Archinect - News

Four edgy California remodelling projects by JENSEN Architects: Your Next Employer?

2024-01-29T12:08:00-05:00

Following last week's visit to San Francisco-based Edmonds + Lee Architects, we are keeping our Meet Your Next Employer series in the Bay Area this week to explore the work of JENSEN Architects.

From their studio in downtown San Francisco, the firm has built a portfolio specializing in cultural, educational, residential, and workplace projects. The studio describes its ethos as “valuing a critical design approach, contemporary culture engagement, and innovative construction techniques for elegant, effective, and environmentally sensitive solutions.”

Over on Archinect Jobs, the firm is currently hiring for several positions to join their San Francisco office. For candidates interested in applying for a position, or anybody interested in learning about the firm’s output, we have rounded up four intriguing California-based remodel and renovation projects by JENSEN Architects that exemplify the studio’s ethos.

Stanford Residence. Image credit: JENSEN Architects

Stanford Residence, Stanfo...

Spiegel Aihara Workshop's Wraparound House creates fluid connectivity without sacrificing Bay Area views

2022-08-05T15:28:00-04:00

San Francisco-based transdisciplinary studio Spiegel Aihara Workshop (SAW) shared new images of an extensive home renovation project of a 1930s Spanish Revival home in the Bay Area's Marina neighborhood.

Aptly named the "Wraparound House," the project was commissioned by a couple looking for their home to include increased indoor and outdoor space for their family without sacrificing surrounding views of the Bay. While the project includes horizontal and vertical expansion to engross six bedrooms and additional interior space totaling 4,738 square feet, the house also needed land stabilizing beneath the home.

Home's front facade. Image © Mikiko Kikuyama/Courtesy of SAW.

Rear view of the home and spiral staircase starting at the base of the newly landscaped backyard. Image © Paul Dyer/Courtesy of SAW.

SAW noted that the Marina neighborhood site is historically known for being built on a former landfill and impacted by soil contamination due to a gas plant spill decades prior. Due to ...

Seattle's Space Needle is getting a makeover: new renderings revealed

2017-10-04T14:36:00-04:00

Seattle's 55-year old landmark Space Needle is undergoing a $100 million renovation headed by Seattle-based design firm Olson Kundig. The venture's aim is to reveal the historic tower’s internal structure and harken back to the original concept sketches, all while expanding and improving the Space Needle’s iconic views and guest experience.

Image Credit: Olson Kundig

Enhancing the iconic view involves the addition of a lot of glass—176 tons to be exact will be added to the Observation Deck and restaurant level. Expanding the views by more than 25%, the observation deck above the restaurant will feature floor-to-ceiling glass panels on the interior and exterior to enhance the 360-degree views. At the restaurant level, the tables, chairs, windows, and rotating floor of the reimagined space will all be made of glass.

Construction began earlier in September with the impressive installation of a 28,000 pound platform 400 feet in the air to rest in place just below the Space Needle’s Top...

Architects, have you recently finished a remodel? Send it to us!

2017-07-05T13:25:00-04:00

Architects love the freedom presented by a blank sheet of paper (or CAD window), but the reality of practice inevitably puts limits on the imagination. This is doubly true when it comes to remodels, which require working around somebody else’s design. But constraints can also encourage creativity as new ideas are shaped by pre-existing parameters. Sometimes, the most difficult challenges—a wall that can’t be moved or a budget that won’t budge—breed the most inventive solutions.

We want to take a look at what goes into designing around an existing structure. Specifically, we’re interested in residential projects with unusual backstories and imaginative design choices. Did you modernize a traditional home? Strip things bare or keep them intact? How did you relate to the original design? How did you relate to the clients’ demands?

Have a project that fits the bill? Post the project to your individual or firm profile, then submit it for consideration by filling out this form. We will be...

DTLA's Music Center Plaza will get a $30M remodel, its first since 1964

2016-07-19T15:56:00-04:00

Grand Avenue’s Music Center Plaza is about to get a major renovation for the first time since it opened to the public in 1964. Often overshadowed (literally) by the prominent Downtown venues that stand above it, the plaza is a gathering place and event space in its own right. Thus, a major part of the plan would increase event capacity from 1,500 to 2,500. [LA County] has already given $2 million to plan the project, with $25 million of funding expected down the road.

More recent L.A. news on Archinect:

Michael Maltzan proposes greening L.A.'s 134 freeway

Downtown LA has a new museum on the horizon

Historic LA Times Building to be redeveloped

"Bouncy-house urbanism is on the rise." – Christopher Hawthorne rides the U.S. Bank Tower's 'SkySlide'

Agence Ter and Team wins Pershing Square Renew with “radically flat“ proposal

California homeowners tend to renovate rather than relocate – here's why

2016-05-06T15:23:00-04:00

California may be a capital of cosmetic surgery, but it’s not just noses and eyelids falling under the knife. A hot housing market is driving buyers to pay exorbitant sums for old, frumpy houses, knowing they’ll pay plenty more to remake them to modern tastes. Others currently own dowdy houses and choose to renovate rather than relocate.

"While the dynamic is playing out in a number of U.S. cities, California’s plight is particularly intense because of Proposition 13, a 1978 amendment to the state constitution. It set property taxes based on 1975 assessments and capped future property-tax increases at 2% a year."

The issue with this, according to the Wall Street Journal, is that when a home is sold in the state, taxes increase because the property is reassessed to its new sale price. This incentivizes homeowners to renovate instead of move, thereby keeping the amount of home listings low and prices high.

More news from the Golden State:

domæn ltd.'s NAN hints at Orange County's potential for more innovative design

2014-01-16T19:11:00-05:00

domæn ltd.'s remodel project "NAN" reminds us that an ordinary industrial warehouse is always full of refreshing design possibilities. Located on 1907 Nancita Circle in Placentia, CA, NAN shows off domæn's signature sharp lines and black-and-white color schemes that give the structure an edge over the area's numerous warehouses and the generally lackluster landscape of Orange County.

On the other hand, in addition to being a recent example of adaptive reuse, remodeling projects like NAN could be another sign of potential growth for the city of Placentia and its neighboring cities, which have been aiming towards economic revival in the past decade.

Below are more details to NAN that the architects shared with us:

"The NAN project seizes the opportunity to play on typical office configurations, and offers a lofty, industrial appearance. The exterior treatment follows the interior logic, taking advantage of the precast concrete facade and playing with contrasting textural qualitie...

NS Stations by NL Architects

2013-07-02T18:06:00-04:00

NL Architects recently completed the project NS Station, a major office interior revamp over 9 stories right on top of Central Station in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The project resulted from a 2011 competition win where NL Architects made the Thick Walls™ system the conceptual core: big shelves absorb the clutter that normally spreads trough the office - wardrobes, bookshelves, flip boards, archive, bulletin boards. And sometimes even the stairs.