level

The September issue of California Home & Design magazine features one of my recent images on its cover and a 10 page pictorial on the California Academy of Sciences.

In the lead up to the opening later in September, additional photographs of the Academy have appeared in several other publications including Food & Wine, Outdoor, American Way and Qantas magazines.

In the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, just a hop, skip and a drug deal away from bustling Market Street, the eagerly awaited Ray and Joan Kroc Corp Community Center is about to open its doors. Designed by local architects Herman & Coliver, the center provides much needed low income housing and a range of community facilities including a chapel, classrooms, a gymnasium and an open, landscaped courtyard.

The center, located in a densely populated neighborhood, is the first of many to be built around the country by the Salvation Army with funding from the Ray and Joan Kroc Foundation (of McDonalds hamburger fame). With several floors of apartments, the community center, educational facilities, dance studio, a swimming pool and frontage to two busy streets, the project is indeed a whopper.

So once we figured there was no escaping the Poison Oak, it became easier to settle in for the day and concentrate of documenting Ogrydziak/Prillinger’s skyspace located on a private estate in the Sonoma Valley. The artist of course, is the prolific James Turrell, who was due to arrive at dusk to tune the lighting of the piece.

Built on the site of an old water tank, the locally sourced stone-clad tower is perched high on a hill but hidden from general view by a small forest of oaks.

The effect then, as you approach the tower from either direction, is akin to coming across the last remaining tower of a once imposing fortress. No doubt this sensation will only be enhanced as the stone is weathered and the forest slowly regains control.

Climbing the single flight of stairs from the forest path, there’s a glimpse of the warm wood interior and a tangible feeling of ascending to a better, almost sacred place.

It’s not hard to be entranced by the simple beauty of the space, especially as the afternoon’s clouds wafted by.

Unless of course, you have to get on top of it for a panoramic view to the surrounding hills. This is not generally an accessible part of the project but one that the architect was keen to explore. Indeed the view was to die for (hopefully not to die from). To the south you could make out the office towers of Oakland some forty miles away.

Once James is finished tuning the lights, we’ll return for a spot of star gazing.

Can you see the Poison Oak in this otherwise benign and calming scene?

Well, neither did we.

Located high on a hilltop in San Francisco, this apartment, designed by Michael Palladino and Rick Irving of Richard Meier & Partners frames wonderful views to the entire north bay. The main difficulty in photographing the project was the endless attraction (distraction) of looking out at the ever changing scenes unfolding cross the water.  

Several recent images from Beijing including the Beijing Capital Airport Terminal 3, the Water Cube and the Birdsnest Stadium were published in the August issue Korean magazine Space. The art director had the wonderful sense to make use one of my images on the cover and I thought, did an excellent job in balancing the type with the image.