Holly Green Hulburd's ten-person shop are primarily residential and commercial architects but have done a bit of work as interior, furniture and textile designers as well. Their intent is "that interiors should exist as a seamless extension of the architecture, sometimes blending into it, sometimes reacting to it, but always making the case for a spatial continuum." The best of the spaces they've designed play with dimension, scale, detail and minimal space in original and unexpected ways.

Hulburd's firm was established in San Francisco in 1983 and has worked with San Francisco contractors Ryan Associates (profiled here on MLSF) on at least one project.

+ Holly Hulburd Design: 375 Alabama St #240, San Francisco CA 94110
+ tel 415.440.0801
+ fax 415.440.0805

Berkeley's Counter Production are best known for their Vetrazzo countertops - a line of recycled glass slabs produced specifically for kitchen and bathroom. Recently on display in the Sunset Idea House, Vetrazzo products come in a huge range of colors, textures and sizes.

Counter Production has been supplying Vetrazzo and their other products to contractors, architects, designers and homeowners since 1996. They recently moved into the old Sunsweet Prune Processing Plant on Bancroft Way, and maintain a small showroom there, although they also sell through a number of nationwide retailers.

+ Counter Production: 710 Bancroft Way, Berkeley CA 94710
+ tel 510.843.6916

Sunset Magazine's new model Breezehouse was unveiled just last month at Sunset's Celebration Weekend in Menlo Park. This new design - from Glidehouse architect Michelle Kaufmann - is a 2-bedroom, 2-bath 1,800 square foot modular home that is 'eco-oriented,' flexible in floorplan and full of light. A third 250 square-foot module can easily be added for a third bedroom, or used as a flexible free-standing pavilion (to be used as a study, guest bedroom, or pool house). Other larger versions are also available. The best part of the design, though, in my opinion at least, is the "breezespace" in the center, under an interestingly-shaped room.

The Breezehoust costs between $140 and $160 per square foor for factory construction, plus the cost of all work done on site - plumbing and electrical hookups, 'button-up' work, garages, decks, pools, landscaping, etc.

+ Michelle Kaufmann Designs: 102 4th Street, Sausalito CA 94965
+ tel 415.999.4122

Consisting primarily of both Bauhaus-inspired pieces and a few classic designs from that era, Alphaville Design's collection includes pieces "inspired by" Bertoia, Breuer, Gray, Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Nelson and Noguchi.

+ Alphaville Design: 30508 Whipple Rd., Union City CA 94587
+ tel 510.675.0880