:

Hay Barn wins 2017 WoodWorks Regional Excellence Award

We are honored to announce that the Cowell Ranch Hay Barn has won the 2017 WoodWorks Regional Excellence Award! This means the Hay Barn will be featured on the WoodWorks gallery website, in a video used in symposiums around the country, and in the book "Celebrating Excellence in Wood Architecture 2016-2017."

Not a bad way to kick off 2017 - we hope you all have an award-winning year as well.

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"

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

2015 AIA Montana Design Awards

In other exciting news, both The Lark Bozeman and the Wedge House have each taken titles from the 2015 AIA Montana Design Awards. 

Both winning Citation Awards, the Wedge House (a private residence in Palo Alto) and The Lark Motel (a project Richard has collaborated on in Bozeman, Montana) have been featured in The Montana Architect, a publication of the Montana AIA chapter. Click on the links below to read the text:

The Lark Motel

The Wedge House

Book Reception Update

Our reception and book signing for ‪#‎ImprovisationsOnTheLand‬ at William Stout Architectural Books last night was a huge success! Many thanks to our friends and family who showed up and supported; this book truly would not have been possible without you. If you still need a copy of the book, head on down to Stout Books or order yours today on Amazon.

Also, Fernau & Hartman is now on Twitter! If you are on Twitter, follow us for project updates, images around the office, and upcoming events: https://twitter.com/FernauHartman

Book Reception @ William Stout Architectural Books

If you're around the Bay Area today, we would love for you to join us for a reception and book signing at William Stout Architectural Books in San Francisco (804 Montgomery Street, map shown below flyer) from 4:30 - 6:30 p.m. tonight! Bring a friend and come down to enjoy wine, cheese, and good literature with Fernau & Hartman. Please RSVP at rsvp@fernauhartman.com. See you there!

Fernau & Hartman Monograph is Finally Here!

More excitement today at Fernau and Hartman. A copy of our highly anticipated new book Improvisations of the Land has finally made it to the office, resulting in many jaw drops, smiles, and near-teary eyes. A lot of hard work, time, and design have been invested in the creation of these pages, and we all hope you will notice it for yourselves. 

If you would like a copy, please contact your local bookstore or visit Amazon to preorder.

More excitement ahead! Stay tuned...

The Lark's Growing Reputation

The Lark's reputation continues to grow with an excellent review by Seonaid B Campbell, for The Last Best Plates website.

Click the link to read more. Bozeman's Coolest Basecamp

Fernau & Hartman Monograph - Dust Jacket

The design for the dust jacket was carefully considered to achieve a balance of color, materials, and landscape with architecture. The “half jacket,” or “tube top” as we like to call it, features three of our favorite houses. A view from the deck of the Montana Cookhouse wraps the face and spine of the book. The front flap is a full bleed image of an outdoor room at the Santa Ynez house, and the back flap is a photo through the Mann House.

(Click Page to zoom.)

LARK Publications

Since its opening just over a month ago, the LARK hotel has been featured in a variety of different places. To take a look at some of the reviews and articles click on the links below.

A story on the LARK Opening aired on KXLF-TV in Butte, MT.

It has also been reviewed on Ski Curbed where Bozeman is referred to as Montana's 'Ultimate Outdoorsy Town' and the LARK is referred to as a 'Hip Hotel.'

A cover story in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle featured the opening of The LARK in an article titled, "Imperial goes niche - new hotel aims to 'Larkify' downtown Bozeman." 

The below pages are taken from the Explore Big Sky cover story. The piece is titled "Depicting Montana through art and architecture."

(Click Pages to zoom.)

Fernau & Hartman Monograph - Cover

We are excited to share with you, the cover from the upcoming Fernau & Hartman monograph. David Blankenship, our book designer, approached the cover as both a tactile and visual experience. The title, Improvisations on the Land, is stamped into a taupe fabric case and then wrapped in a cardstock “half jacket” printed with one of our favorite photographs of the Montana Cookhouse. Dubbed the “tube top” here in the office, the “half jacket” is just that: a dust jacket that cloaks the book, leaving about one third of the case exposed. When the jacket is removed, a sketch of the Berggruen House is revealed.

Fernau & Hartman Book Work

For the past few months Fernau & Hartman have been working hard on preparing spreads for our book release. Stay tuned for more exciting updates.

Montana Cookhouse Receives Honor Award

F&H's Montana Cookhouse received an Honor Award at the AIA Montana 2014 Design Awards. With subsequent publication in The Montana Architect, magazine. 

(Click Pages to zoom.)

Montana Cookhouse receives AIA East Bay Citation Award

The Montana Cookhouse received a Citation Award at the AIA East Bay Design Awards, which were presented at the chapter office last week. Click the image below to check out our collection of photos from the project.