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Aug 7

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Failed First

I learned the hard way that buildings, especially the ones you don’t like, don’t go away.

The good news is, you can bury the incriminating evidence. Before starting my firm in 1986, I worked for and with other architects. And while my name and signature are somewhere on those drawings, drafts and contracts, I’ve been assured that they are deeply hidden in a storage area of pre-electronic files.

One of my very first moonlight projects was with my good friend Kent Macdonald and it was as a remodel. The project included a revamped façade.  I’d like to think that the project’s final appearance was a result of naiveté (I was paralyzed by excitement and fear) and some stubborn clients.

It has an unfortunate composition that includes two different materials that step, something we would never do today. A clumsy balcony hovers overhead. It has been repainted in the ugliest cold color that emphasize the clumsy composition.

Luckily, for a period of time, the evidence was located on a sleepy San Francisco street. Unfortunately, a popular store opened half a block away and now my abomination is passed by thousands. Worse yet, by the time I opened my own firm five years later, I was living within walking distance to the project.

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Jul 18

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How to spend less than $75,000 and completely change your home.

I promise this is no infomercial!

Last summer, I purchased a property with my partner, Mark English, that straddled Sonoma and Napa. The inside and outside were the product of a 1970s over zealous homeowner with a tighter budget than he wanted to admit. Parts were completed, others not and most of the style choices were an abomination in my strict modernist handbook.

These were my rules (or guidelines or trips) for how to spend under $75,000 and still get a fab new interior.

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May 2

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Part 2 of Procrastination in the City: Les Halles

The Quartier des Halles, an area near the Louvre, is being completely torn down and rebuilt for the second time in 30 years. For many centuries it housed merchant markets but in the modern era visitors were only attracted by the nearby great museums of the city. Les Halles itself was not very useful or inspiring.

But Paris knew that Les Halles needed not only an “upgrade” but a complete reenvisioning. But it didn’t start off so well, the first plan, completed in 1979 would make most architects cringe. The buildings closed themselves off from the street and existing urban fabric of the neighborhood and the construction was terrible. The buildings quickly fell into disrepair and tourism in that area certainly didn’t blossom.

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Apr 23

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8 Jobs that are harder

Now all this talk about Anne Romney and how being a mom is the hardest job in the world has me thinking “What is the second hardest job?” I encourage all readers to chime in here!

1. Being Newt Gingrich’s wife

2. Actually, maybe being Calista Gingrich’s hairdresser. Imagine if every one comes into your shop and wants that do. The environmental impact alone is terrifying – think of all those hair-dye fumes!

3. Being Anne’s Romney sons. Imagine the daily reminders of the sacrifices made by your mother.

4. Being Clarence Thomas. I think it should take incredible self control and willpower to be that quiet and un-participatory when serving on the most eloquent judicial body in the world. Way to go Clarence! You totally learned your lesson after that last hair comment…

6. Being Newt’s Super PAC endorser, Sheldon Adelson. I could have done a lot better with that $ 16 million. Thank goodness Adelson doesn’t pay more than 15% in taxes.

7. Being a scientist and biologist and believing in creationism.

8. And finally, being the architect for the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky – as though being an architect was not hard enough. I think 7 and 8 may be a tie, actually.

Apr 12

Image provided by David Baker + Partners Architects
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In memory of Peter Mackenzie

About two weeks ago, the architect Peter MacKenzie died. There’s not much more that I can say that has not already been more eloquently been said about Peter, across many media but I just felt the need to express my loss.

I met Peter years back although I won’t say how many, it feels like betraying a secret! He was a fellow architect in town who was also balancing designing housing for profit and designing affordable housing. In his memory, there are over 2,000 affordable homes in San Francisco bearing his mark.

Peter was a rare human being whose amazing characteristics shone in the competitive field of architecture. He was sharp, fun to be around and humble despite his many accomplishments. He was also always willing to help, I knew I could call him (and I did, on many occasions), to ask a question, to bemoan the latest “board of whatever” trying to block our work or commiserate about the latest crazy regulation that was making it harder to do good and affordable work.

I wish the best to his family and to David and his office.

He will be truly missed.

Apr 2

Procrastination in the City (part 1)

(Upon completing this entry, my daughter informed me that 900 words was far too long for one blog post. She then informed me she was “unaware that my mother was a woman of so many words.”)

If there’s one thing I love best about the Internet – it’s that there is no off switch. During bouts of insomnia, caused by stress or jetlag or that second Martini during dinner, I can access the whole world. There’s a different aesthetic to the kind of learning I do at 3am. More recently, I’ve become entrenched in the world of digressionary architecture research. I find myself reading blogs on Victorian architecture or tracking new projects in Australia.

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Mar 27

Preface to my Monograph

This is a long overdue post and also a means of motivating myself back into blog writing (I’ve been travelling a lot in the last couple months).

Below, I’ve pasted the preface to my monograph which was released late in 2011 and was a labor of love and also, perhaps, a bit of crazy.

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Preface

Simplicity is complexity resolved. —Constantin Brâncusi

First, a confession: I’m obsessed with architecture. I can’t imagine my life without buildings. And although this fixation can strain my health, finances, and stress level, I just can’t give it up.

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Mar 14

Brooklyn Museum Panel

If you enjoyed my interview with the Architect’s Take on women in architecture, I’d like to invite you to the Brooklyn Museum this Friday. I’ll be on a panel discussing the role of women in the male-dominated field of architecture. 

For more information, check out the NYMag event listing.

Mar 14

The Architect’s Newspaper

I am incredibly honored to be featured as a studio visit on the Architect’s Newspaper!

Here’s the beginning of the article:

ImageSan Francisco’s Anne Fougeron is one of the torchbearers for women in architecture. As one of the very few to head up a design practice in the city—or in the country, for that matter—she’s learned how to make it through struggle.

“This profession is so unfriendly to women,” she said. “It’s hard for us to get work, it’s hard for us to be taken seriously. But it’s not a nice field for the guys either—so you have to buck up and just do it.” Committed to modernism and its rigors, she’s known for her elegantly detailed residences, and has made the jump to larger projects, including a branch library for the city and multifamily housing (a breadth of work explored in her recent monograph from Princeton Architectural Press).

Feb 28

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Women in Architecture (“Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, “She doesn’t have what it takes.” They will say, “Women don’t have what it takes.” – Clare Boothe Luce)

About a month ago, I sat down with Rebecca of the Architects’ Take to discuss what it is like being a woman in a male-dominated profession. I’ve pasted one of my favorite parts below and you can find the full interview is here.

For example, in the Architect’s Journal study about women in architecture, there was a woman who commented that Zaha Hadid’s success has resulted in her having no family life. My first reaction was “Who cares? And how is that relevant to her body of work as an architect?” Why is a family life something a successful woman has to give up? It might have never been on Zaha’s radar. How presumptuous it is for anyone to assume that Zaha is not perfectly happy with the choices she has made, both professionally and personally. Besides, just because you aren’t married doesn’t mean you are relegated to a life of spinsterhood. I remember the late 80s when that study came out saying that women over 35 were more likely to be abducted by terrorists than to get married.

Zaha could have had 7 lovers, one for every day of the week for all we know!

We – and women particularly – should all be proud of Zaha. She is a resounding success and an extraordinary architect. And frankly, I don’t hear the same criticism being applied to Rem Koolhaas. A few years ago, I remember a piece on him in the New York Times. And they were just flippantly describing his two families – one with his wife and the other with his mistress. I mean, he clearly had enough time on his hands. He had it all, and then some.

Women have a harder time than men in architecture, plain and simple. And it gets discouraging. You can get beaten down. It can be easier to find something else to do instead. I was a single mom at the same time that I had a firm, and it wasn’t easy. I didn’t have a life partner to support me; I had to work. I had some more flexibility, because it was my own firm, so I could incorporate my daughter into my work schedule. She would come to the office after school and it was fine. Or I didn’t have to ask permission to go to parent-teacher conferences. But I was the boss, and even when I could leave for an hour on a Wednesday to see her play basketball, I still had to land new jobs, make payroll, attend meetings, serve on architectural juries, and pay the rent.

 

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