Shuffling the Tree

I can relate to the work style of a 1930’s American cabinet shop (public domain) After over a year of design development with the architect and client, selecting logs of deodar cedar and having them custom milled and cured to outfit the interior of a new guest house down the coast, I’m regaining perspective on […]

Greenwood Global

Greenwood: Selective Harvesting Preserves Forests Though I’ve built just one boat to date, I’ve been an avid reader of WoodenBoat magazine for over 25 years. The publication is a major torch-bearer for the practice of traditional boat-building, and a treasure trove of primary source knowledge for all things wood. My favorite feature is invariably the […]

A Chair for Mindfulness

the Greens management team loved my prototype Greens Chair Like the Golden Gate Bridge that looms across the Bay from San Francisco’s historic Fort Mason Center, Greens Restaurant is a Bay Area icon. With close ties to the San Francisco Zen Center, the restaurant has embodied an ethos of attentive living and eating for over […]

Radical Pragmatism

My humble ESY stool can hold its own in a room full of Danish Chairs As I begin to make small production runs of my ESY stool (pictured above) to fill an increase in demand, I’ve been enjoying sending them out into the world and seeing where they land. Last week I delivered a sample […]

Sitting with Nature

With enough rainfall, Estero Americano drains to the sea, becoming seasonally tidal My favorite chair, by far, is an ocean kayak. To unwind after an intense week of new projects, I spent a quiet afternoon idly paddling down Estero Americano, my favorite local slough, now flooded to the coast. The marshy, seasonally tidal estuary is […]

Greens Chair Update

1/4 scale model of my new dining chair concept for Greens Restaurant I generally try to avoid working under pressure, but find I often do my best work with my back up against the wall. When our Wowhaus Interview was published in San Francisco magazine last month, I was just beginning to clear the decks […]

A Chair for Greens

my Elder Chair sidles up to a JB Blunk sculpture at Green’s Restaurant in SF I’ve been commissioned to design a dining chair for Greens Restaurant in San Francisco, one of my favorite spots in the Bay Area. The restaurant’s challenge has been to update its environs while respecting its origins, specifically the zen handwork […]