I Missed the Mayor, but…

…I had a great time anyway! As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I got the opportunity to go to the Dwell on Design conference and exhibition today. I hear that our green Mayor Newsom swung by today… but even though I didn’t get a chance to meet Gavin and see his perfect hair in person, I still had a great time at the exhibition and couldn’t believe how much fun stuff I saw (not to mention the cool environmentally friendly bag I got that I’ll be using to carry my groceries in until it falls to pieces). Here’s a partial list of stuff that caught my attention and got my design juices flowing:

EcoSmart Inc – The EcoSmartâ„¢ Fire is an Australian innovation – an environmentally friendly open fireplace. The EcoSmartâ„¢ Fire is flue less and does not require any installation or utility connection for fuel supply, which makes it ideal for just about any architectural environment. Fuelled by a renewable modern energy (Denatured Ethanol), it burns clean and is virtually maintenance free. Featuring remarkable design flexibility, the simplicity of the EcoSmartâ„¢ burner and the modular nature of its design grants consumers with significant versatility and choice.

Bison Deck Supports – A great and inexpensive product for a roof deck! Adjustable BISON Deck Supports elevate concrete pavers, wood tiles, composite materials, industrial grating, conventional wood truss systems or natural stone over roof and plaza decks, on-grade, in water features… over any structural surface!

Heath Ceramics – Heath Ceramics is one of the few remaining mid-century American potteries still in existence today. We have been making tableware and tile for over a half-century right here in our Sausalito, California factory. Our crew of 40 skilled artisans (many having been here for 20+ years) still makes every product on premises, often utilizing the methods and techniques developed by Edith throughout her career.

GeoCrete by Cheng Designs – Just as nature formed granite and marble, skilled artisans shape Geocreteâ„¢ into the sculptural, luminous, concrete forms made famous by Cheng Design. Artful compositions of gently sloping plains let water flow naturally to the sink. Subtle contours cradle fruit or flowers. Integral trivets and cutting boards fuse art with function — function into award winning design.

EQ3 – Cool furniture, at decent prices. No more needs to be said.

Prefab, Prefab, and More Prefab – Too many prefab construction companies to name them all, but they are all super cool, with super low construction costs, and they all seem to think they have a chance at one day building prefab in San Francisco, even though no one has been able to convince the Department of Building Inspection here that they’re OK to build here. I suggested to a few of the companies that they form a trade organization and lobby the City of San Francisco to allow prefabricated construction to be built here. If they ever do that, I’ll be happy to take credit for it.

Modwalls – Cool tile. Really cool tile. All kinds of shapes, and some of them with tattoo art painted on the inside (these might get outdated pretty quickly… but they do look cool today.)

Bamboo Sourcery – An incredibly knowledgable company that was able to warn me away from black bamboo at my home on Great Highway. While everyone else has said it would be great there, their knowledgable representative explained to me that not all bamboo likes salt air, and black bamboo especially would look like crap in a short amount of time.

There where tons of other exhibitors there today that had amazing things. The Dwell Outdoor section was pretty damn cool too, especially the odd hot tub that doubles as a bar-b-que (I kid you not). Overall, it was as fun as I had expected, and I learned way more than I expected.

I can’t wait till next year! Dwell on Design 2008, here I come!!!