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Dynamic Minds, Brilliant Inspiration: Sausalito Design and Architecture Studio Study Tour
Join us for an afternoon immersed in the studios of two interior design firms and one architectural firm. Three of the most distinctive creative studios in the Bay Area — The Office of Charles de Lisle, Studio Collins Weir, and Luca Pignata Studio — open their doors in Sausalito for a directed studio study tour. Each visit is a private, structured, in-depth presentation by the firm’s principals, with access to working studios and ongoing projects that reveal how exceptional design is made.
Bestselling author and design journalist Diane Dorrans Saeks leads the afternoon, guiding conversation and drawing out the ideas, processes, and inspirations that define each practice. Attendees walk and carpool between studios along Sausalito’s celebrated waterfront — at the intersection of architecture, craft, and the luminous landscape that shapes it all.
The day concludes with a private reception hosted by Luca Pignata, where participants meet the architects and designers, enjoy refreshments, and extend the afternoon’s inspirations into the early evening.
The Office of Charles de Lisle
The Office of Charles de Lisle is a highly admired multidisciplinary design firm based in Sausalito, California. The international work encompasses interior design, handcrafted custom furnishings, product design, and the decorative arts. Founded in 2008, the studio operates on the conviction that great design, paired with quality manufacturing, produces environments that are lasting and truly singular. The firm brings a rare maker’s sensibility to every project: partners grounded in studio art, art history, architecture, and industrial design collaborate closely with clients to craft spaces alive with beauty, originality, inspired color, textiles, art, and bespoke custom work. Projects span California, New York, Hawaii, Mexico City, Montana, Nova Scotia, and beyond.
“I’m inspired by my clients, and the extraordinary artists and craftspeople we work with. When clients are involved and interested in the design and design process, the interiors become more about story than about image.” — Charles de Lisle
Studio Collins Weir is the collaborative practice of designers Susan Collins Weir and Chris Weir, recognized for interiors that fuse a strong foundation in art history and architecture with an exacting attention to craft, textiles, and bespoke detail. The studio’s work reflects the belief that a home should come together as a holistic, warmly individual environment — one that honors the specificity of each site, client, and collection. Studio Collins Weir creates masterful design with refinement and elegance. Custom furnishings, professional craft, and considered material choices are the hallmarks of every project.
“The layering of epochs is quintessential San Francisco — a city racing towards the future while looking over its shoulder to the past.” — Susan Collins Weir
“We design spaces to be minimal in form and materially rich. Our decor is quite modern and every detail is considered. We work to contrast the classical detailing of the space, reinforcing the qualities of both. We further heighten this juxtaposition of classical and modern by lining the room with contemporary art and the clients’ collections.” — Chris Weir
Originally from Northern Italy, architect Luca Pignata came to Northern California three decades ago. Working at the studio of legendary Napa Valley architect Howard Backen, Pignata developed a practice rooted in the conviction that architecture must carry meaning and purpose. His studio, opened in Sausalito, is guided by the principle that the buildings we admire are those that celebrate values we hold important. The architect’s essential tools are honesty, curiosity, passion, and deep respect for culture, nature, and the environment.
“I have always been inspired by the thinking of Vitruvius, the great Roman architect, who believed that architecture should be composed of the triple essence: strength, utility, and aesthetic effect. And there is a phrase from Stendhal that I love: ‘Beauty as promise to happiness.’ How else do you create happiness but through beauty and kindness?” — Luca Pignata
About the Seminar Leader
Diane Dorrans Saeks is a San Francisco-based design journalist, editor, and the author of twenty-six books on architecture, design, travel, and style, published by Rizzoli, Chronicle Books, and others. Her most recent Rizzoli titles include Jean-Louis Deniot Interiors and Parisian by Design. She is Design Editor of PaperCity magazine and a co-founding editor of Metropolitan Home and C Magazine California Style. Diane has traveled to more than 110 countries as a working journalist and has presented her Dynamic Minds, Brilliant Inspiration design seminars — intimate, behind-the-scenes studio visits with leading architects and designers — for more than fifteen years, in affiliation with Design Bay Area and San Francisco Design Week.
- Attendees walk and carpool between the three studios along the waterfront, starting at The Office of Charles de Lisle.
ADDITIONAL SEMINARS:
Learn more about other events in the series –
June 6, 1pm-5pm: SoMa San Francisco
Studio visits to Stanley Saitowitz | Natoma Architects and BAMO .Participants will converse, meet, discuss ideas, and meet the designers and architects.
June 20, 1pm too 5pm: San Francisco
A studio visit is led by best-selling author Diane Dorrans Saeks at Kuth/Ranieri Architects with guest architect Anne Fougeron, FAIA · Fougeron Architecture. The day closes with a convivial reception: bites, sips.