Mark Your Calendars: Spring Open Studios 2014

If you were not able to make it last fall, we will be participating in another Open Studios event at our Islais Creek workshop this Spring.  Mark your calendars now for Saturday, May 3, and Sunday, May 4, for the 2014 Hunters Point Shipyard Open Studios.  Be sure to follow us here at our blog, our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/ggbfurniture), or on Twitter (www.twitter.com/ggbfurniture) for more event information as it becomes available.

Photos from Fall 2013 ArtSpan SF Open Studios

Thanks to everyone who stopped by last November to visit our workshop during the SF Open Studios event!

 

Workshop Studio at Islais Creek

 

Workshop Studio at Islais Creek

  

Vista Bench

 

Tea Table 

To learn more about these and our other designs, please visit our website www.ggbfurniture.com, or contact us at info@ggbfurniture.com.

Golden Gate Design & Furniture Co
446 Old County Road, Pacifica, CA 94044 - 415.661.6263

info@ggbfurniture.com  -  www.ggbfurniture.com  -  www.facebook.com/ggbfurniture

DWELL On Design 2013

Exhibit Highlights & New Designs

Last month we hit the road and exhibited at Dwell On Design in Los Angeles.  We had a great time meeting people at the show and looking at all the beautiful and creative products on exhibit there this year.  With so many awesome and innovative designs to consider, we wish to thank Jaime Derringer over at Design Milk for including us in her Favorites from Dwell On Design 2013.

To see more photos from our Dwell On Design booth, we invite you to visit our album up at our Facebook page or at our Flickr page.

At the Dwell event, we premiered a couple of modified designs as well as two new designs.   As we continue to explore the use of wood with our historic steel pieces, we were excited to show modified versions of our Side Table and our Coffee Table designs with salvaged wood table tops.

 

Above is shown our Side Table design with a table top crafted from a salvaged piece of Mango wood from Hawaii.

 

 

Above is shown our Coffee Table design with a salvaged piece of Claro Walnut orchard wood.  If you look closely, you will see the graft line where the two species of walnut were grafted and grew together.  A common practice in our local area orchards, since English Walnut had a higher nut yield and thinner shell, but it didn’t fare as well in the California climate, English walnut was grafted onto root stock of native California Walnut.  Where the two species met and grew together you get the graft line showing two distinct wood grains, lending character to what would normally be a standard piece of Walnut.

 

 

Newly introduced at the show this year was our Table Lamp.  The Table Lamp is similar in size to our Task Lamp design, and it uses the same LED lighting technology.   However, the Table Lamp incorporates a clearly recognizable piece of weathered handrail cap, differentiating it from the more abstract look of the Task Lamp.

 

Also introduced at the show this year was our new Tea Table.  The Tea Table is similar in size to the retired Accent Table design, but like our Side Table design, it incorporates the handrail channel beam that runs along the base of the historic pedestrian handrail.

Thank you to all who came out to see us at the show and helped us have a great experience.

To learn more about these and our other designs, please visit our website www.ggbfurniture.com, or contact us at info@ggbfurniture.com.

Golden Gate Design & Furniture Co
446 Old County Road, Pacifica, CA 94044 - 415.661.6263

info@ggbfurniture.com  -  www.ggbfurniture.com  -  www.facebook.com/ggbfurniture

 

 

Sneak Peek: DWELL On Design

New Designs for DWELL On Design in Los Angeles

DWELL On Design is right around the corner, and we're working on a few new and modified designs to have in our booth this year...





















As we continue to explore the use of wood with our historic steel pieces, we are offering modified versions of our Side Table and our Coffee Table designs with salvaged wood table tops.  Additionally, we will be introducing a new Table Lamp and a new Tea Table design.  The Table Lamp will be similar in size to our Task Lamp, but will incorporate a clearly recognizable piece of weathered handrail cap.  Our Tea Table will be similar in size to the retired Accent Table design, but like our Side Table design, it will incorporate the handrail channel beam that runs along the base of the historic pedestrian handrail.

The DWELL On Design exhibition will be taking place June 21 -23 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.  If you are in the Los Angeles area, we invite you to come by our booth and see the new pieces we will be launching this summer. 

Booth #1223

Golden Gate Design & Furniture Co
446 Old County Road, Pacifica, CA 94044 - 415.661.6263

info@ggbfurniture.com  -  www.ggbfurniture.com  -  www.facebook.com/ggbfurniture
 

2013 ADEX Awards Press Release

Golden Gate Design & Furniture Co. Receives Two ADEX Awards

The company that crafts unique artisan furniture from original steel removed from San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge was awarded two 2013 ADEX Awards (Awards for Design Excellence) for its Side Table and Task Lamp designs.

Pacifica, CA (May 15, 2013) – Golden Gate Design & Furniture Company (GGDFC) has received two 2013 ADEX Awards (Awards for Design Excellence) for its Side Table design and its Task Lamp design. 

The ADEX Awards, sponsored by Design Journal magazine, is one of the largest and most prestigious awards programs in the architectural and design industry.  For the 2013 awards, a record 2,828 entries were received from over 500 different companies.

"We are honored to have been recognized by the Awards for Design Excellence,” stated Richard Bulan, founder of GGDFC.  “We are excited to hear that we have been awarded with the Gold ADEX Award for our Side Table design and the Silver ADEX award for our Task Lamp design.  We appreciate this acknowledgement of our efforts to repurpose a piece of history into something that combines art and function, crafted by hand with integrity and heart."

The Side Table design, which received a Gold Award, is a round, compact, three-legged table, crafted from historic pedestrian Golden Gate Bridge handrail.  The design is balanced in a way that allows you to flip the base over for a slightly different look when desired. 

The Task Lamp design, which received a Silver Award, is inspired by the street lamps of the Golden Gate Bridge.  In order to utilize every piece of the historic handrail material, Richard Bulan created the Task Lamp design to use the small pieces that were left over after crafting his larger designs.  The light fixture itself is an energy efficient 6.3 watt, 410 lumens LED with a 3,000K white color temperature that is equivalent to a 35 watt halogen bulb.

GGDFC is the brainchild of San Francisco area resident, Richard Bulan.  The company creates limited edition artisan furniture from original steel that was placed on the Golden Gate Bridge during its construction in the 1930’s.  Richard crafts his designs from sections of pedestrian handrail that were removed during the Bridge’s handrail replacement in 1993.  He acquired the handrail in 1994 and has since created and put into limited production his signature headboard design along with various table and lamp designs. 

For additional information on the company, feel free to visit the GGDFC website at www.ggbfurniture.com.  For more information on the 2013 ADEX Awards, visit www.adexawards.com.

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Golden Gate Design & Furniture Co
446 Old County Road, Pacifica, CA 94044 - 415.661.6263

 

info@ggbfurniture.com  -  www.ggbfurniture.com  -  www.facebook.com/ggbfurniture

Embarking Upon a New and Exciting Year!

As the holiday festivities wind down, it is time to reflect upon the accomplishments of the past year and look forward to the exciting events of the New Year that lies before us….

New Space, New Look, New Designs

After many years of quietly maintaining the company, Richard decided that this would be the year to finally bring about the changes he has hoped to make for quite some time. In this past year, Richard was able to realize his dream of having his own space to showcase his designs in by setting up a small showroom in Pacifica, located on the Coastside, just south of San Francisco. Golden Gate Bridge Furniture Company also launched a newly redesigned website, as well as three new product designs: the Coffee Table, the Side Table, and the Task Lamp.

The first of these new designs, the Coffee Table, was launched this past summer. The Coffee Table, a lightweight design that incorporates new steel, provides an alternative to our original, and heavier, Cocktail Table design, which is crafted from 100% of the historic Golden Gate Bridge steel. In the autumn, Richard followed with a Side Table design that complements the new Coffee Table. The Side Table is another lightweight design that incorporates new steel with historic steel, allowing for more flexibility within small spaces. Finally, in December, Richard introduced the new Task Lamp design to fill the void created by the completion of the original Desk Lamp design’s production run.

Architectural Digest Home Design Show

As we move into the New Year, we are very excited to announce that Golden Gate Bridge Furniture Co. will be an exhibitor in the MADE section of the Architectural Digest Home Design Show in New York this March. This is a very distinguished design show that we are proud to be a part of, and we can’t wait to unveil our designs in New York for the first time!

Golden Gate Bridge 75th Anniversary

Additionally, it is an exciting year for the Golden Gate Bridge itself, since it will be celebrating its 75th Anniversary this year! The Golden Gate Festival will take place on May 26 and May 27 with waterfront festivities on Crissy Field and the Marina Green, culminating with a fireworks display during the Memorial Day weekend.

America’s Cup Racing

Finally, the crown jewel of the year’s events surrounding the Golden Gate Bridge will be the spectacular racing of the America’s Cup, which will take place on San Francisco’s Northern Waterfront. The Golden Gate Bridge and the surrounding beauty of the bay will provide the dramatic backdrop to the sleek boats racing across the waterfront. The races are expected to attract tens of thousands of visitors from around the world, many sailing in under the Golden Gate Bridge themselves upon their arrival.

Happy New Year from Golden Gate Bridge Furniture Company!

Golden Gate Bridge Furniture Co.

446 Old County Road, Pacifica, CA 94044 - 415.661.6263
info@ggbfurniture.com - www.ggbfurniture.com - www.facebook.com/ggbfurniture

Sneak Peek: New Side Table Design

In an effort to fill the void left by the retired small table designs, Richard has been working on a new Side Table concept.  He wanted something that was relatively different from the Accent and Occasional Tables, which utilized the cap that runs along the top of the handrail material.  With this in mind, he decided the new design would feature the Channel-beam that runs along the base of the handrail material.

After sketching a few ideas on paper, he began the prototype process and created a rendering of the design so he could get a better feel for how it would look:

Once he created the drawing, he had a better idea of how the design would be built and what sections from the handrail material would be used.  With this information, he enlisted the skills of an artistic welder to help him bring the vision to life.  The piece was then sandblasted down to the raw metal in preparation for painting.  Finally, Richard gave the prototype a fresh coat of the official Golden Gate Bridge "International Orange" paint, and was lucky enough to wake up to a sunny morning to take the first Sneak Peek photographs of the new Side Table:

The special twist to this design is that the table base can be flipped over to give the table a slightly different look:

Since Richard is still working out a few kinks in the design, we're not quite sure of the exact launch date.  There is an issue that still needs to be resolved regarding where the H-beam pickets of the handrail meet with the Channel-beam.  Due to the pitch of the Golden Gate Bridge, this angle is not always perpendicular.  In order for the table to sit flat on the ground and for the glass to lie flat on the table base, this angle needs to be taken into account when the table is crafted. 

Another design element in question is the use of a rough edge when the H-beams are cut.  In the past, for the other table designs, this cut was done with a band saw, which left a smooth edge.  However, with this prototype, the cut was done using a plasma cutting torch, which leaves a rougher, more rustic edge:

 

Tell us what you think about the rough edge versus the smooth edge.  We'd love to hear some feedback.  We expect the Side Table to have a limited edition production run quantity of 280.

Golden Gate Bridge Furniture Co.
446 Old County Road, Pacifica, CA 94044 - 415.661.6263

info@ggbfurniture.com - www.ggbfurniture.com - www.facebook.com/ggbfurniture