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12/20

A New Fire Station for a Great City

By BSA • Posted in Projects

On Thursday, December 15, 2011 the City of Mountain View opened the big glass doors on its newest fire station at Shoreline.  Bull Stockwell Allen's Principal, David Ross, attended the ribbon cutting ceremony that celebrated the City's 11 year process in bringing this project to completion.  BSA was awarded the commision in 2008 and designed the new facility to be built in phases to facilitate continued operation of the temporary facility during construction.   Full operational, the new 10,000 square foot Mountain View Fire Station No. 5, provides a drive through apparatus bay for three response vehicles including the long reserve ladder truck and a hazardous materials response team.  The station is an Essential Service Facility designed for four full time staff with additional beds for temporary crew when needed.

The use of brick with a tower element responds to the strong desire of the City and the firefighters for a design evocative of the traditional stations.  The contemporary design features include additional glazing to meet daylighting needs and to serve as a civic icon  in the Shoreline area. 

The project will achieve LEED Silver certification and utilize solar water heating and daylight harvesting controls to help achieve aggressive energy savings for the City.

12/1

A Design Game Changer - America's Cup in San Francisco

By BSA - Micheal W. • Posted in Design and Technology

The next America's Cup race will prove to be a major game changer, upsetting all the old school yachtsmen with new materials and sail technology that pushes perfomance to extremes.  Just a little geeking out on speed, danger and extreme design.  Watch BMW Video.

11/4

Better by Design - Case Study of the Ideal Day Lodge

By BSA • Posted in Snow Country Design

Featured in the 2011 November issue of Winter Sports Technology International magazine is Bull Stockwell Allen's case study on the programming and design of an ideal day lodge.  "Architecturally, an Ideal Day Lodge will make a statement and stand out from its neighboring lodges, while saving valuable energy resources.  These innovations will allow owners and designers to create dramatic, site-specific environments without sacrificing creature comforts and its guests' connection with the outdoors."  Read the article here.

06/23

This Team Is All Heart

By BSA • Posted in Firm

As part of San Francisco’s inaugural CANstruction competition, Bull Stockwell Allen’s team (which was comprised of Tipping Mar structural engineers and Pankow builders) was honored with the Structural Ingenuity Award for our 8 foot tall, 3-dimensional representation of the San Francisco Food Bank’s Logo, a Heart and an Apple.   

CANstruction is a design competition and fundraising event that challenges A/E/C teams to build large sculptures out of cans. All the food used for the structures and money raised benefits the San Francisco Food Bank. The event was held on June 21st through the 22nd in the City View room at the Metreon, San Francisco. The competition included entries from 13 teams comprised of architecture, engineering and construction firms. The panel of judges included representatives from each of the A/E/C  and culinary industries of the Bay Area. Awards were given in 5 categories and the judging was ‘blind’, with judges only learning of the teams’ names after the awards were given out.   

Our free standing, HEART OF THE CITY, structure was completed using 2,170, 12 ounce cans of tuna.  The team utilized Building Information Modeling software (REVIT) to design the structure prior to its execution at the event.  As a result our team had the structure built in about 2 hours, finishing well ahead of the other competitors. 

Our team’s entry description:

“An APPLE a day keeps the doctor away. So have a HEART and give what you CAN. The San Francisco Food Bank logo is a perfect symbol for the generosity of heart in this great city. When open hearts feed hungry mouths, we CAN see that there is love in THE HEART OF THE CITY.”

CANstruction San Francisco raised over $18,000 and 53,132 pounds of canned fruits, vegetables and proteins for the San Francisco Food Bank. Bull Stockwell Allen was additionally proud to be a co-chair and sponsor for this event.  A very BIG thank you to all of our firms, colleagues, friends and family who helped us raise the funds to purchase all of those cans of tuna. Together we CAN make a difference!

If you’d like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview, please call Sarah Mergy at 415/281-4720 ext. 232 or e-mail Sarah at smergy@bsaarchitects.com