We are building these planter boxes for an outdoor terrace of a downtown Portland condo. There will be 29 of these boxes in a variety of sizes ultimately covering most of this terrace space. Sizes vary from 16″ x 16″ x 8″ tall to 24″ x 24″ x 24″ tall. The plants will be 16 stories above the pavement but will create a lush, undulating terrain outside the condo.

The boxes are 1/4″ aluminum plate with concealed welds and a grained finish. The corners interlock in a box joint for superb alignment and are routed flush for a crisp outer corner. All boxes will be anodized black, like the first two sample boxes.

We are building a rolling door in the style of the classic zinc (or tin) clad warehouse fire doors that roll on a sloped track. A counterweight suspended from a pulley holds the open on the uphill portion of the track until a fire breaks the chain allowing the door to roll shut.As the doors roll closed the bottom of the door seals tight to the floor.

Here is a link to a portion of our shop drawings for an overview of the finished product. We are making this door for a warehouse space that will become a beautiful living space but still retain the industrial features that give it its charm.

We have built the large door blank with an internal steel tube support frame for torsional rigidity. Around that we built a stout timber framework for securing the zinc sheets. The zinc sheet metal will interlock in a flat-lock style with raised seams where the panels overlap. All sides of the door will be covered in zinc and it will hang from heavy steel straps and custom built wheels.

We have been refining the wheel design and this version will roll on precision bearings. It should glide like a dream. So far so good, we’ll let you know.

These tall entry closet doors were clad in sheet metal and given a fine dark patina. Each door is clad in a single sheet of metal with a small formed tab to create a pull. The doors swing on full length piano hinges.

We worked with my good friend and colleague Nicholas Moons from MontesBuild on a series of benches, a coffee table and a set of shelving. The pieces nest together nicely for the transit to NYC. Some pieces are hot rolled plate with very little alteration and a clear top coat. The rest are pickled & oiled plate that has been scoured, honed and clear coated.

Use this link to view our Wall Elevations

We have finished and shipped all of the library components to their new home on the Channel Island of Jersey. This library shelving will wrap all four walls of the newly remodeled library. The steel should arrive just in time for Christmas!! The thicker plates are the upstands that will support 6 rows of shelving that circle the room at a consistent height.

A short plinth wraps around the room and the shelving extends from there up to the ceiling. There is a 20 mm gap between each shelf and the wall. A narrow recessed light trough runs the entire length of plinth where it meets the wall and hidden LED light strips will illuminate the wall behind the shelving.

I built this sculpture with David Kennedy in 2011 and it was a such a tremendous pleasure. A few talented individuals from Weiden + Kennedy put together this beautiful video about the process we went through in transforming the concept into a 3/4 ton sculpture in the field.

The desire to build a very large scale wheel, just for fun, has been stewing in me for a few years now. Slowly the design has been gelling into something feasible, and it developed into this concept for a hubless wheel assembly. This wheel has an 86″ diameter. Wheel big indeed!

And just for fun, the supporting structure is a tensegrity structure. The tensioning cables provide a great deal of strength with minimal weight and material costs. Plus it is just darn cool. It weighs in at just over 100 lbs.

The wheel will be rolling at this year’s Adult Soapbox Derby on the 18th. Come out to see what happens!

… an update …  Great day of racing! Many more images can be seen here.

We are working on a heavy steel plate base for a kitchen table. It is designed to bolt together to enable efficient packing and shipping. This table will join the cable railings in the home on the Channel Islands.

Laser cut plates interlock and are welded in concealed locations to retain the very sharp, precise lines of the X shape. The edges are honed and polished and all surfaces and fasteners are currently getting a dark patina and clear top coat.

A thick wooden slab top will finish this piece.

I just bought a nice, old manual lathe for the shop. This is a 1954-ish Sheldon manual lathe, and something that has been on the shop wish-list for too long!! Her name is Camille, and I am already quite enamored.

While I can’t say that I have fully mastered all the operations quite yet, the capacity of the shop has jumped dramatically. As we take on more and more projects with kinetic elements our ability to design and produce components that fit and interact precisely is keeping pace.

I designed this fireplace screen to roll along a track that mounts inside the opening of this large fireplace. This screen replaces an existing one that was too large, heavy and awkward to move. The track and hardware were designed to be as discreet as possible to compliment the clean design of this marble clad hearth. The cold-rolled bar stock, used for all elements, matches the sharp, crisp lines of the stone.

The screen has custom fabricated hardware that rolls inside a track with a precisely milled internal race. The screen glides from one end of the track to the other with the mere flick of a finger.