A studio visit is led by best-selling author Diane Dorrans Saeks at the Magic Factory headquarters of Ken Fulk, and his recently restored St Joseph’s Arts Society church, which is a studio/ atelier/ entertainment place. The venue is a lavish site for discussions on design, altruism and philanthropy.
The tour includes a visit St. Joseph’s Arts Society (tour led by new director, Martin Strickland), and a visit to the Julian Lennon photography exhibit. This is a restored former basilica. The visit also details the restoration, re-design and re-purpose of this historic structure.
Ken Fulk and his 80-person firm recently restored an historic Classical 1913 basilica to launch the Saint Joseph’s Art Society, a nonprofit where artists in varied media can create and show their works in a soaring sunlit space, superbly restored from floor to cupola. International artists’ multi-media work is presented. The venue is a design showcase and a community gathering space.
Ken Fulk is a celebrated designer renowned for his intricate interiors and memorable hospitality brands. Over the past 25 years, his firm, Ken Fulk Inc., with a team of 80 in San Francisco and New York, has achieved global recognition for its diverse projects, from residential spaces in Mexico to hotels in Provence. Fulk, listed on Architectural Digest’s AD 100 and other prestigious design lists, has also creatively directed numerous personal events such as weddings and anniversaries. Besides his design work, he operates as a co-proprietor and creative director for various notable properties, and in 2018, he founded Saint Joseph’s Arts Foundation to support local artists. His future projects include launching a plant-based restaurant and a performance venue in Wine Country, and reopening The Chrysler Building’s Cloud Club.
“This creative polymath’s extraordinary visual imagination has vaulted him to the peak of the interior design profession.”
— Cara Greenberg, Introspective magazine (May 30, 2022)
Learn more about Diane Dorrans Saeks on Instagram @dianedorranssaeks
Diane is the best-selling author of 25 design books, including ‘Michael S, Smith Elements of Style’ (Rizzoli) and her two most recent, “Jean-Louis Deniot Interiors’ (Rizzoli) and ‘Parisian by Design (Rizzoli). She is currently working on new books on design, style and interiors.
Diane is a founding editor with C California Style magazine, and the Design Editor of PAPERCITY magazine. She has written for Vogue, Vogue Living, The New York Times, the Financial Times, Veranda, Harper’s Bazaar, the Nob Hill Gazette, and many others.
Addresses AND LOCATIONS provided upon ticket purchase: Car pooling planned
Please note, locations are not suitable for children. All guests must bring a photo ID with them to the event that matches the name you registered under. Attendees will be emailed details on meeting location prior to the event.
The Dynamic Minds Seminars Series produced by Diane Dorrans Saeks is 4 separate afternoon events over a week from June 1 through June 8 2024.. Please acquire an ‘all access pass”; and then register for each event.
Creativity, ideas, inspiration and exploration, balanced with in-depth knowledge, remain essential elements in today’s interiors and architecture.
Inspiration and intense engagement are evident throughout four special afternoon seminars at the studios of leading California architects, a new showroom, and interior designers in San Francisco.
During the architecture and design studio on-site events in the series, attendees will meet San Francisco’s leading architecture and design practitioners and view work and discuss process.
Studios include Aidlin Darling Design, The Wiseman Group, BCJ, ODADA, Geoff de Sousa Design and de Sousa Hughes, and BAMO, Ken Fulk, Martin Kobus, Studio Collins Weir and The Office of Charles de Lisle. These 4 intense on-site seminars take place on different afternoons over 4 days and require separate ticketing. In each intense on-site seminar, we have a program to meet the designers and architects, to engage with new projects, and new highlights from work on the boards.
Each studio visit is an opportunity to encounter advanced ideas, creative procedures, and design and architecture concepts and advanced thinking.
Attendees will experience the full range of aesthetics, from pure modernism to richly informed classical design, traditional, bold, minimal, and eclectic expression. All are based on intellectual and intuitive disciplines. A highlight will be viewing and discussing works in process, as well as newly completed interiors and unpublished new residences.
We will see how studios fully use newest technical advances such as VR and AI, and 3D printing (and continue to sketch) in their design concepts and in interactions with their clients. Participants will view and engage with latest thinking on sustainability, ‘green’ practices, and the use of tech and an appreciation for sketching.
At the end of each day, participants are invited to a private in-studio reception and celebration, offering the opportunity to meet designers and their staff and to discuss in-depth ideas and views.
Led by best-selling author and leading interior design journalist/ author Diane Dorrans Saeks, this year’s interior designer program follows on the great success of last ten year’s programs.
Diane’s seminars offer a very rare opportunity to tour top architecture and interior design studios, meet with designers and architects one-on-one.
Dynamic San Francisco architecture and design firms on the seminar roster include Aidlin Darling Design, BAMO, and The Wiseman Group and BCJ, as well as leading interior designers Ken Fulk, Martin Kobus, Charles de Lisle, Susan Collins Weir, ODADA. A special visit to the new De Sousa Hughes NEW showroom is a highlight.
Each highly accomplished designer and architect will speak of works in progress, new work, and what they see happening in the near future. Studio visits celebrate achievement, creativity, the power of ideas, and the power of optimism. This program is not appropriate for children under 16, as they are architecture & design study tours of studios, with formal presentations made by company principals.
Learn more about other events in the series –
Studio visits to Aidlin Darling Design, ODADA and BCJ
5pm Reception. Participation will converse, meet, discuss idea, and meet the designers and architects.
Studio visits to The Office of Charles de Lisle, Studio Collins Weir, and culminating with a reception and refreshments at Martin Kobus Studio:
The design studios of The Wiseman Group and BAMO, and Geoffrey de Sousa Design and de Sousa Hughes, new showroom to view newest projects including modern and classical design, architectural historic restoration, and new design collections. BAMO has invited us to end the day with a reception.