2016 in retrospect
With my friend and former colleague Mark Coleman at Agave Uptown in Oakland. (Photo by Rika Putri.) |
At Elsie's funeral in the old Nesodden Church. |
Helge and Bente on their terrace on 17 May. |
My great-grandfather's summerhouse. |
Bente's daughter, Henriette, who lives nearby, built a house on land once owned by my great-grandfather, Georg Parmann I (the namesake of my grandfather and father, II and III). Helge took me on a walk and I saw the summerhouse I first visited when I was two. I remember its kitchen, with its trapdoor to a root cellar. When Helge showed me the allée of linden trees that leads up to the back of the house, various memories fell in place. The allée is hidden from the road, so I was unaware of it. I'd also conflated the real summer house with one that adjoins it on the same property. So thanks to Helge for this!
With Jøstein Brøbekk at one of the pavilions of the Oslo harbor walk he planned. |
Alison (left) at Glenstone, the Potomac, Maryland, sculpture park. |
Kathy, John, and Sally at Chez Panisse Café. |
My friend and colleague Ngoc Ngo with Elizabeth at Calavera in Oakland. |
In the summer, Leslie Taylor rejoined my firm to co-lead our studio with Matt Richardson. This ended an interregnum created by the earlier upheaval. Elizabeth and I have been colleagues on the editorial side for several years. This summer and fall, we worked together with Kendra Mayfield and Vernon Mays to put out an unexpected 2017 edition of the firm's flagship Design Forecast. My longtime friend and colleague, John Bricker, who started with the firm in San Francisco but now lives and works in Manhattan, served as creative director for it, thus closing a circle. When I started, we worked together for the first five years, starting the firm's magazine, Dialogue, with the wonderful Helen Dimoff. John worked closely with the designers, led on the print side by Bryan Burkhart (with Rika Putri, Denisa Trenkle, and Yng Yng Marshall). Lainie Ransom herded the cats. (The online side is led by Jonathan Skolnick and managed by Nick Bryan.) The publication isn't out yet, but it's beautiful. I'm lucky to be part of this talented, tri-coastal team.
The kitchen, with newly repainted cabinets. |
The two Michaels, Opalak and Parman, in the latter's kitchen. |
The famous Sydney Opera House. |
In November, I was invited by the academic impresario Anthony Teo (with an assist from my friend and writing partner Richard Bender) to give a talk at Anthony's Univer-Cities Conference at the University of Newcastle in Australia. I spent nine days "down under," presenting with my friend Emily Marthinsen, the campus architect at UC Berkeley, then headed for Sydney - where I saw Tom Owens, a friend and colleague, the writer and critic Penny Craswell, and the famous Opera House.
With Rhys and Jana Ryan (and sons) in the Yarra Valley. |
Anne Marie Davies and Ted Hochschwenden in Melbourne's Botanical Garden. |
Wine tasting in the Hunter Valley. |
The issue of "The Spectator Australia" that I bought at Melbourne Airport. |
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