THERMASS- A Proposal for Metropolis Next Generation 2011

We recently submitted our proposal for the Metropolis Next Generation 2011 award, which asked designers to put their ideas to work to bring a 1960's federal building in Los Angeles to Zero Environmental Impact.

THERMASS is a multi-functional, single component solution for retrofitting existing buildings to be more energy efficient, seismically sound, and to improve quality of work conditions by enabling more natural light and air into a space.

The THERMASS system uses long-standing methods of energy efficiency to advance the goals of creating a net-zero building, including the use of natural light and air, and the earth’s ability to heat and cool spaces. These simple and efficient design solutions combined with state of the art smart technologies (greywater recycling system, operable aperture domes that move with the sun) make THERMASS a feasible and efficient solution to advancing the goals of a net zero building.

Check out the video belwo we made for the project, which provides a brief summary of our proposal. More images of THERMASS can be found on our website.

Hardware Geekout

The hardware for our latest prototype arrived today in this amazing packaging.

Sunset Junction Design Proposal

We recently submitted our proposal for the Sunset Junction Design Competition. Our proposal invites the public to enjoy the outdoor community space defined by colorful powder-coated teepees, diverse landscapes, and reclaimed boardwalk flooring and seating.

Retired metal sign posts will be powder-coated to create four teepees that delineate gathering spaces and provide shade as foliage begins to grow at their peaks. Seating areas run along the perimeter of each teepee and provide a comfortable and hospitable place to relax and meet friends and neighbors.

Bike racks are integrated into the design of the space, allowing visitors to safely lock their bikes as they enjoy Sunset Junction and the surrounding neighborhood amenities. Parking for up to ten bicycles is provided on the north side of the site.

Four different gardens are included on the site to create a diverse and visually stunning landscape: an aromatic garden, an herb garden, a desert garden, and a rugged garden.

Bunting in the form of various iconic street art found across Silverlake is strung across the four teepees as a colorful homage to the birds, sneakers, and letters that hang across power lines throughout the neighborhood. Photovoltaic cells are attached to the bunting to help power the string of LED bulbs that light the space in the evening.

Our vision for this site is to create a new community gathering space for residents and neighbors to enjoy throughout the day and into the evening. Sunset Junction is a vital part of the neighborhood, and we hope that our proposal helps to foster community and engage the public in new, meaningful ways.

Three Sisters Planting

We heard about the "Three Sisters" planting from a few of our friends, and decided to give it a try this year in one of our SR Raised Gardens.

The "Three Sisters" planting consists of corn, beans, and squash, all interplanted to complement each other.  The corn provides a pole for beans to climb up, and the bean adds nitrogen to the soil.  Squash creates a "living mulch" that helps soil moisture from evaporating.

Find out more about the planting, including a diagram of how to plant them, on the Renee's Garden seed site.

Bonsai update

Our bonsai are flourishing in all of the late spring rain we've been getting here in LA.  Here's an update on our pomegranate bonsai that we posted a couple of months ago. What a difference a few months makes!

CicLAvia

We just participated in our first CicLAvia event a few weeks ago, and it was amazing!  7-1/2 miles of Los Angeles streets were closed for bikes, walkers, unicycles, tricycles, segways...pretty much any mode of transportation besides cars. The route went through Koreatown, Downtown, and across the LA River to Hollenbeck Park. It was a perfect day to bike through LA. The next event is on July 10th- hope to see you there! More pics on our flickr feed.

Charcoal Grey Gardens

It's here!  New for the 2011 gardening season, we are excited to introduce SR Garden Kits in our select color of the year: Charcoal. This is the first color option available for the SR Garden Kits outside of SR Green. The SR Raised Garden Kit and SR Patio Garden Kit will be available in Charcoal through 2011.

The dark grey hue of Charcoal brings to mind wrought iron structures with timeless industrial influences. Charcoal was also chosen as a color that would complement the grey tones of aging of wood used for the raised gardens and patio gardens.

The SR Raised Garden and SR Patio Garden Kits in Charcoal are exclusive to our website and available only at www.scoutregalia.com.

SR Patio Garden as Record Storage

Our latest solution to storing vinyl records at headquarters: using our SR Patio Garden as record storage. Works brilliantly!

First Day of Spring 2011

It's finally the first day of Spring!  We have a few exciting things that we're working on here at headquarters, and we'll be sharing our new ideas with you soon.  In the meantime, now is the perfect time to start planning your garden!

We just discovered an amazing new resource for all sorts of plants from seedlings to full grown palm trees.  Persson's Nursery in Pasadena has a wide variety of plants and a huge selection of fruit trees. We also just started looking online for heirloom seed resources, and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds looks pretty amazing.

Of course, you can start your garden planning by building an SR Raised Garden in your backyard. And if you don't have a backyard, you can start your own home grown garden in our hardscape friendly SR Patio Garden.  Happy Spring!

Spring is Near!

Our pomegranate bonsai is sprouting leaves!  Spring is so close...

SR Headquarters featured on design*sponge

We are so excited to share our home+office with everyone!  Our "headquarters" were featured in the Sneak Peek section of design*sponge this past week.  Check out the full story here.

Sailing the Pacific

Apologies in advance to those living in inclement weather for this blog post.  We don't need to tell you that the weather here in Southern California is amazing (even though we've actually had rain this winter- gasp!).  And one of the nicest things about perfect weather is enjoying all sorts of activities all year round.

Just the other month, a couple of our good friends took us sailing off the coast of Newport Beach. Four friends in a small shield sailboat, with sea lions chilling on the buoys, salty sea mist...it was awesome.

Orange Coast College offers sailing and seamanship courses at their amazing facility in Newport Beach.  We're thinking about taking some classes their this summer- warm weather is just around the corner!

Marfa Trip Part 5: El Cosmico

While in Marfa, we stayed in a couple of the renovated vintage 1950's trailers over at El Cosmico.  The campsite also has yurts, teepees, safari tents, and designated areas where you can bring your own tent.

We stayed a few nights in the Spartan Royal Mansion, which came equiped with a full kitchen, and another couple of nights in the Vagabond, which had a large living room area perfect for entertaining, trailer style.

More pics on our flickr feed!

Marfa Trip Part 4: Chinati Foundation in Marfa, TX

After driving southeast under the Big Texas Sky for about 3 hours, we finally made it to our destination in Marfa, Texas.  For those unfamiliar with Marfa, it served as a filming location for the 1956 film Giant and was more recently seen in No Country for Old Men.  But the primary reason that people come out to Marfa is to see the work of Donald Judd, Dan Flavin and other artists at the Chinati Foundation.

Judd's 100 Untitled Works in milled aluminum are housed in two former artillery sheds, perfectly set in context with the surrounding landscape.  There are also 15 Untitled Works in concrete on the site, which you can freely walk through at your leisure.  Also a highlight are Dan Flavin's Untitled florescent light pieces that are in 6 former barracks, which make for amazing jumping photo ops.

More pics on our flickr feed!

Marfa Trip Part 3: White Sands, NM

White Sands National Monument is just about an hour's drive outside of El Paso and well worth the trip.  Part of the excitement for those who've never visited is the anticipation of seeing a vast swath of sand in the middle of the Southwest desert.  You'll pass through the Missile Test Site on your way there, and before you know it, you see a waterless beach in the middle of nowhere.

Once you enter the park, it's pretty surreal to be in the middle of these giant gypsum dunes.  You can rent sleds at the visitor center and slide down the dunes, which we highly recommend.  There are campsites in the park as well, which we unfortunately didn't have the chance to stay at but hope to return someday, tent in hand.

More pics of White Sands National Monument, along with pics of our entire West Texas adventure, are on our flickr feed.

Marfa Trip Part 2: Bingo in El Paso

After a 16 hour overnight train ride on the Sunset Limited, we arrived in El Paso.  We found an amazing bingo hall near the airport and happened to stop by in the evening when they were just starting an intense night of bingo.

For bingo amateurs such as us, it was a bit overwhelming to get with the pace of the game, even if we only had 2 cards to everyone else's 10.  By the middle of the evening, we were getting the hang of hearing numbers called with a deep Texas accent and furiously dabbing our cards with our bingo markers.  Apparently, "G" is pronounced "chair" in some parts of bingo-playing West Texas.  Ben won a Double Bingo that night, which was pretty exciting and sort of nerve wrecking at the same time.

Marfa Trip Part 1: LA to El Paso via Amtrak

We ended 2010 and started the new year with a trip through the Southwest and a week in Marfa, TX.  Our adventure started in Union Station where we boarded the Amtrak Sunset Limited, headed east from Los Angeles to El Paso.

The Sunset Limited is the southernmost route on the Amtrak system, traveling along the border from Los Angeles to its final destination in New Orleans.

Traveling by train is an amazing experience, set at a pace that seems appropriate for grand adventures.  Trains travelling long distance have an observation car with oversized windows to enjoy the passing scenery.  A lovely way to see the country and meet some really friendly people on the way.

Go Big or Go Dome

What better way to celebrate the holidays (and a very rainy week here in Los Angeles) than with a geodesic gingerbread house. About 10" in diameter, our gingerbread dome is made of hexagons, pentagons, and a ridiculous amount of royal icing (which may sound fancy, but it's just a mixture of powdered sugar and egg whites).  We included a teepee like the one we have in our backyard, and a gingerbread SR Outdoor Table Set. What can we say, we get a little intense with our holiday edible house construction.

If you're making you own gingerbread house this season, we highly recommend going to a Japanese supermarket to get some seriously amazing construction accoutrements, including chocolate covered tree stumps, bamboo shoots, and mushrooms, along with a variety of pocky pretzels that make excellent edible firewood.

More pics of our SR Geodesic Gingerbread Dome, along with an A-Frame we also made, are on our flickr feed.

SR Side Table Prototype

We're slowly finding time to work on projects for our headquarters.  Last month, we rolled up our sleeves and re-upholstered some old chairs.  This month, we finally got around to designing and building a couple of bedside tables. It may be a sneak peak of our next product!

XANADU at Specific Merchandise

The magical world of XANADU is right here in Los Angeles!  The holiday show at Specific Merchandise brings together nearly 50 designers and artists for the largest exhibit yet at the gallery storefront.  Curator and owner Brooks Hudson Thomas has done an amazing job bringing together so many talented designers for the show.  The space looks amazing, and we hope all of our friends in Los Angeles have a chance to check it out.

We are super excited that our entire line of Scout Regalia products is part of this show (!!!).  To display our SR Wall Pockets, we built a 15' tall "pennant" with over 200 hanging wall pockets.  In addition,  the show includes the SR Outdoor Table Set, garden kits, and our latest product, the SR Bookcase.  The show also features work from our friends at design,bitches, todosomething, Von Tundra, WELCOME, Winter Session, artist Morgan Maclean, and some amazing handmade shoes by Dragan Mrdja.

More information about the show is available here, and more pics of the installation of the wall pocket pennant are on our flickr feed.

XANADU
Specific Merchandise
7374 Beverly Blvd
Through December 24th

Re-Upholstering an Old Chair

Before

After

We've been meaning to upgrade our dining room chairs for a while now, and finally got around to it this past month.  We had a couple of strict and challenging criteria for the chairs, the first being that they had to look great, and the second being that it had to cost less than $50/chair.  Impossible?

To begin with, we knew we had to find chairs that we could repair/refinish to stay within our budget.  Thankfully, we live near of one of the best second hand stores ever, across the bridge in Lincoln Heights over at Saint Vincent de Paul.  We found a couple of old chairs (made in NY) with good bones and lines for $20/chair.  It was a steal, but there was still some work that needed to be done, primarily reupholstering the seat and replacing the deteriorating foam.  After scouring the fabric district in Downtown LA, we found some great tweed over at Mood Fabrics, along with some dense upholstery foam.

If you've never reupholstered a chair, its shockingly simple, and there are a ton of resources online including a really helpful video by ReadyMade Magazine.  With a few cuts of fabric and some upholstery staples, we were done in no time.  Final tally: $45/chair.  Success!

More pics of the project on our flickr page.

SR Bookcase and More at High Desert Test Sites

The SR Bookcase travelled out to Joshua Tree this past weekend to be part of the Specific Apartment installation at the High Desert Test Sites Headquarters in Downtown Joshua Tree.  We were thrilled to be part of the show with so many talented designers and artists.  We've spent plenty of time in Joshua Tree National Park but not a lot of time in Downtown JT, so it was a real treat to check out all the nice little stores and restaurants including the Mt. Fuji General Store and Crossroads Cafe.

The weekend was full of events featuring the work of Portland based design trio Von Tundra.  Part of the weekend included brunch at A-Z West on tables and chairs designed and built by Von Tundra from wood pallets, along with a workshop to design/build a shade canopy from a collection of colorful vintage fabrics.  We love the work they are up to and the ethos by which they run their business.  Check out more of Von Tundra's work on their website, and in person starting this weekend at the Specific Merchandise storefront in Los Angeles, through November 6th.

More pics from our weekend in Joshua Tree are on our flickr page.

Heirloom Beans from Rancho Gordo

Even if we consider ourselves fairly adept at growing vegetables in our SR Raised Gardens and SR Patio Gardens, there will always be things that are best left for the professionals.  Heirloom beans definitely falls into this category.

We recently discovered the motherlode of fresh heirloom beans from Rancho Gordo, based out of Napa California.  Their vast selection of beans is incredible, showcasing a variety of colors, flavors, and sizes that will surely change your ideas about plain ole beans.  All of their beans are grown in small quantities to ensure quality, and are picked fresh within 2 years, making them taste like no other bean you've ever eaten. The beans you get from the grocery have generally been shelved for up to 10 years- yikes! Thomas Keller of French Laundry is a fan, and I love to think that he and I now source our beans from the same place.  The Santa Maria Pinquitos are my favorite so far, but I'm super excited to try the Vaqueros and Rio Zapes.  Bon Apetit!

Made to Order Production Tags

We're always looking for ways to communicate information about our products through interesting, clear, and well designed means.  In addition to product postcards, we now have Production Tags for our made to order furniture, including the latest release of our SR Bookcase.

The Production Tags allow us to provide customers with some information about their made to order Scout Regalia piece, and also helps us keep track of important information including custom color choices and finishes.  Be on the lookout for these tags with your SR Outdoor Table Set and SR Bookcase orders!

SR Bookcase at Specific Merchandise

We are so excited to debut the SR Bookcase, which is the latest addition to our catalogue of products and our first venture into indoor furniture.  The SR Bookcase is currently part of "Autumn Suite", the fall show at Specific Merchandise, and is available through the Specific Merchandise online store on 1st Dibs.

Made of domestic hardwood and handcrafted in Los Angeles, the SR Bookcase is made to order and available as a 1, 2 or 3 bay system.  Each bookcase is hand finished with low gloss, non toxic wood sealer and paints in your choice of 210 custom colors.  Standing 7'-8" tall, the SR Bookcase will surely be a signature piece in any living space or office.

Check out the SR Bookcase in person over at Specific Merchandise through October 2nd.  Lots of amazing new work from a variety of talented designers on display as well!

AUTUMN SUITE
Sept 4- Oct 2
Specific Merchandise
7374 Beverly Blvd