American Steel: What do you do?
Jeff Clarkson: I design and build custom high-performance LED lighting.

AS: Why do you do what you do?
JC: I thought it would be fun. I have a Ph.D in materials science, and I’m connected to the semiconductor industry. Not all of the chips manufactured for semiconductors are identical; some are higher-yielding, but because they’re non-standard, I can get my hands on them. They use about 30 percent of the energy, and are about five times brighter, than a lot of the LED products already being mass produced. I was going through school, looking for a job and playing with different ideas. I took some measurements and found that I had access to LED technology that was light years ahead of what’s in place right now, and I thought I’d be able to come up with some unique and interesting designs.

AS: What brought you to American Steel?
JC: Originally, I was building all this stuff in my loft in Oakland. It was a completely undesirable setup. I needed a dedicated workspace. I’m mostly a one-man show, and I don’t have any interest in scaling up production. Because of my credentials and the reputation I’ve built, I can provide design consulting and work one-on-one with high-end firms. I also do solar cell and energy consulting. But I have a very lean business model: I don’t mass-produce items, and I don’t have a loan from the bank or investors because that might limit my product’s versatility. One of the core values of Lumlit is versatility. So I need my space here to be flexible as well – and affordable.

AS: How has working in American Steel helped your business grow?
JC: It’s opened up a world of possibility. I originally moved in because Brian Pepin [also a tenant and electrician] introduced me. Now, if I have a question about materials or how to do something, I can probably find someone in the building to help me. If I need to know about glass, I can go ask Jay [Musler]. Just today I found some new folks to help me cut materials. Asking for help from others is also a great way to see what everybody else is working on. The community here has completely enhanced my ability to make my designs a reality.

AS: How have you been able to contribute to the community?
We needed new address signs on the building, and they have to be illuminated at night. But no electricity runs to the exterior walls where they’ll hang. I came up with a solar panel design that will charge a battery to backlight the [plasma-cut metal] signs from inside.

AS: What brought you to Oakland?
JC: I didn’t know how awesome Oakland was until I moved here: it’s central to everything, and I think it’s the most diverse city in the Bay. I really admire the underground scene — the original thought and original practice of things, all the original investigation. Before moving here, I had been at a wine tasting in Sonoma with someone from Oakland. I had this terrible brainwashed conception of Oakland from the media — all you hear about is angry people who riot — and I said so. He challenged me to walk around Oakland at night and see how I really felt. So I did. I went to the Buttercup Grill and I walked around at night, and it was great. Now, I know being in the Bay Area is essential to the success of Lumlit. If I took the same business model to Florida, no one would care. Other parts of the country don’t buy into tech appeal and green appeal in the same way.

AS: What do you do for fun in Oakland:
JC: I like to hike, but it’s urban hiking, like exploring the city’s industrial infrastructure. I also take bonsai classes in the bonsai garden at Lake Merritt.

AS: What’s your next big adventure?
JC: I’ve been doing some prototyping work for UC Berkeley, and may be moving into more specific field research, which is what Ph.Ds in materials science usually focus on. But whatever I do, I’ve learned so much from Lumlit: working with all the components, the metalworkers, the glassblowers, the architecture firms. I’ve learned about supply chains and coordinating design and project management in general.

AS: Thanks for lighting up our lives, Jeff!

Juan Jimenez is the mastermind behind Built From Salvage, dedicated to transforming reclaimed building materials into high-quality craft objects with a sustainable grain.

American Steel: What do you do?
Juan Jimenez: I build beautiful custom furniture from salvaged materials.

AS: Why do you do what you do?
JJ: Because it’s really labor intensive.
AS: Okay, but really?
JJ: I think there’s a lot of opportunity to reuse building materials, and, considering we don’t have infinite resources, I think it will be a lot more common in the future.
AS: So do you consider yourself the Avant-Garde?
JJ: No, there are already a lot of people with a great understanding of our untapped potential resources, innovating out of salvaged, reclaimed and eco-engineered materials, but it will become even more popular down the road — globally, it’s an ecological imperative.

AS: Besides being necessary for the health of our planet, is there something extra that using reclaimed materials adds to your work?
JJ: Yes. There is the personal fulfillment of not being so dependent on new things, and there’s also the character and look of the final product; it’s indescribable. A lot of my clients love to see a rusty nail as part of a perfect piece — it’s distressed, but that doesn’t mean it’s rustic.

AS: Where do you get your materials?
JJ: People remodeling their homes, people who distribute construction leftovers. They scout out materials and then come to me because they know something can be done with them. An architect once brought me a bowling lane and wanted me to make counter tops. It was challenging: it wouldn’t even fit through the wide belt sanders.

AS: How is being in Oakland important to your work?
JJ: My community is here. I’ve been in the Bay Area almost twenty years in the building trades. I did finish carpentry, furniture, and cabinetry, but I was frustrated. I wanted a bigger challenge and the independence of doing things my own way. Now I have built up a network of people in the construction and salvage industries. I get most of my materials from scrap yards and referrals. Plus, I get the great diversity of Oakland; that’s really attractive to me. I get to meet people from places that I didn’t know existed, geographically.

AS: Where did you grow up?
JJ: I was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela.
AS: Isn’t that a very environmentally forward-thinking city?
JJ: All of Latin America is, really. But they could do more. So could North America. The environmental movement, we’re still ruled by corporate money; it’s what determines the importance of environmental facts. But there are people creating an impact — small creative businesses in pursuit of a better world.

AS: How does American Steel fit into that?
JJ: It’s a big creative hub; it’s evolving, and it still has a lot more to put out. When I first moved here, the potential seemed huge, and it turned out to be bigger than I thought.
AS: How’s that?
JJ: It’s inspiration. At times when I’m frustrated with work, all I have to do is step out my door and just go wander. And then practically, I manage to work hand in hand with other creative minds.

AS: What collaborations have you had with others in the building?
JJ: I’ve had people do metal work for me, and Doug Kittredge from Anarchitectural just organized a group of in-house artists to renovate a bus.
AS: In reality, “bus” hardly describes the masterpiece that the four-bedroom traveling hotel became — complete with kitchen and bath, custom woodworking and fabrication, gray water and septic. The talent to do all this came from within the American Steel community, making it one-stop shopping for this kind of project.
JJ: We have the potential to evolve into an even deeper, more organized community. It’s an indescribable cultural asset, to have this diversity of talents under one roof. American Steel has a lot to offer the city, and the whole Bay.

AS: Do you live near work?
JJ: I live in Berkeley. I have a big, edible garden. It’s very convenient. I ride my bike to work a lot when I don’t have to move materials or tools. It’s a fifteen-minute commute, and sometimes, when I get home, I just go on a ride because I’m all warmed up.

AS: What is your next big adventure?
JJ: I am beginning to prototype a small furniture line of reclaimed, salvaged and eco-engineered furnishings that are easily repeated. I love custom work, but I eventually see myself having a small crew working with me, and having a little bit more time to get creative. I want to build items that will last a lifetime, something people can hand down to their kids. And it’s sustainable in that sense, too — less stuff going into landfills.
AS: Well, your work is far too beautiful for such a fate . . . Thanks for your time!

Geoff Palmer is the founder of bikeparking.com, a locally owned business that produces a wide variety of bike parking racks that are now being installed in cities around the world. Geoff has been building his business at American Steel Studios for several years now, and has grown his inventory to include nearly twenty unique designs.

AM: Why do you do what you do?
GP: It just seems right. It melds with how I was raised more than anything. As the son of a boat-builder, there was a real emphasis on “making” useful items. I bounced around in the computer/office world after college but nothing was fulfilling. I started this business while moonlighting in the early 90s and it eventually became a sustaining enterprise.
AM: Geoff is being humble. In reality, due to his success, Geoff often has his hands full keeping up with orders and meeting the demand for his designs.

AM: Do you shop locally?
GP: I try as much as possible to. There are definitely a number of suppliers and vendors in the East Bay Area I source.