San Francisco Swank by Muratore

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I found myself back in the SF Millenium Tower at the end of October, shooting a very nice residence by my friends at Muratore Corp. We shot the spaces “straight” and then did a round of lifestyle images.

San Francisco Residential by Baran Studios

Matt Baran (Baran Studio Architects) has been killing it lately! Between some fantastic residential work in Oakland’s “Bordertown” neighborhood that recently won a Citation Award at the East Bay AIA Awards (with photos by yours truly) to the WordPress campus that got the attention of the industry, Matt is really on a roll.

Which brings us to this most recent project in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood. Matt re-designed the structure and added a pop-out bay window that has real chutzpah!

San Francisco Residential by Andrew Morrall Architect

EDIT: This blog has MOVED. You’re on the old, dead blog. Everything (including this post) has been migrated onboard my website. Here’s the direct link:

http://scotthargisphoto.com/blog/

Update your bookmarks! See you there!

We now continue with our original programming….

When superior architecture meets fine craftsmanship, you get the raw material for great photographs. So when architect Andrew Morrall asked me to shoot a new residential remodel that featured the cabinetry work of Hendrik Furhmeister, I knew from the first look that this would be a winner.

SF Millenium Tower by Handel Architects

I’ve shot the inside of this building many times, but I’ve never needed a good photo of the outside. Earlier this year, I decided I ought to make one, anyway. I spent a couple of Sunday afternoons wandering around the neighborhood, looking suspicious, scouting for locations to shoot from. Eventually I settled on the eighth floor of a building occupied by a global hedge fund management company.

They wouldn’t mind letting a random photographer run around their building, right? [#sarcasm]  As it turns out, it was actually fine. Getting access to a shooting location usually comes down to asking (the right people, in the right way), figuring out the process, and then following it to a “T”. I worked with the building management, and the tenant (the hedge fund people) and while it took a couple of weeks and some paperwork, eventually I got everything I had asked for: access for several hours, at two different times.

As you can see from the construction, this angle won’t be available for much longer. The new Transbay Tower and transportation hub going into a 2-block piece of the SoMA district will soon occlude the gorgeous blue and white Millenium. At least from this viewpoint.

First Prize!

The photo above was just sent to me by my client Building Lab, along with a note explaining that they won First Prize (Residential, $100k – $250k) in last years “Remmie” awards, with a project I photographed! Congrats to the incredibly talented folks over at BL, especially Stephen Shoup, and Hide Kawato!

The Remmies are the annual NARI contest, but sadly, the San Francisco NARI chapter’s website is pretty sorry, so almost no one knows about the awards or who wins (the last time they updated the awards section was 2010). Note to sfbanari.org: The Internet can be a very powerful tool. You should check it out.

Snarkiness aside, NARI is a good organization and I’m especially pleased to have photographed the First Prize winning project for three consecutive years. I wonder which of my projects this year will be the winner?  😀

Here’s a photo from the Building Lab’s First Prize winning project:

Highrise Residential — San Francisco’s North Beach

One from the archives… About six months ago I spent two days with Muratore Corp, photographing one of their projects in San Francisco’s trendy North Beach neighborhood. This was one of the best projects I’ve ever shot with Muratore, and there have been a few good ones!!

One of the great aspects of this remodel was the variety and quality of the materials. Rich wood cabinetry (Walnut and Maple), stainless steel, Carerra Marble, granite, and even Ostrich Skin all make appearances.

One thing that made this a really interesting shoot was the fact that there were two strong elements in the place that were holdovers from the previous incarnation of the condo. In  1999, this place was “done” by Barry Brukoff, a Sausalito-based interior designer, and photographed for Architectural Digest by none other than Mary E. Nichols.

When the unit was sold around 2010, the coffee table and a set of large glass sculptural pieces (visible at the far left of the kitchen photo, above) were deemed too heavy to move, and so they stayed behind and were incorporated into the new owners’ plans. Cindy Bayon, of Muratore, did a radical renovation that included moving the fireplace, no small feat in a high-rise….

Here are a few behind-the-scenes shots, including one of me, comparing my living room photo, with the view of Coit Tower, to Mary Nichols’.

San Francisco Kitchen & Bath: Leslie Arnold, Part Two

A few posts back, I chronicled a recent shoot with architect Leslie Arnold – a kitchen/bath remodel in San Francisco. Today, here’s another one, with a distinctly different flavor.

Unlike the other project, which was a sort of Victorian-meets-country blend, this was Mission all the way. Arched doorways, stucco, smallish rooms….and Leslie introduced an Arts & Crafts flavor to the kitchen.

For the lighting geeks: The shot above involved gelling all the under-cabinet lights minus green (or magenta) to bring the fluorescent tubes back to something close to daylight. We introduced some flash from the left side down near the fridge, and there’s also continuous light in the rear left corner as well as the foreground. A lot of careful positioning of cards and some white reflectors got everything under control.

With the kitchen done, we moved into the bath, where Leslie had cast off all pretense of Mission style and gone 100% contemporary. This is the epitome of crisp! Green glass tile, white CeasarStone vanity top, and rich wood cabinets. The little scrubby was a last-minute addition to the styling that I just couldn’t resist.

All in all this was a really satisfying project to shoot, thanks to Leslie’s great work and some excellent collaborative atmosphere.

San Francisco Kitchen & Bath by Leslie Arnold

I recently completed a couple of projects with architect Leslie Arnold; a pair of kitchen/bath remodels in San Francisco. Here’s the first one, and it was a real pleasure to shoot!

Nor was it simple. The atrium-like eating area at the rear was flooded with sunlight, but the center island and “cooking” end of the space was significantly darker, and had to be lit in order for the photos to match what our eyes experienced. There’s a mixture of strobe and continuous light being applied across the entire image. Some of the strobe was via a head mounted on a light stand that was then “boomed” out the window of an adjoining room, by my assistant!

In the bathroom, we again used a combination of flash (this time a small speedlight) and continuous light (for the cabinetry) to compress the dynamic range into something that matched what our eyes could see.

We wrapped up the day with a few detail shots in other areas of the house where Leslie had done work, including the bedroom closets and storage.

Up next: a completely different kitchen/bath look, also by Leslie Arnold! Stay tuned….

San Francisco Eclectic by Susan Diana Harris

Susan Diana Harris is nothing if not bold. I’d use stronger language, but this is a family blog. She’s not interested in anything that doesn’t make a clear, loud statement, and she’s not afraid to take chances, either. And that combination can lead to some really cool interior spaces, like this San Francisco loft.

This place is in what is possibly the coolest part of the city. The study (above, with blue chalkboard paint and the most awesome light fixture EVER) is classic SDH design. You can’t walk in there without going, “Whoa….”
That was my reaction, anyway…

But in the converted industrial space that comprises most of the loft, Susie took all the energy that she would ordinarily put into the wall treatments and focused it instead on the floors.

This was not a complete remodel — she and her team had to work with existing floors (including the high gloss finish), existing kitchen, and much else. But this place has her stamp on it, for sure. You can see an installation photo HERE.

We wrapped with a shot of the bedroom, done in what might be the most mellow tones Susie has ever assembled. But of course, a giant gorilla….

SF Kitchen by Folio Design

Catching up on Fall projects, and first up is a kitchen I shot for Folio Design back on October.

Designer Erin McGilvery, with whom I’ve worked before, really nailed it with this contemporary/country design. The first thing that caught my eye was the raised panels on the end of the island and the cabinet doors. This millwork was outstanding, and we knew we had to make sure the texture showed in the photos.

Erin is always fun to work with – and we had a good time styling this room!