Design Daily: Sutro Tower Coat Rack
Author:Sarah Virginia WhiteAmong the local landmarks that simply scream San Francisco—the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge among them—Sutro Tower belongs to the city alone. The otherworldly antenna straddles the hilly divide between those of us who are fogged-in and those who are fog-free. So what better adaptation could it find than as a coat rack to hold the artifacts of our notoriously fickle clime?
San Francisco designer Justin Godar of Godar Furniture thought the design of the tower was a natural fit for a coat rack. Fast forward through the prototyping process, the screen-printing alignment issues and the obligatory Kickstarter campaign (Godar blew past his $5,000 target to the tune of $16,639), and voila—a 72-inch mini-icon is born.
The Sutro coat rack is made of precision-cut birch plywood and handrubbed with oil and wax (for the natural finish), then screen-printed in blazing red and white to create the familiar stripes of the beloved tower. There’s some assembly required, but Godar helps you out by throwing in a free beer hammer (aka a plywood hammer frame into which one nestles a beer—prompting one to tap with just enough pressure to get the job done, but not so hard that you damage the coat rack or foam up your beer).
The Sutro is available from Godar Furniture or SF’s Aldea Home. For an even closer look, jump on Godar’s factory tour during SFMade Week; 2241 Quesada Ave, May 9 and 10, 4 – 5 p.m.
