Architecture Tuesday: Olson Kundig Architects

Jim Olson & Tom Kundig are my current architectural heroes. Their work, their philosophy, and their way of moving through the world is amazing and wonderful to me. And they live and work in my favorite geographical area in the United States - the Pacific Northwest.

The Shadowboxx video I featured in an earlier post comes from Olson Kundig Architects - and this video I am posting now let's you see a broad spectrum of their work as well as an introduction to the two geniuses creating astounding spaces.

Their devotion to their craft is remarkable and self-evident.

Jim: "The main reason that we're here is to try to do the best design that we possibly can, whatever that means to us. I think there's this earnestness about both of us about what we're doing....we're really into to - I mean, we really are into it." 

Tom:  "It's not just an architectural firm, it's not just an art firm, it's not a design firm. It's an attitude about making our world a better place."

I have similar sentiments about my work as a landscape designer. My work is my life - it's what I do - it's what I am about. And everyday I work towards it. Attending the Inchbald School of Design will be my life's game changer. I will receive the training and credentials I need to be able to work at the same level of Jim Olson and Tom Kundig. I hope to have the ear and respect of builders and architects when I get back because I know I can become an immense asset to them and their work. I know I can make a difference that matters. 

Less than 6 weeks until all that becomes a reality - I can hardly believe it!

P.S. Alan Maskin follows me on Twitter.  

P.P.S One of my favorite quotes from the video: "Architecture is about life." - Jim Olson
 

Olson Kundig Architects Website - Check it Out

Quote: Monet

My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece - Claude Monet

It's Been a Really Hectic Week

It's been a week now since my Go Fund Me campaign came to a nail-biting and triumphant end! And for a few days afterwards I didn't feel well, probably from all the stress of the week before. But that was replaced with excitement and the new stress of preparing for what lies ahead: applying for a student visa, selling most of my possessions except for what I will take with me, keeping up with new and current projects and current clients, finding housing, planning an art show/going away party (you are all invited!), paying tuition at just the right time (exchange rate, please go in my favor!), bringing on businesses as sponsors, and making sure I am eating and getting enough rest through all of this! The list is daunting, but the light at the end of the tunnel keeps calling and calms me when I start to get uptight.

I have started the process for all of the above items and know that eventually it will all work out, even though from now until September 9th, it's going to be a crazy ride. Good thing I like crazy.

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Everyone has been raving about the weather lately here in Utah, and for good reason! Summer thunder and lightening storms are the best! Summer rains are the best! That hot asphalt under your feet, cooling and steaming from the rain. It's a favorite summer image and experience. I love it.

Evening walks have been perfect - you just can't do better than these days and I hope to be able to enjoy them amid my endlessly long list of things to do. After all - I won't be here for a time, so soaking it all in while I still can is also a priority. 

Literally soaking it all in!!

Architecture Tuesday: The Wabi House

I almost let Tuesday sneak by without posting some architecture! This is a few years old, but I just came across it (Dwell of course). I absolutely love this piece. What do you think of the Wabi House? 

I love the how the video starts out with the understated street view - just another unassuming cul-de-sac where this treasure is hidden. Clean and simple lines within - and the charcoaled wood through out is fantastic! Complete with a koi pond, an amazing kare-sansui (dry garden) and a very cool bathing area.   

Here are some favorites from the still images: 

If you want to read the Dwell article about the Wabi house, click here!

A BIG FAT THANK YOU!!!

Hey all!! I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU for making the impossible possible!! I reached my Go Fund Me Goal for the Inchbald School of Design and I am thrilled! I will be moving to London end of August!

My goal seemed crazy and I know I clogged the FB feed, your email inbox, your iMessage and whatever else for many many days - but I would have never made it without your help!! I am still amazed as I look at the the list of donors....you are incredible people and my heart feels it. I hope you do too. You made this happen. 

Xoxo,

Lorien

Happy Happy Happy

Saturday Evening

My how time flies. I'm sitting here at L street (that's what I call where I live) with many of my windows open listening to the rustling of the night leaves while I type by the light of a small bankers lamp. The July breeze moves in and out of the window and I love to feel it on my skin.

I just got back from a walk around the Avenues. It was lightly raining with ominous clouds overhead. I LOVE the Avenues. If there's anywhere I belong in the state of Utah, it's the Aves. And L street is the first place that has felt like home since I left home 14 years ago. I will always want to be here.

While I was walking in the Aves

I have been watching pledges come in for my Go Fund Me campaign this evening - the campaign that will send me off on an adventure beyond what I could have ever hoped for! For many weeks (months really - okay...years??) I felt like I was watching my dreams and future being taken away from me. It's a sad and devastating feeling. But today things have started to change. I feel there is a shift and a hope that I am going to make it. This fall I will be heading to London to get my Postgraduate Diploma in Garden Design, which will shape the rest of my life. Exactly how, I don't know - but I know it will.

I am extremely excited and grateful for this opportunity. I can hardly believe it!  London for one whole year! Being surrounded by garden-obsessed people for one whole year! Study and training in the field I am obsessed over for one whole year! I am elated.

And yet, I know in the end, when my UK time is all over - I actually do want to come back to Utah. I thought for the longest time that maybe Seattle (my fav state-side city) would be the place I would like to stay for forever and grow as a designer, but I feel I can do more good here and have a greater influence in the world of garden design here. For years I have been talking about starting my own garden design academy where I would have affordable classes and workshops open to the public...evening classes...so that working folk can learn how to create beautiful spaces around their homes. I would have one to two week long courses as well that are more intense. This is what I eventually want to do besides design. I love to teach, I love to share. And I love the Utah plant palette.

As I was in Oregon this past month sourcing plant material for projects, I realized how much I do love the Utah climate and it's USDA Hardiness Zone (that determines what plants will grow where) - and that I love creating gardens here. And that I would rather create gardens here on a regular basis than in Oregon, or Washington, or California, etc. Although I will say that once I return from London, I do hope to be a "traveling designer" and have a few projects in California and Washington.....and Italy why not? An international garden designer based out of Salt Lake City. How does that sound?

Pretty fab, I think.

P.S. You can still donate to my Go Fund Me Campaign by going here: Yeah!  Thanks for your support and please share! I have until July 7th 11pm Utah time to reach my goal!

An Essay: A Favorite Space

As part of my Postgraduate Diploma application process for the Inchbald School of Design, I was asked to describe a favorite space, analyzing particularly its context and its spacial qualities from my personal perspective. 

The following is what I wrote:

I am quite taken by the Japanese temple porches that span some distance and give good viewing out into the garden. The wooden flooring is worn and soft to the bare feet, like old leather that you love. The coloring of the space comes in weathered browns, cool greys and a variety of greens - all calming. Sometimes pops of fuchsia come from the azalea or maybe some soft pink from a cherry bloom. 

Most of the porches face south, and by late afternoon the sun has soaked into the planks and in the spring or fall this is the most pleasant place to sit. The porches are divided into two levels. One to walk or sit on, and the other to rest your feet. The rise between the two is shallow making for a very elongated or humble position. Sometimes I sit on the lowest level and slightly rest my back against the upper. I have been known to nap here, like a cat which is seduced by the late afternoon rays that have warmed that window sill for too long - you can't help yourself. 

The overhead plane is high above but overhangs heavily, creating a frame for your garden viewing. As a consequence, the upper level is often shaded. Sitting on the porch with the exterior temple wall behind me and the expansive framing overhead, I feel protected and safe, yet very free to think and to be. The architecture of the temple is large and spacious, but still creates an intimate and personal experience. 

The garden is the same, whether it be a moss garden full of plant life, or a kare-sansui (dry garden) with its patterned gravel beds. The negative space found in these temple gardens allows the mind to wander but not from boredom. As your eye moves across the stone and moss, the carefully pruned trees and shrubs, I wonder how they come to such beauty in design. 

Sitting on the temple porch, I am small but present in these gardens. And it is in these moments I know that space matters. I know that being a garden designer matters. 

Work Trip: Oregon

For the past week I have been in Oregon meeting a few plant growers and becoming familiar with their nursery stock and operations. Networking is important in any business as is educating yourself on how your industry works on the front end and behind the scenes.  

I did have some specific specimens I was looking for for a particular project and I may have found the proper pieces! 

The weather was wonderful - a good mix of everything. I really do love (western) Oregon and besides a three-month stint of living in Arizona, Oregon is the state I have frequented most often. Honestly, I do not have an affinity for the city of Portland though there are some really great aspects to it; Seattle to the north will always have my heart. That said, the gorge and the coast line do it for me every time! As well as the acres and acres of nursery stock!!! I could have wandered through the neat rows of trees and shrubs for hours and days.

What My College Professor Taught Me

"Talent is the ability to persist." - Leon Parson

Geranium at Rivendell

Architecture Tuesday: Shadowboxx

It's back! Architecture Tuesday is back.

I found this short video about an amazing piece of architecture: Shadowboxx, by Olson Kundig Architects, San Juan Islands, WA, 2010. 

Give it a watch and be amazed!

Shadowboxx responds to a desire to facilitate an intimate understanding of this special place and explores the tradition of gathering around a fire. Tucked between a thicket of trees and a rising bank, the house sits in a natural clearing created by the strong winds that force back the trees from the rocky bank. The building purposely confuses the traditional boundaries between a built structure and its surroundings. Its masses are modeled by winds off the water, exterior cladding is allowed to weather and rust, and shifting doors, shutters, walls and roofs constantly modulate the threshold between inside and outside.

Inside the home, a gallery runs the length of the house with rooms spilling off of it. Two 15’ by 10’ steel clad doors slide open to reveal the main living space, named the cloud room for its ever-changing atmospherics. A glass-walled bunkroom, it contains six custom-designed rolling platforms that serve both as sofas and beds and enable the room to morph and accommodate different functions. Exterior awning shutters facing the water can be closed for protection from the elements or for security when the owner is away.

A guest room sits at one end of the house, and the bathhouse at the other. The bathhouse is topped by a 16×20’ roof that opens the room like a cigar box at the push of a button. Materials with a strong tactility are used throughout the house, including rammed earth floors, reclaimed oak floorplanks, unpainted gypsum board and steel walls, corrugated steel siding and roofing, and reclaimed scaffolding planks for the ceiling.

Interior design by Viekman.

(text taken from the Olsen Kundig Architects website) 

There and Back Again: A Rivendell Story

This is a verbal as well as a visual journey into my work, the design process, and what it took to create what has been considered the most beautiful landscape in the county (county, I said county, not country...though just wait, one day!)

In the fall of 2007 I received an offer to bid on a landscape design project in Park City, Utah. I asked for the CAD files to be sent over in preparation for a meeting with the builder and when they arrived I about fell out of my chair - "Rivendell" was the title. 

THE DESIGN PROCESS: FROM THE CAD FILE TO THE MASTER LANDSCAPE PLAN - click to enlarge and read the description.

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Now one thing you should know about me is that my name comes from the Lord of The Rings by JRR Tolkien. Lothlorien is the forest, the golden wood, where Lady Galadriel lives. So, not only is it fate that I became a designer of woods per se, but that I would have a chance to create the outdoor atmosphere for a residence called Rivendell. When I first heard the client say "You were born for this project!" I laughed to myself. But now - 6 years later, I think so too.  

I started out as the landscape designer who was going to create a Master Plan and that was it. By the end of 2007 the design was complete and received with tears of joy! By the time spring rolled around I was given the title of "Lady Lorien" and officially welcomed to the team. In order to maintain my vision, I was placed as the landscape coordinator and would now have the responsibility of designing every detail, collaborating with every vendor, sourcing all the goods, and making sure it all was done in time for an on-site wedding that summer (no pressure). As the builder put it, "your greatest dream and your worst nightmare just came true." I was responsible for it all. Yikes.

I work really well in a team where everyone has their separate roles and responsibilities, but they work together to help each other achieve a greater dream. And that's how Rivendell moved forward and why it was a success. I was surrounded and assisted by so many amazing and dedicated individuals. I had solid support from my clients, priceless input from the architect, constant guidance from the builder, feedback from the stone mason, the carpenter, the painter, the electrician... you name it - even the interior designers. I was given an explanation of the phrase - "help me, help you" - and that advice still sticks with me today as I work through projects.

Below is a list of several extremely talented groups I had the honor of coordinating with to make the two-dimensional Rivendell landscape plan become a three-dimensional reality. 

GORDON ROGERS ARCHITECT

CHRISTOPHER HOMES

BRON DESIGN GROUP

RJ ENTERPRISES

ORION OUTDOOR LIGHTING

 AURANT

TRESCO

RHT HOMES

STONE SCULPTOR

7 TREES

COLDSTREAM MANAGEMENT

ALPENGLOW

SKETCHES & CONCEPT DETAILS - WORKING THROUGH THE OPTIONS - click to enlarge and read the description

These are just a portion of the sketches and concept details that went into discovering the best possible solution for each feature in the Rivendell landscape. Design is a process and it's beneficial to explore several avenues before coming to the final conclusion. Sketching down your ideas helps to weed out the not-so-great concepts so the finished product is deliberate and well-thought out. 

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LIST OF RIVENDELL RESPONSIBILITIES  - Here is a list of my responsibilities and tasks I undertook as the designer and coordinator of the Rivendell Landscape, from the concept stage to creating the standards of maintenance.

• Worked from the site plan to create a concept drawing, which was revised many times into the final Master Plan, which included all plant material, coordinated with Christopher Homes
• Project Coordinator for the installation of the Master Plan which included all plant material placement, hardscape layout, final grading for lawn areas, layout of hardscape features 
• Sourced and hand-selected plant material
• Created a bulb layout for daffodils, tulips, and crocus
• Outdoor sound design, coordinated with Aurant
  
• Designed the gazebo, coordinated with RHT Homes and had it engineered
• Designed fencing for dog run, coordinated with Tresco
• Designed the stone bridge
• Oversaw landscape lighting, coordinated with Orion Outdoor Lighting
• Christmas lighting layout in coordination with Orion Outdoor Lighting
• Sounds Design for the Wind Chime Garden
• Sourced all plant containers  
• Sourced pine straw
• Sourced top dressing
• Designed decorative stone wall, coordinated with RJ Enterprises
• Created an as-built Master Lighting Plan using Illustrator
• Created an as-built Master Irrigation Plan using Illustrator
• Created drawings for the re-design on the pond and fall areas, coordinated with Christopher Homes
• Designed the layout for pond plantings, coordinated with Utah Ponds
• Designed a stone deck and a wooden deck
• Built a 30'x30' map of Middle Earth out of stone, metal, glass, ground cover and crushed stone (still in progress)
• Dead wood removal, coordinated with 7 Trees
• Designed the sub-contractors bathroom and project managed the installation, sourced all materials used. 
• Approved and many times sourced all soft and hardscape material used in the landscape  
• Managed the garden maintenance crew, including all new plantings, annuals, weeding, pruning, dead-heading, and pest and disease control, tree health.
• Developed and wrote the landscape maintenance manual. 
• Continue on as a design consultant

To see images of Rivendell, click here and go to the Gallery in the Landscape Portfolio

Delivery Day!

Each April we head to the nursery to create several annual plant containers - they sit in the greenhouse filling in and filling out - then mid-June (after the danger of the last front for PC has passed) they are delivered! Today was delivery day - a big deal in our book!! A day we always look forward to. 

We had a total of 15 planters delivered today - 9 for Rivendell and 6 for Trestle Creek Ranch, the property next door.

For Rivendell we start with the Wind Chime Garden planters, which are 7 - based on color-themes...

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Then we come to the two Lotus Planters, one that gets full sun, and the other mostly shade...we change it up each year making improvements as we go!

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Now for the Trestle Creek Ranch Planters...I only took pictures of 3 and will nab the other 3 in a month or so - when they are more full and happy with color! 

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I can't wait for the next several moths to see each of these planters come into their own!  

I Have Been Accepted to The Inchbald School of Design!

Several months ago I was accepted to attend The Inchbald School of Design in London. It is one of the leading centers in garden design in the world...yes - the world! I would be going for what is called the Post-Graduate Diploma in Garden Design with the option of adding on a Masters. Yes and yes!  

But - tuition is 40K and then there's living in London for one year.  I am doing all I can to get there and so far scholarships, grants, and loans are not possible. The school is independent and overseas and is not recognized by the U.S dept. of Education - so I can't get a student loan. And I don't have enough collateral to get any kind of a business or personal loan for the amount I need. 

SO - here we go! Crowd-funding! Please help me get there - Every dollar helps. My all-or-nothing-goal is $65,000.00. You can go to my Go Fund Me Page  to find out more about this opportunity, and to leave a pledge. If my goal is met by the 8th of July I'll be able to go!! You can also check out my website - lorienhall.com to get more info.

Thanks for any help that can be given! 

Summer Art Showcase - Covey Center for the Arts

Tonight was the opening reception for the 2nd Annual Summer Art Showcase at the Covey Center for the Arts in Provo, Utah. I had submitted three of my Lorflor Project paintings and two were accepted! It's the first time I have entered my art into a show since high school, so I was pretty excited. 

Many of my family members came to support me (thanks guys!) and we enjoyed hanging around my pieces listening to people talk about what I must have been thinking or trying to accomplish with my painting - or about how much they loved it! Watching others react to my work was definitely a favorite part of the evening. 

The show runs until July 28th - so be sure to stop by if you are in the Provo area! And please take a moment to vote for your favorite piece, as there is a people's choice award!

Muse of a Headdress is on the main level, and Arpeggio in Bloom is on the second level. 

Girl looking at Muse of a Headdress

Arpeggio in Bloom 

A Fresh Start

Welcome to my blog, Lorien Hall Everyday - where I share my comings and goings as a landscape designer, architecture lover, painter, traveler and whatever else I am up to at the moment! I have been around the blogging scene for many many years now...but with my brand new website launching this week (Hooray!), I decided to leave all my old posts behind and begin from scratch. A fresh start. I look forward to the unknown road ahead and hope you enjoy walking it with me.