Design/Build Blog

Miller residence update

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 23:52:33 -0800

Working through the recent rains, a storm that lasted five days and, according to the National Weather Service, dropped over 4” of rain, Art and Monica continued with construction on the Miller Residence. The building was completely wrapped in protective blue tarps each and every night, and their vigilence kept the rains at bay.

We completed with drywall installation yesterday and just started with taping and mudding of seams. Margaret, the project archtiect, arrived on site to review our progress and walked the site with Art, Monica and the owner. With several site visits to local retail stores, the team was able to come to significant decisions regarding floor finishes, cabinet types, door colors and finishes, and review tile layout details. All in all, our meeting was very productive.

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Gallery @ Melrose

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:21:19 -0800

At the beginning of this year we started construction of our new project: Gallery @ Melrose. Teaming up for our third project together, Jeff Alsbrook of Standard, has designed an open gallery for Maxfield Enterprises. The space is being cleared of all previous partitions and being opened to create a unified space. Carlos Alvarado is leading the effort for dcon and has already completed 90% of demolition.

Progress photos can be seen under our commercial projects.

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We’ll keep you updated as construction progresses!

royal/t gallery project update

Wed, 9 Jan 2008 00:14:18 -0800

We are in the pre-construction stage for the second phase of the gallery/cafe project. In October the gallery’s Open House was a huge success with many attendees for the party and gallery showing. A couple shots from the Open House are posted on projects page (see commercial projects).

The primary objective of gallery spaces, art installation, and retail shop are complete. This next phase incorporates the final element, a cafe, for this newly conceived cafe/shop/art space.

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Check back for construction updates.

new hire IV

Mon, 7 Jan 2008 18:51:44 -0800

dcon is excited about a new member to its staff, Katia Vaquerano. She has been hired as an executive assistant and shall be responsible for project accounting and coordination. Working directly with the principals she manages, detailed project reporting, subcontractor coordination, team project scheduling and general office management.

Katia has seven years of experience in the financial industry. Her accounting duties during her four years with Washington Mutual as a Senior Teller varied from providing exceptional customer service to generating new accounts. While working for Western Federal Credit Union she was a collections agent responsible for filing and suing in small claims court as well as placing liens on property and filing abstracts and judgements. At her previous position with Maxfield she resolved vendor issues, processed vendor invoices and was responsible for accounting duties such as matching, batching, coding, and entering, posting and reconciling batches.

We’re excited to have her on board and feel she will provide essential support in project accounting management.

winter in mexico

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 17:38:16 -0800

At the end of the year Art and Aaron traveled to several cities in Mexico, starting at Guadalajara through Cuernavaca to Mexico City. We stopped in Morelia, Michoacan’s capital, to see friends and fellow architects, allowing us to see some the historic center, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A short trip later we arrived in Cuernavaca and took a day trip to Taxco - a beautiful, mountainous city of white buildings. A couple days later we traveled to Mexico City and quickly set about trying to see some off the cities major sites.

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Some of our travel highlights:

Mexico City, D.F.: Baragan’s House and Studio, Museo Casa Estudio Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo, Anthropologica Museo, Palacio de Bellas Artes, Zocolo

Cuernavaca: Plaza de Armas, Casa Hidalgo, Hacienda de Cortes

Xochicalco

Office Party

Sat, 22 Dec 2007 13:06:41 -0800

Our holiday party tradition, celebrated with family and friends, was particularly special this year... joining our office were two very good friends, Monica Estrada and Carlos Alvarado. With the studio once again growing in size these two “design-builders” helped bring a high level of project coordination. Their experience as designers have been invaluable when working on complex, highly detailed projects.

We also saw the addition of Thuy Nguyen! She’s the super fabulous lady keeping our office in tip-top shape. Brought on as our office manager she is responsible for office accounting and general project coordination.

Lastly, we have one more reason to celebrate, this year we have another special addition to the dcon family, Fabian and Rosa’s beautiful baby girl Kayla!

Pasinetti Construction progress

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 19:55:19 -0800

The demolition is complete and construction has started to give form to spatial concepts for the new kitchen and bathrooms. The design calls for removing the downstairs existing bedroom and bathroom and recreate the architect’s original vision of having a multipurpose space with openings leading to the two exterior patio areas on either side of the room. This return of the original concept calls for a new kitchen and reconceptualizing the bathrooms. The new design “opens” the rooms and reconfigures the layout to accommodate modern equipment and appliances.

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new hire III

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:19:46 -0800

dcon is proud to announce another new member to its staff, Richard Marinero. He joins us as a project supervisor and brings over five years of construction experience to our team.

Pasinetti Renovation Update

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 18:42:08 -0800

Once we opened the walls the we found the existing framing in good condition and practically free from water damage. By removing wall and ceiling plaster we uncovered asbestos insulated pipes and duct work, which during the 1950s was a common building material and only later found to be harmful if airborne. We called specialists to remove all forms of hazardous materials making the home safe to work and for future home owners. Also, typical for homes undergoing it’s first major renovations after 50 years, we are replacing all wiring, outlets, and switches as well as repiping existing iron pipes with copper.

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new hire II

Mon, 6 Aug 2007 18:34:28 -0700

dcon is proud to announce another new member to its staff, Carlos Alvarado, project manager. Another graduate of Woodbury University, Carlos has experience working on large scale commercial, residential and institutional projects. He has a wide range of design experience and construction knowledge and will be running two commercial projects in Culver City.

new hire

Tue, 1 May 2007 18:41:41 -0700

A graduate of Woodbury University, Monica Estrada has experience working with large scale projects and has come on board as a project manager. She is currently working with Art Lopez on a Griffin/Enright designed Miller Residence in the Sunset Plaza area.

Monica attended school with both Aaron and Art. Upon graduating she went to work for Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s Solar Deparment where she was instrumental in implementing many of the departments solar panel projects. She worked the design of solar panels for the downtown convention center’s parking lot and building.

She also worked with Studio-111, a Long Beach architectural firm, where she worked on urban revitalization projects and large scale architectural projects.