Inspirational Places

SFMOMA's New Roof Garden

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Greg and I visited the recently completed sculpture garden on the roof of San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art today. We had a great afternoon, it was sunny and hot, and we had the best iced coffee ever at the new Blue Bottle Coffee cafe anchoring the space. I enjoyed it, and looked forward to many more afternoons there in the future, though we both had some mixed feelings about the overall project. The highlight for me was the furniture and plant palette: it was truly refreshing to see a break from monoculture planting, and an amazing treat to be able to sit and sip in such an inspiring setting.


All of that aside, this is the essential bit of information:

Blue Bottle's New Orleans Style Iced Coffee

1 pound coarse ground coffee
2 oz. roasted and ground chicory
2.5 liters of cold water
1 fine mesh sieve
2 quarts whole milk
3-4 oz. sugar

Soak the coffee & chicory in the cold water over night at room temperature. The next day strain it through your fine mesh sieve. This should render about a quart of concentrate. Add 2 quarts whole milk and sugar (make a warm slurry with a little of the milk first so the sugar melts well). Ice it.





Inspiration from Japan

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Japan is a place that probably inspired me more than anything else I've ever experienced. The strangest thing is, is that most of the general landscapes and cityscapes that we passed through were nothing too exciting - a little worn down, wires and neon signs everywhere and lots of dingy concrete. However, that mediocrity was absolutely riddled with pockets of sublime beauty, sometimes just a little dish in a windowsill, an angle cut by a tilted wall, or an insanely beautiful temple garden. Just thinking about it makes me hungry for soba...

ASLA Award Winners Announced

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The American Society of Landscape Architects has announced its 2009 ASLA Award winners. Categories include General Design, Residential Design, Analysis and Planning, Communications and Research. I thought the Preview Park for the Orange County Great Park project was an interesting mix of airfield graphics and landscape design, and of course, I am looking forward to checking out the rest of the winning California projects as soon as possible. Congrats to all!

Shrink your city

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What to do with a deteriorating city? As the New York Times reports, you can speed its decline, and selectively demolish and reconcentrate inhabitants to smaller, denser neighborhoods with reformed centers, and return outlying lands to pasture and forest. Not a bad idea, and the good news is, Flint, Michigan is going to try and do this without the use of imminent domain. Rome grew and shrank, and maybe we can all learn a lesson and get creative with the design and reorganization of our cities as times force us to economize.

Palm Springs Calling

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I'm a huge fan of the Ace Hotel in Portland, Stumptown coffee practically in the lobby, amazing restaurant, Clyde Common, practically in the lobby, Powell's Books, one block away. Oh man, happy days. All of that said, and those are pretty amazing perks, the best part about that hotel is the design.

Now that the Palm Springs Ace is open, I think its time for a trip to the desert. The interiors and courtyards there look like they quote the midcentury without being slavish, and have some fond memories of the 70's and 80's floating around too. I can definitely picture the lovely ladies from Heart sitting on one of those couches. The thing that seems so promising about this design style is that it has all of that nostalgia but manages to stay fresh and contemporary at the same time. Maybe I just missed out on growing up in the desert in a yurt in the 70's, and this is all just another dreamy recreation. Whatever it is, the minimalism, salvage roughness, and vintage leather are workin' for me.

A trip to Portland

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I recently traveled to Portland and Seattle, to see how construction was progressing on the NE 99th Street residence, and to visit a new project site. The trip was wonderful, the projects look great, and I was able to visit family and old friends, and spend one fantastic day walking through Portland's Hoyt arboretum with my parents. Breathtaking and oh so green and mossy!