Santa Barbara, CA

Abstract garden gate designs #200A and #200 are clearly related. While the original #200 settled in the arid desert east of Los Angeles, the #200A found a home overlooking the bluest Pacific Ocean in Santa Barbara. Modified to simulate the setting.

Santa Barbara, CA

Contemporary wood gate #200-A is a collaborative effort with the site architect Carl Schneider.

A good example of how nearly all of the 140 +_ original designs on our gate galleries were originally the result of either speculative designs or modifying a given gate style to the existing precedent of the site’s aesthetics.
The lines to #200-A were influenced by not only it’s portal gateway to the Pacific, but to the iconic architecture of the house itself (see below)

Translucent acrylic rod, diffusing as the setting sun angles across the gate.
Upper opaque Plexiglas for a modicum of eye-level privacy.

Carl Schneider, AIA, NCARB
CSA Architects
805-962-4575
[email protected]

Santa Barbara, CA

The upper section fitted with white opaque polycarbonate, as per the homeowner’s request.

Santa Barbara, CA

Abstract Garden Gate Designs #200-A, exposed and unencumbered.

Santa Barbara, CA

The uppermost portion of the abstract garden gate #200-A is backed by an opaque polycarbonate panel. A request from the homeowner.

Santa Barbara, CA

The meandering dark red acrylic rod, as a signature of the abstract garden gate designs #200 and #200-A. 

Omaha, Nebraska

Abstract gate #200A-1 eliminates the upper opaque plexiglas.

Omaha, Nebraska

Gate #200A-1 conforming to the brick arch. Brick arches are a classic example of form-following-function, with the earliest examples dating to the ruins of Babylonia in 1400 BC. Each brick relies on the adjacent brick for a structural stability that can ultimately withstand the stress load of some of the most renown bridges on the globe. Here, however, it simply allows a new gate to liven up the entry of an aging invitation.

Omaha, Nebraska

A look at the stone cottage, built in 1936, and never occupied. Sitting empty for 87 years . . . until our patron arrives with a complete renovation of the interior. The gate itself throws a dollop of whimsy in the mix, while not so disparate as it might seem at first glance. Over the years, decades, people have taken to adorning the railing with padlocks. Hundreds of padlocks.
The legend goes, regarding this phenomenon, that a woman who had lost her lover during World War I started fixing padlocks on Hungarian bridges where they used to meet. It was her way of expressing that her love was unbreakable. Soon, the trend caught on and became a tradition not only in Hungary but also in other parts of the world. Including Omaha, Nebraska.

Omaha, Nebraska

I nteresting how there are no keys.  The locks therefore cannot be opened, and the love not broken?

Omaha, Nebraska

A look at the meandering acrylic rods.

Omaha, Nebraska

T he lower left wenge grid.

IN-PROGRESS

The layout of the primary components of the gate on cardboard, first, and then a tracing template of the various arches.   

The rough, glued-up top grid assembly.

With the stiles and rails and the various arches created, they are scribed to fit and then taped to help insure they don’t budge or shift. At this stage, they are not mortised in place, just dry -fitted.

The top wenge grid shown fitted within the top ‘wave’ arch.  Each of the wenge grid dividers will be mortised to the thicker arch.

Everything still loosely fitted.

Piecing together the bottom-left grid assembly.  For now, a dry fit. Ultimately each piece will be mortised to another.

The Shooting Plane, with it’s dedicated jig, fine-tunes the length of this small piece of wenge by planing the end grain in lieu of the more cumbersome cross-cut.

Continuing on with the bottom-right grid, and the center wenge splines.  The blue tape is to hold the various pieces in place, while maintaining their alignment.

The boring template to insure the multiple acrylic rods, or organ-pipes, are plumb to a changing arc

In creating the various radius arcs for the secondary wenge components within the abstract garden gate designs of #200-A, Ben turns to an ancient method of a pliable 1/4″ thick stock, tensioned with a string coupled with a turnbuckle that allows for slight adjustments to the radius. With this he can then trace the eventual arch of each components onto the wenge stock.

Because so many of the intersecting lines are unique, they are created one piece at a time. No multiples. 

A confusion of awkward clamp settings. Fabricating each single component individually is only the first step. What follows is creating the joinery, and then clamping into place such that the clamps themselves do not tweak the original dry-fit.

The acrylic rod is purposefully bent and twisted with the careful use of a heat gun. Once it’s in place, wax paper and blue tape is applied to protect it from being scratched or blemished, as well as the overspray from the finishing process. It’s important that the rod be unblemished, as it eventually becomes a refracting rod once exposed to the sunlight.

Ben Prowell with the completed abstract garden gate designs #200-A. The end of an absorbing commission and ready for the craters.