Molly is a fond collector of all the arts, including and especially music.  She wanted open and enclosed shelves for her records, CD's, and stereo equipment.  Molly's house was built in the 1950's and has a luxurious, minimalist Hollywood atmosphere.  The stereo should be easy to use, for parties, private listening, or any occassion.  Witht the design, I tried to strike a balance between a cabinet that blended in to the house and called just enough attention to itself.

International architecture firm Gensler opened a new office in Austin, TX at the W Hotel.  I met Lance Yeary of Gensler at the East Austin Studio Tour in 2010, where he saw a massive walnut slab at my shop.  His firm immediately commissioned this table.  The only drawback was that the 15 foot long slab would not fit in their feight elevator.  Lance said, no problem.  They were hiring a crane, and removing a window, to bring a steel staircase into the office anyway.  The day of delivery, I pulled up to the building with the table top crate in the back of my truck.  Riggers threw straps around it, and up my table went into the sky and through the office window where it still sits today. 

Thanks to the wonderful architects at Alterstudio who designed this kitchen, I was fortunate to be recommended for this project as cabinetmaker.  Normally I do not provide counter tops and finish hardware, but because of the tightly nested design, I engineered and supervised the fabrication and installation of all stone & stainless steel counter tops/backsplash and stainless finish hardware.

This project started as a wood interpretation of the new Guild Logo 

Another set of parts was made in the process and it became a loose version

Later the two emerged as a natural process of associations

As of 2012 this piece has been chosen for the People's Gallery at City Hall

These doors required a technical feat.  Griffin and Heather were building the house of their dreams.  They wanted their new doors to contain lumber from fallen trees on their land.  That was not difficult.  Texas Kiln Products provided the milling and kiln-drying.  Live oak lumber is gorgeous and exotically figured.  However, it is notoriously unstable.  It won't stay flat, which is not good for doors.  I milled the live oak to 1/4" thickness and glued it to a marine-grade substrate, first covering the egdes of the plywood with live oak nosing.  The doors look like solid lumber, but are shop-built composites that stay very flat indeed.

Griffin and Heather also found large quartz rocks on the property.  I located a lapidary who sliced the stones to 3/8" thick and polished the surfaces. 

I designed the doors with a woven pattern of structural rails.  Light passes through the glass and quartz panels.  Visitors can be seen from afar, descending the hill to the entry way.

The client liked "Shuffle."  Shuffle wouldn't work in this application due to the function needed by the client and tight space limitations imposed by two doors and a staircase.  It needed to hold it's own in a house with a lot of one-of-a-kind artisanal pieces.  What better way to stand up for yourself than a cabinet made from a big chunck of walnut?

Dr. Deskenstein is named that due to the number of walnut "stitches," or splines, it took to hold it together.  So I designed a steel base made from 2' x 2" angle steel so if it came to life and started to walk it would have that heavy clunking sound the monster had in the movie.  I wanted the village folk to scream if they saw it walking down the street.   

Shuffle started as a cabinet with doors.  I found I didn't like hiding the most dynamic part that the shelves provide.  That was the piece initiated the design in the first place.  It's the first component in what I hoped would be an office suite of furiture based on "an earthquake in wine country."  It didn't come to pass but I still enjoy this piece as much as anything I've done.  

This piece was the last piece the designer placed in the livingroom.  The owner wanted a new TV and a unique piece of furniture that would hide components and wires.  

The designer wanted the piece to reference the mid-century modern architecture and furnishings while still making a strong statement of it's own.

This is an outdoor or meditation bench