Located in the heart of commercial activity, this store is certainly well-poised for its global launch.
Frolicking @ Interior Design Camp in Vegas /
Overview: Interior Design Camp began Tuesday, July 29th, with a kick off Tour of our World Class Showrooms. With an interactive Instagram Game, our co-founders explored Design Camp Showrooms and their gorgeous goods! After their tour, they meet and mingled with fellow Campers at the Pre-Camp Cocktail Mixer. Bright and early on Wednesday morning, their intense, educational journey began with learning the foundation building, fundamentals of today’s design processes, tools and trends. Wednesday caps with another fabulous Cocktail gathering to cement their new relationships with the Design elite. Thursday’s schedule forged ahead with the building of design relationships, and how to acquire and monetize an envied Social presence. The day progressed with invaluable topics about managing and marketing our projects and our brand, publishing and marketing a book and more!
KH Summer Interns Revealing /
Kwan Henmi's summer consists of construction site visits that end in burritos in the Mission, impromptu photo shoots for our international clients, terrace parties with "Match the Baby Picture w/ the Architect” games, and professional functions with unlimited cheese & wine.
Josh Vaughan
After finishing his freshman year of college in the Program of Environmental Design at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Josh happily joined Kwan Henmi. At KH, he has helped create mockups of interior furniture, mastered designing in the metric system for an international client, and picked up a few phrases in Japanese. In his free time he enjoys going to Giants games, watching more movies than he should, and taking photos of nature.
Melissa Maher
Melissa is a recent graduate of UC Berkeley's architecture program with a minor in city planning. She is passionate about innovative and sustainable design and aspires to build her own home one day. Also, she is an avid participant of the ACE Program and the Eco-Engineering Academy in her hometown of San Diego. Her hobbies include film photography, collecting design of all kinds from clothing to interiors and exploring her favorite cities, San Francisco, San Diego and Rosarito, MX.
Zenas Lam
Zenas will be going into his 5th and final year of the architecture program at Cal Poly Pomona while minoring in Regenerative Studies. His passion lies in changing the community for better and hopes to be able achieve that through his architectural design. Zenas has experience working in different types of project including Commercial, Residential, Education, Solid Waste, Industrial, Civic and Aviation. He also has working experience in Geotechnical Engineering. Some of his favorite extracurricular activities include playing sports, traveling, teaching art and badminton, and playing instruments.
Darush Badgett
With an artistic eye, Dar is charged with creating structure and beauty in the office. His current projects include BART signage, office wall mosaic, and photo shoot for a commercial. Dar is passionate about technology/social media and the ability it gives us in connecting people. When this Marin native is not providing core support to the architects, he is busy Instagramming the latest Kwan Henmi design. In his spare time, Dar enjoys cycling the California coast, reconnoitering unexplored territories, and exploiting the treasures of life with friends; all with an awestruck smile on his face.
Panoramic Project is a positive influence for Mid-Mission /
SF Chronicle
Mid-Mission is giving Mid-Market a run for its money.
While the tech-fueled renaissance of central Market Street has generated headlines around the world, a block away the parallel stretch of Mission Street is undergoing its own, much quieter transformation.
Over the past five years, 1,400 new housing units have opened on Mission Street between Fifth Street and South Van Ness Avenue, including 800 studio apartments that landlord Angelo Sangiacomo built between Seventh and Eighth streets.
And there are a lot more coming.
On Mission between Eighth Street and around 10th Street, contractors are pouring floors on three mid-rise residential towers, construction that will bring an additional 500 units to the corridor by the end of 2015.
At 1400 Mission St., Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corp. is building 190 affordable family units. Across the street, at 1415 Mission St., Martin Building Co. is working on 126 apartments, while a block to the east at 1321 Mission St., Berkeley developer Patrick Kennedy is well under way on 160 micro-studios and "micro-suites," half of which will provide housing for students from the California College of the Arts.
Plans for 750 more units
In the past two weeks alone, developers have submitted plans that would add an additional 750 units of housing to Mid-Mission. AGI Avant has proposed 200 units at 1270 Mission St., now home to a pizza place and parking lot. On the current site of Goodwill, there are plans for 550 apartments and a 460,000-square-foot city office building.
"We are hoping that part of Mission Street establishes its own identity, on a smaller scale than Market Street," Kennedy said. "Having a few thousand new residents should help generate fine-grain retail. ... There is nothing now on our block but pot clubs."
Those bullish on central Mission Street say it has the potential to be a more intimate alternative to Market Street. While Market has a few big housing projects in the pipeline, the street is dominated by block-long buildings home to big tech companies like Dolby, Twitter, Uber and Square.
In contrast, central Mission will be mostly residential. The street has split zoning: The north side is zoned for 140-foot mid-rise buildings and the south side for buildings 65 feet or less. Eric Tao of AGI Avant said the zoning will help protect the row of former garment sweatshops that line the south side of Mission.
Unique character
"Even as the high-rises get developed on the north side, the south side is always going to retain that unique Mission Street character with smaller, interesting buildings," Tao said.
Tao was an early believer in Mid-Mission. A decade ago the block of Mission between Seventh and Eighth streets was an abandoned Greyhound station and surface parking lots. There was a methadone clinic in the alley and homeless encampments.
"It was pretty God-awful," Tao said.
But when the federal government built its office building on the corner of Seventh Street - an attention-getting structure designed by well-known architect Thom Mayne of Los Angeles firm Morphosis - Tao saw potential. His group joined forces with TMG Partners to build the 260-unit SoMa Grand condominium project.
"We made the probably foolish decision to roll everything we had into that site," he said. "In retrospect, we were a little early."
While that stretch of Mission Street still has its share of boarded-up storefronts, low costs have caught the attention of restaurateurs and their investors.
Places to eat, drink
In 2011, Matt Semmelhack opened AQ Restaurant & Bar at 1085 Mission St. and last year followed up with TBD at 1077 Mission St. The cocktail bar OddJob has opened at 1337 Mission St. Focaccia, part of the San Francisco group of downtown lunch spots, is opening at 1198 Mission St., according to Sangiacomo, the 89-year-old developer and landlord who has been trying to develop the neighborhood since the 1970s.
"They are spending a fortune," Sangiacomo said. "I wanted something really good in there, with sandwiches and salads. This is going to be the best one they've got."
Semmelhack said he was drawn to Mission Street because it offered a combination of low overhead and high potential. "Permits were pulled and there were cranes in the air, but the rent was still cheap," he said.
While AQ started as a destination restaurant, it's now drawing residents from buildings like Nema at 8 10th St. and Ava at 55 Ninth St. "There has been an obvious shift in terms of people being more local," Semmelhack said.
As Mission Street becomes denser, some question whether the city is paying enough attention to its public realm. The street is clogged with buses - the 14, 14L and SamTrans lines - with little space for cyclists. And the intersection of Mission and South Van Ness can be harrowing to cross on foot or bike.
Semmelhack recently joined the board of the Mid-Market Central Business District and has to remind other board members that Mission Street exists.
"Market Street is the No. 1 point of conversation in all the meetings, but I'm always outspoken about Mission Street," he said. "It's an important part of the Mid-Market district and at times it tends to get overlooked."
"Mission Street has been ignored forever," said John Elberling, executive director of Todco, which owns and manages about 1,000 units of affordable housing South of Market.
- J.K. Dineen
KH's Transportation Team Adds More Beauty BART commute /
Kwan Henmi has been working with BART to redesign the interior space for a fresher and cleaner daily commuter experience. With its unfinished foamy blue ceilings and dated decor, Powell Street Station has been looking a little rough around the edges lately. At the end of last month, the transit agency held a first round of community meetings and surveys to determine what San Franciscans want to see happen at Powell. BART is currently looking to implement a host of improvements that range from beefing up security to upgrading the transit hub's paltry retail selection.
Article on the BART ceiling initial design was covered by sf.curbed.com
CREW Panel - "Anatomy of the Deal" /
Sylvia Kwan was a panelist in an engaging discussion on the various aspects of a CRE transaction from finding the property, negotiating and closing the deal, getting the entitlements to building the project. Speaking on the same panel was Barbara Morrison (TMC Financing), Eric Hohmann (Madison Marquette), Catherine House (Sperry Van Ness), and Anna Shimko (Sedgwick, LLP). The interactive luncheon sparked interesting debates on the mechanics of the deal and the panelists shared countless stories with the audience.
