BNPD // BNPD // BNPD //
BNPD stands for Benjamin Nelson Pennell Design, a practice which began in 2017 with the commission of a small residence in Northern California. We provide ordinary architectural services for additions, remodels, ground-up construction, and feasibility studies. When the occasion calls for it, we involve ourselves in construction as well; physically making custom-built furniture, ornamental applique, fiberglass sculpture, and structural steelwork. Read More
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RESIDENTIAL
300 John Lemley Ln. 2025
1011 2nd st. (pt 2) 2021
Samson’s Lair 2021
1011 2nd st. (pt 1) 2020
1102 Masonic Ave 2019
210 Semple St. 2017
COMMERCIAL
5278 College Ave. 2020
681 27th St. 2020
4750 Park Blvd. 2020
547 31st St. 2019
Port Tonic 2019
MISCELLANEOUS
Shinto Shed 2020
Ex-Embryo 2014
LA Streetlights 2020
Dragon Temple 2019
Strip Tease 2019
Design Village 2011
Skyhouse 2010
Sweat Lodge 2009
THEORETICAL
Hell High 2019
London Spec Housing 2018
St Patrick’s Cathedral 2018
TEXTS / ARCHIVED WORK SAMPLES
WORK SAMPLE (CURRENT) 2025
“DRAWING ON ARCHITECTURE” 2019
WORK SAMPLE (ARCHIVE) 2017
LECTURES / VIDEOS
Slanted Commune 2024
Territorial Conquest 2023
Strip Tease 2015
Ex-Embryo 2014
WEB ARCHIVE 2024
210 SEMPLE ST.DOC 234—34/2
PROGRAM: NEW SINGLE FAMILY RES
CLIENT: MEGAN MCNAMARA
DATE: JULY 2017
STATUS: BUILT
BUDGET: $150,000.00
210 Semple St. was my first architectural commission: A duplex in rural Modesto, CA. The budget had a hard limit of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and the client, rather eccentrically, required a footprint of eight hundred and eighty eight square feet. Beyond that, miraculously, I could do whatever the hell!
The basic box was constructed by a local GC, at a savagely low price; but the ornamental facade I built in moduled chunks, myself, using my Mother’s driveway (located roughly two hours north in the East Bay Area). I used CNC-cut plywood pieces in order to make the irregular sculptural protrusions and undercuts, and then finished the entire work in a veneer of fiberglass cloth and gel-coat, rolled on white.
At the time, I was but an un-wed, childless bachelor with little to hold me down other then the asphyxiating burdens of this intolerably capitalistic existence; and as such, when it came time for the climactic installation of the pre-made facade modules, I picturesquely slept in the incomplete, un-insulated, structural shell. I sponge-bathed in the local Starbucks, and dined at the closest AM/PM. It took three weeks. It was the dead of winter.