Designer/artist and Fitch Mountain resident Johanna Grawunder will be our guide for a morning hike to stretch our legs, meet other attendees and enjoy some fresh air. Johanna will discuss her commissioned installation on Fitch Mountain, Summit Variations, which consists of five functional sculptures sited around the top of the Summit Trail.
We’ll be joined by special guest, Noah Jeppson of JeppsonEGD, who will share the design story behind the park’s interpretive and wayfinding system: a cohesive set of welcome, directional, interpretive, sponsor, and identification signs with tactile/Braille features along the accessible trail, a custom trail map, bilingual interpretive panels, and trail markers. He’ll touch on collaboration with the City’s Community Services Department and the Healdsburg Museum, how the program extends to Villa Chanticleer and the dog park, and the durable materials and standards that improve accessibility, visibility, and consistency across community sites.
Please dress appropriately for a hike outdoors: hiking shoes, sun hat, etc. and bring your own water bottle. This is a real hike on a dirt path, with gentle climbs of elevation.
Hike Schedule
We’ll gather at 9am at the trail head parking lot where Noah will give an overview of the parks wayfinding design system, and then we’ll hike 3.1 miles up to the top to view Summit Variations. The hike is meanders up with elevation of 800 feet. Moderately challenging hike on a dirt trail, so wear your hiking shoes and proper attire and bring your water bottles! Hiking poles will be helpful on the way back down. It just rained in Healdsburg, so the trail will be muddy. Dress accordingly.
October can be hot, so we’ll beat the heat with a morning walk up the beloved and mostly shaded Fitch Mountain. If you are not familiar with Fitch Mountain, it is a moderately challenging 3-mile loop, and the trail can be quite steep in places. All Trails for reference of route.
Johanna, Noah and a member of the Design Bay Area team will wait approx 10 minutes for attendees to arrive before taking the group on the trail, so please arrive early. Park restrooms onsite.
About Johanna Grawunder
Johanna Grawunder is an architect, artist and designer. Her works cover a broad range of projects, from large-scale public lighting and color installations, architectural interventions and interiors, to limited-edition furniture and light collections for Carpenters Workshop Gallery in US and Europe. She has collaborated with many notable architects and designers, creating custom lighting installations in their projects, and has also designed products for top companies including Flos, Boffi, and GlasItalia.
With an architectural background, she was drawn to the medium of light early on and has tried to incorporate architectural principles and scale, non-precious building materials and high technology light research into her designs.
Her work is included in many museum permanent collections, including the High Museum Atlanta, LACMA, CNAP, SFMOMA, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Art Institute Chicago, Denver Art Museum and Musée des Arts Décoratifs Paris.
With a degree in Architecture from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, she studied and worked with Gianni Pettena and Cristiano Toraldo di Francia of Superstudio in Florence (1984-1985) then moved to Milan to work with Sottsass Associati (1985-2001), becoming a partner in 1989. At Sottsass Associati she was involved primarily with architecture and interiors, co-designing with Ettore Sottsass, many of the firm’s most prestigious projects. In 2001 she opened her own design studio in San Francisco and Milan and currently resides in Healdsburg.
About Noah Jeppson
Based in Healdsburg, Noah Jeppson is an experience designer and principal of JeppsonEGD. He focuses on placemaking, wayfinding, and interpretive design, shaping how people move through and connect with civic spaces and public places. His background spans integrated branded environments, built over years working for major Bay Area architectural firms, and his local collaborations include work with the City of Healdsburg and Healdsburg Museum.
Recent project highlights include the interpretive and wayfinding system on Fitch Mountain, bilingual interpretive panels at the Foley Family Community Pavilion, and signage for the Healdsburg Multicultural Center. That work is grounded in original research and archival documentation, including oral histories of Healdsburg’s 1970s ceramics movement gathered for Healdsburg in the 1970s, the Healdsburg Museum exhibition he co-curated.
Noah serves as Chair of the City of Healdsburg Arts and Culture Commission, where he is helping build the infrastructure for public art and arts programming in the city, and he is an active member of the Society for Experiential Graphic Design (SEGD).