Object Projects
Led by partners Sarah Hirschman¹ and Ann Worth,² Object Projects is a California-based architecture studio focused on strengthening social infrastructure³ through design.
Led by partners Sarah Hirschman¹ and Ann Worth,² Object Projects is a California-based architecture studio focused on strengthening social infrastructure³ through design.
Boulder Creek Rebuild
Private Residence
Boulder Creek, CA
2020-24
Following the devastating CZU Lightning Complex Fire, Object Projects worked with the clients to rebuild on a steep site in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Boulder Creek. Rather than recreate what had been lost, the project became an opportunity to imagine a new kind of live-work environment centered on making, performance, gathering, and resilience. At its core is a 5,000-square-foot pre-engineered metal building designed to accommodate the fabrication of large-scale art installations, experimental theater productions, and, in the clients’ words, very big parties.
The building is conceived as both workshop and performance infrastructure. Large bifold doors allow oversized work and installations to move directly between interior and exterior spaces, while a mezzanine and integrated lighting grid support theatrical production and flexible use. A loading dock, server room, backup energy infrastructure, and caretaker’s unit extend the building’s capacity beyond a conventional studio, allowing it to function as a highly adaptable base for fabrication, production, hosting, and experimentation.
The design responds as much to movement and choreography as to program: the transportation of enormous structural components along steep mountain roads, the movement of artwork through the building, the arrival of guests for performances and gatherings, and the gradual regrowth of the surrounding forest. Rebuilding after wildfire became an exercise not simply in replacement, but in creating an infrastructure for a new chapter of creative life.