Funk Zone Restaurant Approved!

October 22, 2015BlogFunk Zone, remodel, restaurantKevin Moore

Our Funk Zone Restaurant building permit was issued!

A new restaurant is underway in the Funk Zone neighborhood of Santa Barbara. While we can’t share the name yet we are very excited to see this project moving ahead. The demolition is underway and the space will be prepared for the brand new bar, seating and kitchen. The exterior changes include a new patio for dining with an outside bar to take advantage of the incredible weather. The restaurant will be open for lunch and dinner and promises to be a great addition to the growing food culture of Santa Barbara. The bar area will not only serve beer and wine but will also offer bottled beer for sale. Customers will be able to select from the handpicked brews on display or in the walk-in cooler. Many thanks to our project team Ashley & Vance Engineering and Kamran and Company for working hard to get this project thru the demanding City of Santa Barbara planning and permitting process.

Raw warehouse space, a great canvas

The new restaurant and bar is very exciting but that’s not all that is happening here. This permit also includes work elsewhere in the 8,000 s.f. building to prepare three other spaces for future tenants. The overall concept for the building is to have additional restaurant use mixed with other creative tenants producing interesting artwork and other handmade products. Glass walls and openings will allow for visitors to see and wander thru these spaces creating a layered experience that will continue to evolve over time. The building will be getting a new name and branding, the interior design will be cohesive throughout the warehouse like space. New exterior seating and dining areas will be constructed along with a new entry.

Temporary shoring and wall demo for the new windows and bar

The project is in the very capable hands of South West Construction who has completed restaurant build outs throughout Santa Barbara including Farmer Boy. Check back for more updates!

We love designing restaurants!

Give us a call and let us show you what we can do for you!

805.455.0574

Santa Barbara Addition and Remodel Construction Progress!

August 29, 2015Blogaddition, remodel, Santa BarbaraKevin Moore

The Vaquero Residence is coming together very nicely, this project is located in the foothills of Santa Barbara. We stopped by for a visit and the walls are framed and sheathed with plywood and the roof is also framed and waiting for waterproofing. It’s starting to look more and more like the rendering we did for the project which will provide new bedrooms, a full bathroom all connected by a open room the kids can call their own. We imagine this room will transform over time, starting as a play room then becoming the kids own living room. This room will have a sliding glass door leading out to a private patio, designed based on our outdoor living principles. The client is very excited to see the progress of their addition and remodel, their three little girls have already picked out their new bedrooms and are ready to move in. We are excited to see the transformation and especially excited to see the client’s reaction. The next steps will be wrapping the exterior with water proofing then installing the windows and sliding glass doors. Before long the addition will be “dried in” as they say in the construction world which means that even if it does rain all the wood and other elements will be protected. See our tips for making the most out of your addition and remodel here. Take a look thru the photos below and check in for future updates!

Street View

The rendering we did for the project, quite a transformation for this house

A portion of the addition

Here you can see the form really taking shape and the structure still clearly defined. Those openings just below the roof will become high windows called clerestory windows which will let in beautiful light but will be shaded by the eaves.

Future bedroom

A shot of the post and framing around the future clerestory windows with a great view of the sky and palm tree in the front yard. To the right you can see a bit of the future casement window, the beams will be exposed and stained to emphasize the materiality of the structure.

A shot of the exterior detail where the clerestory meets the sliding glass door below. This beam will also be exposed and stained, the contractor did a good job of attaching the beam to a knife plate which hides the steel connection inside the beam. A big thanks to Ashley & Vance Engineering for working with us to bring the structure to life like we imagined it. The combination of dozens of seemingly unimportant details like these is what will set this project apart from the typical house in the area. It doesn’t take much more money or time to build like this, it just takes some desire and passion to create the design and of course great clients who want to live in a house that is considered and unique.

The exposed corner post and clerestory windows for great light

Like what we do?

Give us a call and let us show you what we can do for you!

805.455.0574

Lucky Llama Coffee House Design

July 3, 2015Blogremodel, restaurantKevin Moore

We were doing a site visit for a upcoming restaurant design project in Carpinteria which is just south of Santa Barbara and it was lunch time. It was a pretty hot day so we headed over to another project of ours that was completed a few years ago, Lucky Llama Coffee for an acai bowl and an iced coffee. We sat on the deck under the worlds largest Torrey Pine Tree and talked about Carpinteria, it’s opportunities and challenges as the city grows. How can a city maintain it’s charm and authenticity in the face of the tourist onslaught and drive to be bigger and better? We decided that locally owned and operated businesses like this one will help to maintain the character that brings people to Carpinteria, so please support your local shops and stores!

lucky llama concept

How it turned out

lucky llama before

Like what we do?

Give us a call and let us show you what we can do for you!

805.455.0574

Vaquero Santa Barbara Addition and Remodel Underway!

June 29, 2015Blogaddition, remodel, Santa BarbaraKevin Moore

Our Vaquero Residence is underway! The building permit was issued, the builder was selected and work has begun. This project is located in Santa Barbara and is a modest addition and remodel to a single story home. We are excited to see the transformation take place and the client of course can’t wait to have it completed. We will be checking in regularly to help bring this project to a successful completion.

Before

The before shot

Street View

Completed addition and remodel

Imagine what we could do for you

Give us a call and let us show you!

805.455.0574

LA Times explores the Funk Zone

May 5, 2015BlogFunk Zone, Santa Barbara, YananoliKevin Moore

AVA Winery

The Funk Zone getting some love in the Los Angeles Times. This happens to be the location of our Funk Zone Lofts, our Beer and Wine Tasting Room and a few other projects early in the design process.

“Let’s be honest. Do you want to spend a weekend in a place called the Funk Zone? The first time I heard the name, I wrinkled my nose. It sounds like something from the ’80s that smells — or looks — distasteful. When I found out it’s a tourist zone in the otherwise perfectly lovely town of Santa Barbara, I thought it needed a name change, at best. Most non-Santa Barbara residents I mentioned it to agreed. “Why did they name it that?” people wondered.

So I asked a dozen Santa Barbara residents who live or work in the zone and got a dozen different answers. But all said they thought the name fits. And certainly the Funk Zone’s success story seems to indicate that people who visit it don’t mind the name. In just a handful of years, the area has become the hottest neighborhood in town, the place celebs go to dine and where everyone else goes to hang out. Its wine-tasting rooms, art galleries, restaurants and shops overflow on weekends and holidays. In fact, the area has become so hip, said a city official, that “businesses outside the zone pretend to be inside it. Or call themselves Funk Zone-adjacent.”

That’s an amazing compliment for a place that most people admit isn’t very pretty. Sandwiched between the beach and Highway 101, the Funk Zone is full of warehouses, manufacturing plants and industrial operations. Streets dead end, railroad tracks crisscross the area, paint is peeling from buildings that look abandoned. Some of these onetime businesses may account for the area’s odd name. When I asked locals the origin, one replied, “There’s mostly industrial stuff there that’s pretty funky”; an artist told me it was named for “the fish processing places that make it smell.”

Click here for more

Funk Zone Lofts Santa Barbara modern contemporary architecture

Funk Zone Lofts Exterior

Interior View of Tasting Room

Sierra Madre Design Review a Success! – Santa Barbara Architects

April 12, 2015Blogaddition, remodel, Santa BarbaraKevin Moore

We presented our Sierra Madre project to the Santa Barbara County Board of Architectural Review last week for the first time and they were very pleased with the project!

View from back yard

The Santa Barbara County Board of Architectural Review is tasked with ensuring the design of homes in the County area meet the criteria of good design and that the proposed design is appropriate for the neighborhood and site. They have a difficult job and must balance the desires of the property owner with what is best for the site and what is allowable by the zoning ordinance. Often they are forced to turn away projects that are too big or too tall for the neighborhood and instruct the property owner to find an alternate approach. Typically in Santa Barbara the design review process is a 3 step process; conceptual then preliminary and final review. A project may sail thru these steps if the design is of high quality and the drawings have the information and detail required. We also use colored perspective images like the one above and models to present our ideas. Not only are these useful for the design process and for client communication but the design board really appreciates the extra effort. They can look at these and immediately understand what we are trying to do.

The design board members liked the sensitive approach of placing the addition on the back of the house and using the existing topography to integrate the lower story into the site. They appreciated the low impact on the neighborhood especially that the design does not effect anyones views or privacy. They liked the glass wall opening up to the view and how we are providing shade for the glass without interrupting the view. They asked us to return for preliminary review where we will be able to present more developed drawings, details and material choices. We will be working with our structural engineer to dial in the sizes and location of structural elements. We will also lean heavily on door and window experts to find the best layout for the glass wall, multi-sliders, folding or some combination? Working closely with talented people helps us achieve the best project possible.

Model and rendering

Do you like what we do?

Give us a call and let us show you what we can do for you!

805.455.0574

New Project in the Santa Barbara Funk Zone

March 15, 2015BlogFunk Zone, remodel, Santa BarbaraKevin Moore

We have a new project underway in Santa Barbara’s evolving Funk Zone! If you are not familiar with this area it has a mixture of uses and architectural styles and has become a destination in itself for wine tasting, high quality restaurants and shops. For Santa Barbara Architects the Funk Zone is a special place, it allows for experimentation and creativity in a city known for a particular style. It is also home to our live work / mixed use Funk Zone Lofts project on the corner of Yanonali and Gray. This new project will add to this mix as a new beer and wine bar with a full kitchen coming in the future. This project will add to our growing list of restaurant design projects which are fun to be involved in. With this design we are looking to take advantage of the character of the existing structure and are trying to add layers of texture and color while opening up the walls to allow light in. We are also opening up the wall to allow for indoor and outdoor service a the bar for the small outdoor seating area. Take a look and let us know what you think!

Interior rendering and inspiration photos