Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and carved stone was such a coveted material that artists developed the grisaille painting technique to give the illusion of masonry architectural details and sculpture.

In addition to working on stone masonry for private estates and public buildings, QuarryHouse is fluent in creating exquisite hardscapes. Before Ed and Missy Westbrook co-founded QuarryHouse in 1993, Ed owned a landscaping company. He developed an affinity for stonework when he started fabricating fountains, patios, and pathways for his landscaping clients.

Did you know that QuarryHouse does restoration work? The team is well-versed in undertaking extensive historic stone renovations. They have a proven track record of stonemasonry, where the restoration work is undetectable.

QuarryHouse does not limit itself to stone but collaborates with an Italian studio specializing in ancient cocciopesto techniques to fabricate interior architecture, furnishings, and decorative objects. On a recent trip to Italy, Ed Westbrook connected with old and new friends at Cipriani Design in Reggio Emilia. Their skilled artisans reinterpret traditional polychrome terracotta and inlay techniques for contemporary interiors.

Lake Tahoe's blue-green Emerald Bay is home to one of North America's finest examples of Scandinavian architecture, Vikingsholm. Inspired by 11th-century Nordic churches and farmsteads and reminded of the fjords she had seen on her travels to Scandinavia, the widowed and divorced heiress Lora Small Moore Knight (1864-1945) commissioned Swedish architect Lennart Palme to design the 38-room estate.

QuarryHouse admires and supports craftsmanship. Their Italian partners in Verona, CITCO, often collaborate with the Como-based furnishings company OAK. The oak tree symbolizes the Roman god Jupiter and is a more accessible name to remember than Martinalli Pologna Furniture Company.

Do you ever wonder where QuarryHouse's Man With a Hammer logo originated? When Ed and Missy Westbrook co-founded QuarryHouse thirty years ago, they sought help from their San Anselmo neighbor, Philip Andrews, a freelance graphic designer. He and the Westbrooks found inspiration for the Man With a Hammer in the Works Progress Administration posters of the 1930s and 40s.

The British sculptor Emily Young uses onyx for its translucent qualities. Young, regarded as the UK's greatest living stone sculptor, works with various stones, but her onyx heads, torsos, and discs radiate light. She cuts the stone to show its skin and its imperfections. Growing up between Rome and Wilshire in a family of artists, writers, and politicians, the Colosseum and Stonehenge equally informed her visual vocabulary. One of her classically inspired public works, "Archangel Michael - The Protector," depicts the angel's head in ivory onyx with one side of the face broken away.

While the ICAA Northern California has the Julia Morgan Awards, the ICAA Florida Chapter boasts the Addison Mizner Awards program. Both juried competitions acknowledge excellence in classical and traditional design and provide continued exposure and recognition for practitioners of these disciplines.

QuarryHouse was privileged to collaborate with the late internationally known sculptor Beverly Pepper (1922 – 2020) on the LandArt private commission in Marin County. A Brooklyn native, she entered Pratt Institute at sixteen, attending the Art Students League of New York and Brooklyn College, studying applied arts, fine arts, and art history. A trip to Angkor Wat, Cambodia, in 1960 inspired her to become a sculptor of monumental public works, site-specific and land art, instead of a painter.

Ed and Missy Westbrook recently attended the StonExpo at TISE 2023 in Las Vegas to accept the 2022 Pinnacle Award. QuarryHouse won in the Residential Interior/Exterior Single Family category for its Pacific Heights Palazzo project from the prestigious Natural Stone Institute.

Winners and peers recently gathered in the celadon and parcel-gilt Beaux-Arts splendor of San Francisco's The Green Room to celebrate The Institute of Classical Architecture and Art Northern California Chapter's Julia Morgan Awards.

Now that we have your attention, QuarryHouse was figuratively at the Olympics. They collaborated with Burton Miller of San Francisco's Hornberger + Worstell Architects and Planners on one of the three 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics venues.

Not far from QuarryHouse's corporate offices in downtown San Anselmo lies Imagination Park. In 2013, George Lucas donated the 8,700-square-foot park to commemorate the birthplace of his two masterpieces Star Wars and Indiana Jones, which he worked on from a nearby Victorian called Parkhouse. A fountain with two life-sized bronze figures of Yoda and Indiana Jones created by sculpture Lawrence Noble preside over the landscaped grounds.

Dillon Westbrook is the third Westbrook for us to profile in our Take 10 series. He is a second-generation stonemason who balances the specific functionality of his profession with an education in the nuanced disciplines of philosophy and poetry.

While many of QuarryHouse's projects involve neutral-colored stones of beige, taupe, gray, cream, brown, black, or white, for the skincare and cosmetics store Glossier LA they went pink. The West Hollywood showroom designed by Kendall Latham and built by AP-Build exudes Old Hollywood glamour.

QuarryHouse is a great admirer of renowned British environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy and his site-specific installations that weave ice, snow, leaves, branches, or rocks into the shifting landscape. In 2007 Goldsworthy created "Stone River" for the Aspen Institute Doerr Hosier Center.

One of QuarryHouse's neighbors in industrial Richmond is Michael Bondi Metal Design, specializing in architectural and interior wrought metal for private estates and public spaces. Like a modern-day Vulcan, its owner, Michael Bondi, forges shapes from fire and metal.

Nicholas Arcangeli usually works out of QuarryHouse Atelier Verona along with his father, Eugenio. The master carver came to the Richmond facility seven months ago to finish the carved stone fountains he started in Italy for a Renaissance-style mansion in San Francisco.

Derbyshire native Dave Goulder is not only a certified master stone wall craftsman with the Dry Stone Walling Association of Great Britain, but he is also a renowned folk singer and songwriter. Folk legends Christy Moore of the iconic Irish folk music band Planxty and the late Bert Jansch of the equally influential British folk-jazz band Pentangle covered Goulder's song, January Man. The lyrics personify the months of the year, tying them to the land and changing seasons.