Interview with Jeff Kovel – The architect of the Cullen House (Hoke House) from twilight.


HOKE 3

When I wrote the original Cullen House article I never imagined it would gain the popularity it did. As promised, I have been in contact with Jeff Kovel from Skylab Architecture and have prepared the following interview/bio along with a few more images for all the mad fans!

“I am in architecture, development, and rock and roll.”

– Jeff Kovel

HOKE 6

Jeff Kovel grew up just outside of New York City and lived there until he attended Cornell University’s Architecture school. Since then he has made his way to the West Coast and in 1996 he finally settled down in Portland, Oregon. However, it was while growing up in New York that Jeff realised he wished to become an architect. His family had begun work on a new home and a young Jeff thus developed a new fascination for both building and design.

It was three years after arriving in Portland when 26 year old Jeff founded his own architecture firm, Skylab architecture. He admits that he started his practice at a very young age and wishes that he’d worked under other architects beforehand. Nevertheless, Skylab Architecture has grown into a fully fledged successful firm. When asked what the most rewarding aspect of practicing architecture is, Kovel explains “We [architects] have carved out a niche that allows us to explore and innovate. The most rewarding part of this career is the work which we are able to create with this open format.”
Kovel likens his own design philosophies to storytelling. “We bring concepts to life, each of these concepts is a story,” he says. “The paragraphs are like spaces, the words, materials. Each project is a unique deep investigation into this story telling…

HOKE 4

Our process is research based, and iterative. We look for authentic meaning and relationships. We do not rush aesthetic conclusions.”
Kovel explains that his inspiration comes from many different architectural sources. “I love many progressive architects from all eras of modernism, I appreciate the periods prior as well. There isn’t a subject I would rather talk about.”
As I’m sure many of you can relate, Jeff Kovel and Skylab architecture became known to me through the film Twilight; what many of us have come to know as the Cullen residence is actually the ‘Hoke Residence’, so I asked Jeff about how the house came to be.

HOKE 2

“The Hoke residence was originally built as a ‘spec’ house [This simply means it was built, with the speculation of finding a suitable buyer], or a project built without a client as a development for sale.
After two days on the market, the house was purchased by the director of footwear design at Nike, John Hoke. Following a cover story in a northwest architecture publication, The Hoke’s were approached by a film location scout, a little film called Twilight.”

HOKE 1

“We designed the house in 2006, completed construction in 2007. We have designed an additional residence next door that will begin construction once we locate another vampire”
“This December, we took our staff to see the movie to start our holiday party. We all loved it. We have been receiving fan mail from all over the world, including many inquiries for the house plans – contacts from Croatia, The Philippines, Buenos Aires, and Melbourne Australia among others.”

HOKE 5

There is more to Skylab architecture beyond the Hoke House – amoungst Skylab’s impressive folio is also the following..

montgomery residence
Montgomery residence
nau webfront
Nau Webfront

north
‘North’
12+ alder
12 + Alder

More images on these projects and more can be found at Skylab Architecture’s website.

 

24,839 Comments

  1. Hey, you used to write fantastic, but the last several posts have been kinda boring… I miss your great writings. Past few posts are just a little bit out of track! come on!

  2. Cleans and prepares ground for top polish.

  3. of course like your website but you have to test the spelling on several of your posts.

    Several of them are rife with spelling issues and I find it
    very bothersome to inform the reality on the other hand I will certainly
    come again again.

  4. I’m extremely inspired together with your writing abilities as
    smartly as with the layout in your weblog. Is that this a paid theme or did
    you modify it your self? Either way keep up the nice quality writing, it is rare
    to peer a nice blog like this one these days..

  5. Isn’t that a cute kitty?!

  6. I truly appreciate this post. I have been looking everywhere for this! Thank goodness I found it on Bing. You have made my day! Thx again!

  7. How do you know it’s time to refinish the floor?

  8. I’ve been absent for a while, but now I remember why I used to love this web site. Thanks , I¡¦ll try and check back more often. How frequently you update your website?

  9. He’s just waiting patiently for the place to open up.

  10. Salvatore says:

    I really like what you guys are up too. This type of clever work and exposure!
    Keep up the wonderful works guys I’ve included you guys to blogroll.

  11. Lan says:

    Piano courses are usually greatest reward that families could offer
    on their youngster. Then the rolls were provided for the
    studio in order to get the film strips developed ointo
    photographs. Whey doing tribal style tattoos, initially you should bind shark teeth and animal bones in addition to sticks, and after that dip them in ink.

  12. Normally I don’t read article on blogs, but I would like to say that this write-up very pressured me to try and do it! Your writing style has been amazed me. Thanks, very great post.

  13. A person necessarily assist to make critically articles I might state. This is the first time I frequented your web page and to this point? I amazed with the analysis you made to make this particular publish amazing. Excellent activity!

  14. Sex Toys says:

    below you will locate the link to some web pages that we consider you need to visit

  15. What a material of un-ambiguity and preserveness of precious familiarity regarding
    unexpected emotions.

  16. Hiya, I’m really glad I have found this information. Today bloggers publish only about gossip and web stuff and this is really annoying. A good website with interesting content, that is what I need. Thanks for making this website, and I will be visiting again. Do you do newsletters by email?

  17. Awesome write-up. I am a regular visitor of your blog and appreciate you taking the time to maintain the excellent site. I will be a regular visitor for a really long time.

  18. fun88 says:

    Awesome write-up. I am a regular visitor of your site and appreciate you taking the time to maintain the nice site. I’ll be a frequent visitor for a really long time.

  19. I’m not sure where you’re getting your info, but great
    topic. I needs to spend some time learning more or understanding more.

    Thanks for wonderful information I was looking for this
    information for my mission.

  20. Hey! Do you know if they make any plugins to help with SEO? I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m not seeing very good success. If you know of any please share. Many thanks!

  21. abc travel says:

    An impressive share! I have just forwarded this onto a coworker who was doing a little homework on this.

    And he actually bought me breakfast due to the fact that I stumbled upon it
    for him… lol. So let me reword this…. Thanks
    for the meal!! But yeah, thanks for spending the time to discuss this topic here on your web site.

  22. Appreciate it for helping out, superb info. “If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see.” by Henry David Thoreau.

  23. Hi there this is somewhat of off topic but I was wondering if blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if you have to manually code with HTML. I’m starting a blog soon but have no coding skills so I wanted to get advice from someone with experience. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

  24. With Connectify Hotspot, you can enhance your personal computer into a genuine Wi-Fi hotspot, and show your computer’s Web connection as Wi-Fi with every other Laptop or computer or mobile device. Watch our training video and find out why an incredible number of users worldwide love Connectify Hotspot!

  25. Rey Keylon says:

    With Connectify Hotspot, you can convert your personal computer into a genuine Wi-Fi hotspot, and reveal your computer’s Web connection as Wi-Fi with every other Laptop or computer or mobile device. Watch our video tutorial and find out why an incredible number of users worldwide love Connectify Hotspot!

  26. With Connectify Hotspot, you can change your personal computer into a genuine Wi-Fi hotspot, and reveal your computer’s Web connection as Wi-Fi with every other Personal computer or mobile device. Watch our video recording and find out why an incredible number of users worldwide love Connectify Hotspot!

  27. With Connectify Hotspot, you can change your personal computer into a genuine Wi-Fi hotspot, and discuss your computer’s Web connection as Wi-Fi with some other Laptop or computer or mobile device. Watch our training video and find out why an incredible number of users worldwide love Connectify Hotspot!

  28. With Connectify Hotspot, you can change your personal computer into a genuine Wi-Fi hotspot, and promote your computer’s Web connection as Wi-Fi with another Laptop or computer or mobile device. Watch our training video and find out why an incredible number of users worldwide love Connectify Hotspot!

  29. Water seepage out of your basement walls or floors.

  30. Hi there, just wanted to say, I liked this post. It was practical.
    Keep on posting!

  31. News says:

    Thanks for the sensible critique. Me & my neighbor were just preparing to do a little research about this. We got a grab a book from our area library but I think I learned more clear from this post. I’m very glad to see such fantastic info being shared freely out there.

  32. Wonderful story, reckoned we could combine some unrelated information, nevertheless truly really worth taking a look, whoa did 1 find out about Mid East has got a lot more problerms too

  33. Today, I went to the beach front with my kids. I found a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She put the shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear. She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is totally off topic but I had to tell someone!

  34. Hello are using WordPress for your blog platform? I’m new to the blog world but I’m trying to get started and create my own. Do you need any html coding knowledge to make your own blog? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

  35. Furnace or air handler rattling ductwork.

  36. Hey! Do you know if they make any plugins to protect against hackers? I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve worked hard on. Any suggestions?

  37. Heya this is kinda of off topic but I was wondering if blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if you have to manually code with HTML. I’m starting a blog soon but have no coding expertise so I wanted to get advice from someone with experience. Any help would be enormously appreciated!

  38. fun88 says:

    Hi there. I discovered your site by way of Google at the same time as looking for a similar subject, your web site got here up. It seems great. I’ve bookmarked it in my google bookmarks to come back then.

  39. bola online says:

    Awesome post. I’m a normal visitor of your site and appreciate you taking the time to maintain the excellent site. I will be a frequent visitor for a long time.

  40. I really like what you guys tend to be up too.
    This sort of clever work and coverage! Keep up the fantastic
    works guys I’ve added you guys to my blogroll.

  41. Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point. You definitely know what youre talking about, why waste your intelligence on just posting videos to your site when you could be giving us something informative to read?

  42. Awesome post. I’m a regular visitor of your web site and appreciate you taking the time to maintain the nice site. I’ll be a regular visitor for a really long time.

  43. Hello there, just became alert to your blog through Google, and found that it’s truly informative. I am gonna watch out for brussels. I will be grateful if you continue this in future. Many people will be benefited from your writing. Cheers!

  44. You actually make it appear really easy along with your presentation but I to find
    this matter to be actually one thing that I believe I’d
    never understand. It kind of feels too complex and extremely broad for me.
    I’m looking forward on your next put up, I will attempt to get the dangle of it!

  45. I do not even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was great. I do not know who you are but definitely you’re going to a famous blogger if you aren’t already ;) Cheers!

  46. With Connectify Hotspot, you can change your personal computer into a genuine Wi-Fi hotspot, and talk about your computer’s Web connection as Wi-Fi with other Computer or mobile device. Watch our training video and find out why an incredible number of users worldwide love Connectify Hotspot!

  47. With Connectify Hotspot, you can convert your personal computer into a genuine Wi-Fi hotspot, and discuss your computer’s Web connection as Wi-Fi with any Computer or mobile device. Watch our video recording and find out why an incredible number of users worldwide love Connectify Hotspot!

  48. Luci Brody says:

    With Connectify Hotspot, you can convert your personal computer into a genuine Wi-Fi hotspot, and show your computer’s Web connection as Wi-Fi with every other Computer or mobile device. Watch our video tutorial and find out why an incredible number of users worldwide love Connectify Hotspot!

  49. Ima Taybron says:

    With Connectify Hotspot, you can convert your personal computer into a genuine Wi-Fi hotspot, and talk about your computer’s Web connection as Wi-Fi with any Personal computer or mobile device. Watch our video tutorial and find out why an incredible number of users worldwide love Connectify Hotspot!

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

Rex The Stray – underground dog comic

Rex The Stray, an underground comic about a deviant runaway dog styled by illustrator Christian Herr and writer Lee Noble.

www.rexthestray.com

And Drunk Dial Rex, on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14CVGGD3xf8

Illustrator Marylou Farue

Work from Marylou Faure, an illustrator living in London.

more at www.maryloufaure.com

Illustrator Joel Mackenzie

http://www.flickr.com/photos/joelmackenzie/ Details »

Captain Feline – Blending Pop Culture with Cats

felineship

Captain Feline employs anthropomorphism to blend pop culture with cats. The results are a collection of fun t-shirts and limited edition art prints – purr-fect for displaying a combined love of cats and cult movie characters! Whilst the debut t-shirt illustrations by Dave are inspired by cult and classic movie characters, the team plan to increase the range to feature other pop culture icons as they grow and expand.

http://www.captainfeline.com Details »

Vertigo

vertigo

via: www.tradclyffe.co.uk

Insekta

insekta-03

Insekta is a collection designed by Italian studio Kreativehouse. Details »