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Youngs Farm was founded in 1893 when John Youngs married Ida Hegeman, thus Youngs Farm on Hegemans Lane. It is now five generations running. Currently Remsen and Tim Dooley, along with Remsen’s mother, Paula Youngs Weir own and operate the farm, kitchen and market. Remsen and Tim have been engaged in ownership and operations over the last 15 years, cobbling together operations and making ad-hoc improvements while taking the farm through an ownership transition. With this assessment and planning eff ort they would like to make a holistic evaluation of the farm and transition the facilities from roadside farm stand to more all-encompassing grounds with more robust sales capacity including: a visually integrated farming and baking program; updated and efficient food preparation and storage opportunities; environ-mental education opportunities with mission driven interventions.

The small roadside farm stand sits amid lush greenery, with the iconic Gold Coast mansions in the distance. It has a commercial kitchen and bakery on-site, putting out soups, quiches, pot pies, cookies, breads, muffins, biscuits, scones, pies, and cakes.

This collaboration with Youngs Farm aims to coalesce the ideas of the Farm’s multiple voices and interests into the re-imagining of contemporary yet historically relevant facilities. This Master Plan will form and
articulate an appropriate vision that is focused on the people who this facility will serve. At the same time the Plan will provide an integrated architectural and landscape solution that authentically reflects this unique organization and local landmark. Through farm visits and engaged conversations with the Youngs Farm team, baile-studio will listen, record, evaluate and distill information and frame the design, engineering, and cost considerations.

The Deep Mission – or Outer Mission as it is more commonly known – began as farmsteads and pastureland that provided San Francisco with with Swiss chard and potatoes. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Mission District was a primarily working-class white neighborhood dominated by Irish and German immigrants, with a significant Italian presence, especially after the 1906 earthquake. Irish families populated areas around 24th Street, while Italian immigrants, often employed as laborers, farmers, or peddlers, settled in the district before the area shifted toward a Latino majority in the 1950s-60s. In the 1990s to 2000s housing bubble and its subsequent gentrification led to many Latino/Chicano and Asian/Filipino families to move into the area. Until recently it remained one of the few low-rent and middle-class enclaves in San Francisco. Lately the neighborhood has gained popularity with Silicon Valley employees looking to be in the city, but have easy access to the highways heading south.

In a full circle moment, our client, a recent Irish immigrant, purchased a 1916 post earthquake Edwardian timber framed house adjacent to the 24th Street corridor. With the building she inherited a well proportioned but down on her luck family compound that had seen a lot of unpermitted interior manipulation throughout the years. Our first goal was to uncover the years of illegal renovation and neglect and see what stories might be hiding within. The design process saw us untangling a rabbit warren of walls to open up and create a large light filled Kitchen, Dining and Living area. In the process a closed off industrial skylight was identified, revealed and celebrated at the nexus of the Public and Private spaces. The open loft like space now hovers over the bustling neighborhood below where one is as likely to stumble across a hipster bar or Michelin starred restaurant as the old family fruit stand.

Former clients purchased a shingle style ocean front property on the east end of Long Island and brought us in to redesign and furnish the interiors in a way that would better complement their lifestyle and extensive modern art collection. The reinterpretation was to be thoughtfully sympathetic to the existing character of the house, yet clean and modern.

The renovation began with a new boulder fireplace at the heart of the house- 2 story and appropriately rugged, and the rest of the insertion grows from here. White Oak shelving lines the Great Room and plays host to the client’s books and art. A sculptural stair brings people up to the second floor, where a bridge separates the Primary bed wing from the Guest wing.

Custom furniture: the dining table, side tables, beds and built-ins complement the mid-century pieces providing a relaxed and comfortable place to spend time. Our clients sum it up nicely:

“The interior itself is absolutely poetic….. you managed to achieve exactly the sense of casual elegance we hoped for. We love the fact that you feel invited to put your feet up on the furniture and relax, but everywhere you look is another beautiful detail to feast your eyes on. The fireplaces are epic! We LOVE the Great Room, and the books make it cozy while the windows make it open. The bridge and beautiful viewing area (which we fought!) is gorgeous. We adore the ceiling, where it feels like the waves bring your eye to the view of the ocean. One of the masterpieces in the house is the front stair, and even the ceiling of the stair to the basement. The master bedroom feels like being on a boat, and Peter’s remarkable custom rug brings the beach and ocean indoors.”

Built in 1913 by Southern Pacific, this single-story Craftsman-style building originally served as Los Altos’ passenger and freight depot, and was the first economic endeavor to encourage business development in the city. After a vehicular boulevard replaced the railroad tracks, the depot was repurposed several times over many decades, and though registered as a historic landmark in 1984, the building became stagnant and fell into disrepair.

Despite its neglect, our client recognized the building’s potential as a gathering place for family, friends, and community. Nestled near the main intersection of the City’s commercial district, the depot showed promise for fulfilling her objective to create an artisan bakery and cafe. She intended to showcase the craftsmanship of the building while reenergizing the historic landmark.

The building’s renovation involved extensive interior modifications to past retrofits that had caused major obstructions to circulation and natural light. With a creative and thoughtful redesign, the building’s previous challenges became features of the new café. A full-height vitrine adjacent to the cafe’s flexible group dining area now showcases culinary activity and fosters public intrigue while illuminating a bustling kitchen. The coffee bar, configured as a peninsula, allows interaction between patron and server for immediate transaction or extended stay. The depot’s original open-air platform is now a linear space devoted to individual and paired seating, with an extension to the north offering opportunities for intimate gatherings, with casual seating adjacent to a standalone fireplace.

The former railroad depot is now clad with timeless finishes, cleanly detailed custom millwork, comfortable furnishings, and an abundance of natural light. The refined color palette is intentionally subtle, with reflective bright white walls and a ceiling grounded by monolithic, ashen wood floor. The rich depth of old-growth redwood, warm hickory, anodized aluminum, and natural steel further complement the artisan breads, pastries, and beverages of this sophisticated neighborhood bakery.

There are 12 children in the McGroary family, Some live abroad, some live nearby, and then there is Philip, the youngest (at 55) who still lives with his mother in the same house in which he was born. They live in the ‘new’ house- built in the early 1900’s.

One night at the local pub, Philip asked me about the feasibility of fixing up the old stone house- the house his father was born in- now derelict and crumbling. He wanted a place where family could come home and stay and be close by. He wanted to maintain the character of the old homestead, but make it water tight and insulated, and introduce new creature comforts.

The work here rehabilitates the old stone house, reinforcing the crumbling stone walls with new, cast in place concrete. The dirt floors are excavated and insulation and a new radiant floor system is added. A cast in place concrete addition houses the modern kitchen and bathroom, and introduces a communal dining area that frames a view of the iconic mountain- Carnaween.

The JVP International NYC Cyber Center is a workplace incubator hosting startups and entrepreneurs, connecting them to a cyber alliance including investors, multinational companies, leading executives, entrepreneurs, and universities within the New York ecosystem. Within the Center, JVP nurtures startups to help them scale, providing strategic guidance, business development support, funding, and access to leading universities such as Columbia, Cornell Tech, NYU, and CUNY.

For its fledging NYC location, JVP identified the 1879 cast iron Mills and Gibbs building at 462 Broadway, the largest, fully- clad cast iron structure within the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District. The two primary objectives for this workplace renovation were 1) Respect and pay homage to the raw industrial nature of the historic building, and 2) create spaces that drive collaboration and foster innovation.

The three story, 25,000sf renovation features a street level presence with a reception area, coffee bar, publicly accessible communal table, and rentable office spaces. An blackened steel and wood stair is introduced at the first level and connects all three floors. The sculptural and airy stair pays homage to the raw materials endemic in the buildings, and encourages users to walk between floors. Gathering spaces, or ‘Town Squares’ are located where the stair lands at each level- introducing opportunities for chance encounter, exchanges of ideas, or all hands meetings. These central spaces play host to community events within the office collective.

The workplace layout takes an egalitarian approach, prioritizing light, air and views for all- locating open desking along the building’s perimeter and meeting spaces and conferencing along the interior core. Original cast iron columns and old growth structural timbers are preserved and celebrated. A simple material palette of steel, wood and glass are introduced and organized within the spaces providing minimal and sympathetic interventions. Any necessary partitions float free within the space allowing the rigor of the column grid and structure to visually carry through the workplace.

Recently relocated from California to New York City, residential clients and dear friend of ours purchased an apartment in the iconic 56 Leonard “Jenga” building in Tribeca. While they very much appreciated the open floor plan, tall ceilings, and bold design, they desired a space that was more humane and engaged us to create a sympathetic solution; one that was light but powerful, eased the scale, and tempered the space in a way that was not obvious or out of place. Our charge was to create a new environment that felt natural to the building as if it was conceived of from the very beginning.

Paying homage to the building’s existing themes¾elegant curves and a pill-shaped motif¾we first reconsidered the cracking Venetian plaster fireplace and the black-lacquered kitchen island for warmer, softer, and more durable materials. A custom-designed, vertical, white oak, and bronze-fluted assembly gracefully bends around an existing firebox opening. As the sun slips towards the western horizon, the oak half-rounds and bronze angles transform: the colors intensify and diffuse a warm glow complemented by the twinkling city lights. In the nearby kitchen, the existing island felt out of place to our clients who desired something more sensitive. The vertical oak and bronze language from the fireplace is again employed at the island. These transformations infuse and unify the Great Room with a new warmth and character. White oak and bronze assemblies are introduced throughout the home, providing a sense of semblance: a place to remove one’s shoes and coat, a specially-crafted console to dispense keys, a base for a cherished sculpture.

As they gather together for breakfast every morning, it was vital to design a small, intimate table near the kitchen. Responding to the pushing and pulling forces within the space, a custom, walnut ‘bean’ table bends around an existing column and inhabits a previously awkward and unusable space. Two-inch walnut strips are laminated together in overlapping angles to compose the complex shape of the top while legs taper down to lightly touch the floor. The table is large enough to easily accommodate the family, yet intimate enough for one enjoying the remarkable view over their laptop or book.

The powder room that services the Great Room offered another opportunity to borrow gestures from the fireplace and further unify the home’s character. Accommodating existing elements and limited space, a custom-designed vanity of solid Carrara marble with a ribbed basin and bronze accent serves as a sculptural showpiece within the entry sequence.

Thoughtful interventions have been added throughout the home; some more apparent like the elegant rhythm of the fireplace and some more subtle like a simple bronze transition in the new wood floors. These interventions are considered, crafted, and executed in a way that respects the existing building but weaves a gentle language perfectly reflective of the family’s sensibilities.