The Midnight Charette is a podcast about design and the everyday. Hosted by architects David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet, it features a variety of renowned design professionals in unscripted and long-format interviews, allowing for thoughtful takes and more personal discussions. With the hosts’ extensive professional and academic backgrounds, the show’s array of subjects are covered critically and honestly. Some episodes are reviews of projects, while others are guides for young designers, discussions on questions from listeners, interviews, or humorous explorations of everyday life.
In The Midnight Charette’s “Tips and Tactics” episodes David and Marina provide helpful advice on “How to Get Hired as a Designer”, “How to Make a Portfolio”, “Choosing the Right Architecture Program”, and “What Software Programs to Use” among other topics. The show also has a hotline through which guests can call or text questions for the hosts.
The Midnight Charette has over 130 episodes and has been rank favorably across podcast aggregators, reaching number one on Player FM’s trending architecture podcasts and tenth in Apple’s design podcasts. The show was also included in Draper’s list of “Architectural Podcasts You Should Follow“. The show is available on iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, and all other Podcast directories.
David Lee is a registered architect in New York and California and holds a Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Urban Design. He worked in New York City for several years on custom residential projects, towers, master plans, and an award-winning PS1 MoMA installation. He has taught a range of undergraduate architecture studios and guest lectured at schools and conferences.
Marina Bourderonnet is a French architect and designer with a Bachelor of Architecture and studies in art at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. She has worked in several architecture offices in New York City and Paris on a variety of projects including mixed-used, residential, healthcare, and interior design. She loves cheese and is a brutal critic at design reviews.
Second Lives | After Bottles is an experimental prototype shelter designed by students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute that turns packaging into structurally-sound shelters. First assembled for NYC x Design Week 2018, this project took engineered plastic bottles which had an interlocking design to build a pavilion.
“Throughout the design studio, RPI students, educators, and engineers sought to design a shelter that would be self-tensioning, stable, and that used the least amount of materials. Even the bottles packaging has been integrated into the final design; the team has created a triangular wooden crate that can unfold to form a topography-following floor and acts as a base for the plastic walls above.
3D printed joints and cross bracing were used to connect bottles at angles other than what the bottles themselves allowed. Lydia Kallipoliti, project lead and Assistant Professor of Architecture at RPI, said that the aim was to ship as few materials as possible into a disaster area. With a 3D printer on the ground, crates of water and an assembly diagram could be shipped in and the required parts printed in-situ.
The team found multiple uses for the bottles, running LED lights through the bottles making up the roof, and filling bottles on the side with water and food for easy takeaway. Testing is still ongoing to ensure that the final design would be tight enough to keep out rainwater.
Another structure made from the same interlocking bottles was set up across from the Wanted exhibition hall, this one courtesy of RPI’s Center for Architecture Science and Ecology (CASE). The CASE team has built their “testing chamber” by arranging the bottles vertically and have been monitoring the internal heat, humidity, and air quality. Making sure that the bottles aren’t decomposing and releasing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is especially important, as the UN has strict air quality guidelines for disaster shelters.
Ultimately, the goal of Second Lives isn’t to introduce a new bottle into the plastic ecosystem, but to convert existing companies over, said Kallipoliti. If the Cokes and Pepsis of the world switched to a bottle that could then be used as a construction material, the worldwide reduction in waste would be immense.”
40 Stories Announced for
‘Storytelling Architecture’
Blank Space and Volume are proud to announce the selected stories for ‘Storytelling Architecture’ – a breathtakingly diverse set of narratives collected from 5 years of architectural fairy tales submitted to Blank Space’s Fairy Tales competition.
The publication will be organized into the most pressing themes of our times and planet: Urbanism, Globalization, Equality, Sustainability and Technology. Explore the imaginations of fifty architects, artists, designers, and creators, from around the world, who dare to take a deeper look at architecture.
“Storytelling Architecture is a mind-bending collection of the most innovative and thought-provoking architectural narratives today – all in a large-format, hard cover book. We were approached by the founders of Volume to publish this retrospective edition last year, and were thrilled by the concept of creating a community around the book, before it was published, echoing the manner in which the stories were born from an open call to the Fairy Tales competition,” says Blank Space cofounder Matthew Hoffman.
The 5th annual Fairy Tales competition brought significantly more entries than previous years, submitted from more than 70 countries. Entries are currently being reviewed by an all-star jury that includes Bjarke Ingels, Elizabeth Diller, Daniel Libeskind, Thom Mayne, and more.
To accommodate the increased interest and participation this year, the publication funding deadline has been extended to April 12, to coincide with the selection of this years winners, who will be announced live at a special event in one of the most historic buildings in Washington D.C., the National Building Museum.
The event will provide an impressive backdrop to the Storytelling Architecture campaign. As an added benefit, all backers of the Storytelling Architecture campaign will receive a free ticket to the event.
Chapter Thirteen by Kevin (Pang-Hsin) Wang and Nicholas O’Leary
Man and Ground by Anna Pietrzak
Oscar Upon A Time by Joseph Altshuler, Mari Altshuler & Zachary Morrison
Hypnagogic set of events experienced by 132x12866y78z by Zygmunt Maniaczyk and Marcin Kitala
Endeavourism by Mark Rukamathu and Yarinda Bunnag
The Secret Life of New World Towers by Berenika Boberska
Ocularcentrism by Gianna Papapavlou
Detroit S.A.R. by Ya Suo & Rania Ghosn
Crust by Chanel Dehond
Away With The Fairies by J.P. Maruszczak, Roger Connah & Ryan Manning
Empty by Zigeng Wang
Beautifully Banal by Alexander Culler and Danny Travis
Screenland, By A Pixel by Samantha Lee and Zhan Wang
CTRL C CTRL ME by Pauline Marcombe, Helene Marcombe, and Jay Robinson
Allegories of Home by Zabie Mustafa and Neda Kakhsaz
What About Sleeping Beauty by Hugo Reichmann
The Doomers Ball by Matt Ozga-Lawn and James Craig
The Invisible Apple by Zigeng Wang and Tanli Liu
The Museum of Lost Volumes by Neyran Turan, Melis Ugurlu, and Anastasia Yee
The Death Rehearsal by Carol Nung
Welcome to the 5th Facade by Olson Kundig – Alan Maskin, Jerome Tryon, Kevin Scott, Gabriela Frank & Katie Miller
Parisian Lullaby by Hagai Ben Naim
12 Nautical Miles by Kobi Logendrarajah
Chat/SMS by Olalekan Jeyifous
On The Road by Kostis Ktistakis
Ink-Soaked Boy by Mark Morris & Neil Spiller
Toll by Sean Cottengim & Alex Gormley
+Z by Patch Dobson-Pérez
Software Version v.5.1 by Nicola Chan, Nikolas Kourtis & Pui Quan Choi
Malthusian Curve Program – Love Is To Die by Liao Hung Kai & Huang Hsiao Rou
Last Day by Mykhailo Ponomarenko
City Walkers by Terrence Hector
Up Above by Ariane Merle d’Aubigné & Jean Maleyrat
iDentity: Virtual Reality Therapy for Cultural Identity Crises by Minh Tran, Alan Ma, & Yi Ning Lui
One Thousand and One Nights by Xinran Ma
Call for Submissions: The Great Wall of America by Carly Dean & Richard Nelson-Chow
Course of Empire by Aidan Doyle & Sarah Wan (Wayndoy Studio)
Amazonia Pier: Manufacturing An Architecture of Pleasure by Julien Nolin
Aisha’s Asylum by Chong Yan Chuah, Nathan Su & Bethany Edgoose
The Dearest by Janice Kim & Carol Shih
+10 winners from this year’s competition!
https://studyarchitecture.com/wp-content/uploads/storytelling.jpg5751000Amanda GannAmanda Gann2018-02-27 15:24:272018-02-27 15:24:27Blank Space Selects 40 Stories for 'Storytelling Architecture' Book
BUFFALO, N.Y. — During the day, light pours in from two sides through the more than 72,000 holes laser-precision drilled into the stainless steel panels that veil the building’s façade.
At night, an inversion occurs and light glows from within, identifying the structure’s presence in the surrounding neighborhood.
For his newest project, University at Buffalo architect Christopher Romano embarked upon a two-year journey through the manipulation of light and metal as design materials. The result is a signature architectural structure nestled in the shadows of three iconic buildings on Buffalo’s historic East Side.
It’s called Light/Station, and the recently completed project has transformed an abandoned gas mart into a striking 1,545-square-foot design studio, green room and conference facility for Buffalo-based Torn Space, a critically acclaimed, avant-garde theater company.
Light and history were core components of Romano’s design concept from the beginning.
“Light serves as the connective tissue for all the components of the façade. It’s a material. It’s a central element to the multi-layered façade, where the lighting is a layer behind the steel panels, which typically isn’t done because it’s risky,” says Romano, who designed the façade through his firm Studio NORTH Architecture.
Some of the smaller prototypes were developed and tested using the school’s digital fabrication equipment under the direction of Daniel Vrana, a staff member in the Fabrication Workshop and current employee at Studio NORTH Architecture.
A LOOK AT LIGHT/STATION (PHOTOS BY DOUGLAS LEVERE)
University of Arizona’s Bachelor or Architecture students test their designs by building homes for low income Tucsonans
The University of Arizona’s College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture’s (CAPLA) architecture students are faced with many of the same educational chores that other school of architecture students are faced with: they toil solving many theoretical design problems, they work long hours in their studio spaces looking to their classmates for inspiration and they dream of just how and when they’ll get to see their projects come to life. While theory and research are necessary parts of the curriculum, students at CAPLA also have the unique opportunity to work on real world design solutions through experiential education. One such way is through the Drachman Design-Build Coalition (DDBC), a 501 c3 non-profit housing provider organization.
The DDBC is the product of Professor Mary Hardin’s desire to ensure that her architecture students were able to have an experience that allowed them to see their designs come to life and to help an underserved population of low income Tucsonans achieve home ownership. Recently, the DDBC, through the design-build studios and hard work of 33 students across three semesters, completed its ninth residence, “The Sentinel House.”
“My involvement in DDBC has allowed me to bring the excitement of designing and building real projects into the studio experience with students. I get vicarious pleasure from seeing them enthused about building their own project designs. I also have been touched by how much extra work my students put into these projects, knowing they are building a home for a family who would not otherwise benefit from the talents of architectural designers. Seeing my students put so much into each project has constantly revived my own sense of commitment and enthusiasm,” states Mary.
Mary and her students were fortunate to receive a grant from the UA Office of Student Engagement (OSE) as this project meets the requirements of the UA’s 100% Engagement Initiative. The initiative works to provide students with experiences beyond the classroom, helping to enrich their professional and personal growth. Even with the generous grant from the OSE, the residence has been designed under a very strict budget so that it can be sold to a Tucson family earning below 80% of the Area Median Income.
The home has been built with several sustainability practices to help keep utility bills and lifetime maintenance costs lower for the future homeowners. For example, they’ve used scoria, a thermal mass material, for the exterior walls of the home. This dense material holds onto temperature for a long period of time, meaning it works hard to prevent outdoor heat from traveling indoors. Additionally, they placed a layer of rigid foam in the center of these walls to help hinder the heat transfer.
The team also built two water harvesting cisterns to collect rainwater from the roof for use on the landscaping. The landscaping is xeriscape, low water use desert plants that are located to help shade the home. The A/C system is four mini-splits rather than one central unit so that each room can be programmed for thermal comfort separately from the others. This will allow homeowners to fine tune their use of air conditioning to keep bills down, and the mini-split units are much more efficient (SEER 21) than the typical central unit (SEER 14).
Educational experiences like these help CAPLA students succeed beyond the classroom and well into their professions. They’ve had the opportunity to face real world challenges and then find the most efficient solutions to those problems. “These opportunities simply aren’t found elsewhere,” states Mary.
For more information on University of Arizona’s Architecture Program, visit their profile on StudyArchitecture.
https://studyarchitecture.com/wp-content/uploads/59.jpg7561008Amanda GannAmanda Gann2017-11-17 20:10:592018-06-26 05:42:52Real World Ready by Creating Real World Design Solutions
A homeless family will be able to look out onto Adeline Street while cooking dinner and also find privacy in a rock garden, thanks to the design of the latest house Yale architecture students built in New Haven.
Some 200 people came out Monday night to tour and celebrate the new house, the 28th annual home that Yale School of Architecture students have built as part of the Jim Vlock First Year Building Project. This is the first year that a home was designed specifically for the homeless.
The distinctive, many-windowed, pitched-roof modernist house is at 54 Adeline St. in the Hill.
Into it one homeless family and one individual will move next month, sharing a common modernist building with the adjoining units separated by an elegant breeze-way and fronted by a flower-lined path gracing the narrow street.
“Imagine if you were sleeping on a bench last week, and someone gave you keys to your own place [like this],” said Columbus House Chief Executive Officer Alison Cunningham.
54 Adeline, unveiled Monday night. (Photo credit: Allan Appel Photos)
School of Architecture Dean Deborah Burke said when she arrived she had wanted to “deepen” the Vlock Project. That took the form of a partnership with Columbus House, the city’s lead organization in the struggle to end homelessness.
Cunningham interacted with the students, brought them to the neighborhood, had them talk with homeless people, all to inform what they were going to build.
Then 53 students in six teams competed for a winning design. When it was chosen, all 53 learned teamwork by helping to fashion most of the components of the house not on site but as prefabricated elements put together in a warehouse on Yale’s West Campus. That was in June and July.
CU Denver students got to ditch the classroom in favor of turning soil, pounding nails and solving in-the-field design problems during a Maymester Design Build class. They put their creative stamp on an entire city block, installing archways that grace the entrances to a new City of Denver concept – a summer pop-up park, featuring food trucks, a dog park and music – in the Ballpark neighborhood.
“For me, it’s incredible to have the city say, ‘Yes, we trust you with $10,000,’” said student Genevieve Hampton. That was the budget that students and their instructors – Maria Delgado and Jo VandenBurg from the College of Architecture and Planning (CAP) and Monica Wittig from Inworks – received from the city to design and install the eye-catching entryways.
In late spring, the city closed the one-block section and began covering the pavement with turf, 60 trees, a music stage and the artful, student-designed entrances at Lawrence and Larimer streets. It’s fitting that 21 students enrolled in the Maymester course as the the verdant and shady block is now dubbed “The Square on 21st.”
Architecture student Tyler Ellis said the tangible nature of the project has been rewarding. “We’re mostly focused on the page when we’re in design studio,” he said, “so being able to see it manifested in physical form has been great.”
Maria Delgado, a doctoral Design and Planning student at CU Denver, was so inspired by the new CU in the City marketing campaign that she scoured the internet for design projects that would integrate student learning with downtown’s urban environment. “I was researching possible content for my spring class. I was inspired by Chancellor Horrell and our campus leadership’s whole concept of CU Denver being ‘CU in the City,’” Delgado said. “This project is a result of that movement.” Jo VandenBurg, another instructor in the class, added, “This is what you get when you say ‘CU in the City:’ You get cool stuff in the city.”
Delgado, a doctoral student in the Design and Planning Program in CAP, reached out to the city’s office of Community Planning and Development last winter when she saw the project posted online. Her initial suggestion was for city officials to critique a few student-created renderings. “From that meeting they said, ‘Well, actually we have $10,000 budgeted (for the entryways) and we’d love for your students to design and build something,’” Delgado said.
With a tight deadline approaching – the park opened June 15, with Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and other dignitaries in attendance (photo at top) – Delgado wondered how she and her students would be able to get all the work done in time. The solution was a CAP-Inworks cross-listed Maymester course that literally put students in hardhats out on the street.
Hampton said Design Build students are usually limited to creating small-sized models in the studio. “To walk through this design on this scale is something we’re not used to – it’s exciting,” she said. “It’s a design project with real-world constraints that we’ve had to adjust to, like the curve of the street.”
In spring, CAP and Inworks students met several times with city representatives to explain their idea and receive feedback. The designs were nearly ready when the Maymester Design Build class started on May 15.
Although the class runs three weeks, students only had 11 days to complete everything for The Square on 21st project. That’s how quickly they moved from a computer rendering, to figuring out how to build the entrances, to ordering the materials, to cutting the wood sheets, to installing and painting them. “It was crazy,” VandenBurg said of of the process, noting that students worked 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day over that span.
Delgado, a doctoral student in the Design and Planning Program in CAP, reached out to the city’s office of Community Planning and Development last winter when she saw the project posted online. Her initial suggestion was for city officials to critique a few student-created renderings. “From that meeting they said, ‘Well, actually we have $10,000 budgeted (for the entryways) and we’d love for your students to design and build something,’” Delgado said.
With a tight deadline approaching – the park opened June 15, with Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and other dignitaries in attendance (photo at top) – Delgado wondered how she and her students would be able to get all the work done in time. The solution was a CAP-Inworks cross-listed Maymester course that literally put students in hardhats out on the street.
Hampton said Design Build students are usually limited to creating small-sized models in the studio. “To walk through this design on this scale is something we’re not used to – it’s exciting,” she said. “It’s a design project with real-world constraints that we’ve had to adjust to, like the curve of the street.”
In spring, CAP and Inworks students met several times with city representatives to explain their idea and receive feedback. The designs were nearly ready when the Maymester Design Build class started on May 15.
Although the class runs three weeks, students only had 11 days to complete everything for The Square on 21st project. That’s how quickly they moved from a computer rendering, to figuring out how to build the entrances, to ordering the materials, to cutting the wood sheets, to installing and painting them. “It was crazy,” VandenBurg said of of the process, noting that students worked 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day over that span.
While CAP graduate students in Design Build have created projects across the state and in the metro area, the Ballpark effort marks the first time a Design Build undergraduate class has installed a local project. “It’s really cool because it’s just a few blocks away from school,” Delgado said. “It’s been a real collaboration for CAP, Inworks and the City to be able to visit the site daily and see the project grow.”
Grand way to make an entrance
The collaboration included access to cutting-edge technology available through both CAP and Inworks. CAP recently acquired a computer numerical control (CNC) router that replicates a machine already available at Inworks. The two CNCs allowed students to cut 83 sheets of plywood for the arches – set in accordion-like fashion at the Larimer entrance, where 14 are installed, and the Lawrence entry (seven more) – in quick and precise fashion.
The pop-up park will host food trucks, summer concerts and serve as a pleasant gathering spot for folks strolling or cycling just east of Coors Field. The Square on 21st acts as a trial run for a potential permanent “activated block” to be installed in a pocket of town lacking green space, said Delgado, who founded the CU Denver Design Build Institute of America student chapter club.
The entrances play a key role in the park. They guide walking and bicycling visitors into the green space, encouraging them to meander through the park.
For Delgado, the best part of Maymester has been seeing students’ faces light up with pride as the entrances gained dimension and flair. “It’s neat because other people will be able to experience what our students have designed and built,” she said. “They’ve left a mark.”
https://studyarchitecture.com/wp-content/uploads/CAPSquareMAIN-1400x585.jpg5851400Amanda GannAmanda Gann2017-07-06 15:33:552017-07-06 15:33:55CU Denver Students Build Pop-up Installation at Denver Park
Every year, students of Tulane University’s School of Architecture have the opportunity to take a course called “URBANBuild” where they design and construct a home for a family in New Orleans.
“The house at 1924 Toledano St. in Central City is a striking gray residence with a sharply angled roofline and louvered shutters over the front windows. Inside, every inch of its 975 square feet has been painstakingly pondered, debated and studied.
The house, which recently listed on the market for $220,000 and is now under contract, is the 12th project of the Tulane University School of Architecture’s URBANbuild program.
Fifteen students — a mixture of undergrads and grad students — designed the house in a class last fall, then submitted plans to the city and secured building permits. During the spring semester, they built it from the ground up on a vacant 30-foot-by-70-foot lot owned by Neighborhood Housing Services of New Orleans, the nonprofit group which partners with Tulane on the program.
For some of the students, it was the first time they’d ever lifted a hammer or fired up a power tool, much less climbed around a roof.
The class operates like a full-time job, with students expected to spend six days a week on the job site, said Tulane architecture professor and URBANbuild director Byron Mouton. Licensed general contractor Anthony Christiana serves as lead contractor.
In the fall, the students create various architectural design schemes for an affordable residence; at midterm, they vote on the one that will be built. “Then they all work together as a group on the development,” Mouton said. Full Article HERE”
From trash to treasure, University of Southern California (USC) students Jayson Champlain and Joseph Chang are transforming forgotten materials into tiny portable houses that could serve as temporary shelter for people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles.
According to LA Times, “Jeremy Carman was driving around Boyle Heights recently when he spotted a rolled-up garage door on the side of the road.
‘That’s it,’ the 25-year-old thought. The garage door would make the perfect roof for the 8-foot-tall house that he and four other USC architecture students were building over the weekend to draw attention to the lack of permanent supportive housing for the homeless in Los Angeles — and to raise money for a solution.”
The students gathered materials from construction trash bins, street corners and alleys in LA then came together to build a small white house with a bright orange door, “complete with a cupola, eaves, and wheels for mobility.”
The students built the house at the Dwell on Design Conference, held at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
https://studyarchitecture.com/wp-content/uploads/usc_homelessness.jpg5751022Amanda GannAmanda Gann2017-06-26 18:28:172017-06-26 18:35:34USC Students Raise Awareness About Homelessness
The gig: Natasha Case, 33, runs ice cream sandwich company Coolhaus, which she founded with partner Freya Estreller in 2009. The duo’s whimsical, architecture-inspired creations are available in grocery stores — in packaged form — and in bricks-and-mortar Coolhaus stores in Culver City and Pasadena, where customers can pick the cookie and ice cream combinations. The company is staying true to its food-truck roots, with rolling dispensaries in Los Angeles, Dallas and New York.
L.A. start: Case, a third-generation Angeleno, grew up in Sherman Oaks. Her father was an architect; her mother, an animator at Disney. Case moved north to study architecture, Italian and urban planning at UC Berkeley but returned for her master’s in architecture at UCLA.
“Farchitecture”: Case said she had a “lightbulb moment” when one of her Berkeley professors criticized a creation she had made, describing it as a layer cake. “I remember thinking, why is that a bad thing?” she said. Case had been searching for a way to make architecture more accessible to the public, she said, and realized she could do that by combining food and architecture (hence, “farchitecture”). Her creations attracted crowds even back then. “It made me think I was on to something,” she said.
Disney first: After UCLA, Case worked briefly at Disney Imagineering, which designs and builds Disney theme parks, hotels and other entertainment venues. That experience helped lay a foundation for Coolhaus. “Disney is about designing a brand and storytelling, not just architecture,” she said. “That was really good backbone.” As the recession set in, Case started to bring in homemade ice cream sandwiches named after architects — “Mies Vanilla Rohe” and “Frank Behry” were among the originals — to provide a bit of comic relief around the office.
Finding a partner: Around that time, in late 2008, Case was introduced to Freya Estreller, who worked in real estate. Estreller shared Case’s interest in food but brought a business attitude. Estreller and Case began to strategize about how to build a business together. The food-truck craze was just beginning — with Korean taco truck Kogi BBQ having recently made its debut in L.A. — and craft ice cream wasn’t really a thing yet. “We Googled ‘hipster ice cream truck’ and nothing came up,” Case said.
The pair decided they would be the first, putting $2,900 on a credit card for a beat-up postal van that had been repurposed as an ice cream truck. They named the company Coolhaus, a triple pun on the name of architect Rem Koolhaas, the Bauhaus movement and the idea that an ice cream sandwich is like a tiny, cold house.
Coachella bound: In spring 2009, Coolhaus got its first big job as a food vendor at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. “Coachella was such big volume that it instantly forced us to think bigger scale,” Case said. She and Estreller brought in co-packers, companies that work under contract with producers to manufacture food to the producers’ specifications, to make enough ice cream and cookies. Giant freezers kept the products cold and allowed them to “scoop to order” for customers.
The only problem was getting there. The Craigslist ice cream truck had no engine, so Case bought a AAA premier membership, which comes with a free 200-mile tow. Case and Estreller sold their ice cream sandwiches at $3.50 apiece, including an edible wrapper. (Case said they hadn’t yet figured out the true costs of running the business, and the price back then reflected that. These days, a custom ice cream sandwich costs $6 at a Coolhaus shop.) By the end of the festival, Coolhaus was in the black and had gained a cult following on Instagram and Twitter.
Growth spurt: Back home, Case and Estreller set about fixing up the truck. By the time they were up and running in L.A. a few weeks later, “we had a built-in audience,” Case said. The duo focused at first on expanding Coolhaus’ fleet of trucks, taking on New York in 2011. That year they also established a store in Culver City. Eventually they added a second in Pasadena and several more trucks.
Changing flavors: But it took an outsider to make them rethink their strategy. Bobby Margolis, who famously turned clothing company Cherokee Inc. into a licensing company, was a friend of Case’s father and an early investor in Coolhaus. He encouraged her and Estreller to sell the ice cream sandwiches wholesale.
“Shifting the strategy was not something we saw early on,” Case said. With wholesale, one might make half the revenue on a single item, but the item gets sold in bulk in many new markets. “It’s a slow and steady trickle on a big scale,” Case said. “That’s a very different mentality than going out and trying to make a few thousand dollars at lunch on a truck.”
But Case was willing to try. She started by walking into the Whole Foods in Glendale and just asking who she could talk to. Last year, Coolhaus did $7 million in sales, and wholesale made up about 75% of that, Case said. Today, Coolhaus offers pints and prepackaged ice cream sandwiches in about 6,000 stores, including major grocery chains Whole Foods and Safeway.
Advice: Case said her suggestion to would-be entrepreneurs, especially women, is to “think really big. Like, where is this going to take me in five to 10 years? How can this be the next biggest concept out there in my category?”
She also advised entrepreneurs with non-business degrees to think of their obstacles as strengths. “It’s not like I got an MBA,” she said. “You don’t have to have this traditional tool kit to be successful.”
Personal: Case is married to Estreller, who stopped working at Coolhaus in 2013. They live in Mid-City with their newborn son, Remy, and two dogs.
