--- title: "Axis Mundi | SF — Architects & Building Designers | Houzz" canonical_html_url: https://www.houzz.com/professionals/architects-and-building-designers/axis-mundi-sf-pfvwus-pf~61568170 markdown_url: https://www.houzz.com/md/professionals/pf~61568170.md entity_type: LocalBusiness business_name: "Axis Mundi | SF" category: ["Architects"] image: https://st.hzcdn.com/fimgs/6b635e6c09c004e9_8627-w400-h400-b0-p0--.jpg address: "Axis Mundi, San Francisco, 600 California Street, 11th Floor, San Francisco, California 94108, United States" latitude: 37.7929 longitude: -122.4079 phone: "(347) 387-1569" website: http://axismundi.com rating: 0 review_count: 0 followers: 10 last_updated: 2026-08-17 --- # Axis Mundi \| SF Original Houzz profile: [Axis Mundi \| SF](https://www.houzz.com/professionals/architects-and-building-designers/axis-mundi-sf-pfvwus-pf~61568170) ## Professional summary - **Primary category:** Architects - **Location:** San Francisco, CA - **Serves:** San Francisco, Berkeley, South San Francisco, Mill Valley, Sausalito, Marin City, Alto - **Houzz rating:** 0.0 out of 5 (0 reviews) ## About ### Houzz Badges - 1,000 Ideabook Saves Axis Mundi is a leading architecture and design firm specializing in high-end residential, commercial and cultural projects. Our completed projects in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, embody glamour, urbanity and sophistication, while simultaneously functioning practically and offering a highly crafted sense of place. Our work embraces the time that we live in. Axis Mundi was founded by John Beckmann in 2004, who received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Environmental Design from Parsons School of Design. During his studies, he apprenticed with master minimalist Joseph P. D’Urso and, after graduating, collaborated with other design luminaries. Throughout his career he has honed an astute understanding of the intersections between architecture, design and contemporary art. Beckmann’s honors include a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts (1998) and a McDowell Colony Fellowship (2010). He both edited and contributed to The Virtual Dimension: Architecture, Representation and Crash Culture (Princeton Architectural Press, 1998), one of the first books to grasp the implications of digital technologies in the fields of architecture and design. Beckmann has also been a visiting critic at Yale School of Architecture, Pratt Institute and Parsons the New School for Design, and he has been a featured guest on Bloomberg TV and NBC's Open House. ### Services Provided - Architectural Design - Building Design - Home Remodeling - Architectural Drawings - Custom Homes - New Home Construction - Home Additions - Kitchen Design - Kitchen Remodeling - 3D Rendering - Bathroom Design - Green Building - Space Planning - Project Management - Staircase Design ### Areas Served - San Francisco - Berkeley - South San Francisco - Mill Valley - Sausalito - Marin City - Alto ## Business Details | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Business Name | Axis Mundi \| SF | | Address | Axis Mundi, San Francisco, 600 California Street, 11th Floor, San Francisco, California 94108, United States | | Phone | (347) 387-1569 | | Website | http://axismundi.com | | Followers on Houzz | 10 | **Social profiles:** - Blog — www.axismundi.com ## Contact - **Houzz profile:** [Axis Mundi \| SF](https://www.houzz.com/professionals/architects-and-building-designers/axis-mundi-sf-pfvwus-pf~61568170) - **Website:** http://axismundi.com - **Phone:** (347) 387-1569 ## Credentials **Certifications & Awards** - 2015: HGTV's Fresh Faces of Design (Nominee) - 2014: Best of Houzz Design - 2010 MacDowell Colony Fellowship - 1998 Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts **Affiliations** - [Architecture For Humanity](https://www.houzz.com/hznb/professionals/schools-and-organizations/architecture-for-humanity-pfvwus-pf~344158813) ## Selected projects - [Rock Star Industrial Loft](https://www.houzz.com/hznb/projects/rock-star-industrial-loft-pj-vj~2702967) - Location: San Francisco, CA - Photos: 16 - Description: This apartment, in a landmarked circa 1870 building designed by Stephen Decatur Hatch and converted to lofts in 1987, had been interestingly renovated by a rock musician before being purchased by a young hedge fund manager and his gallery director girlfriend. Naturally, the couple brought to the project their collection of painting, photography and sculpture, mostly by young emerging artists. Axis Mundi accommodated these pieces within a neutral palette accented with occasional flashes of bright… - [Landmark Modernist Townhouse](https://www.houzz.com/hznb/projects/landmark-modernist-townhouse-pj-vj~2703079) - Location: San Francisco, CA - Photos: 22 - Description: "Revival” implies a retread of an old idea—not our interests at Axis Mundi. So when renovating an 1840s Greek Revival brownstone, subversion was on our minds. The landmarked exterior remains unchanged, as does the residence’s unalterable 19-foot width. Inside, however, a pristine white space forms a backdrop for art by Warhol, Basquiat and Haring, as well as intriguing furnishings drawn from the continuum of modern design—pieces by Dalí and Gaudí, Patrick Naggar and Poltrona Frau, Armani and Ver… - [Cloud House](https://www.houzz.com/hznb/projects/cloud-house-pj-vj~2703032) - Location: San Francisco, CA - Photos: 12 - Description: This weekend retreat, nestled in a grove of aspens, embodies the words of Henri Poincaré: “Ideas rose in clouds; I felt them collide until pairs interlocked, so to speak, making a stable combination.” It directly challenges many of our ideas about home. Rather than a place offering the illusion of protection from the outside world through solid structure, its openness, light and reflectivity make it arguably more transparent than even Philip Johnson’s iconic Glass House. Featuring a floorplan th… - [Modern Beach Cottage](https://www.houzz.com/hznb/projects/modern-beach-cottage-pj-vj~2703013) - Location: San Francisco, CA - Photos: 14 - Description: The exterior of what looks like a vernacular shingle cottage is intentionally deceiving. For the interiors, Axis Mundi typically decided not to play by the rules. Instead of de rigeur nautical artifacts, floppy sofas and wicker furniture, the firm responded to Makoid’s all-white interior envelope by injecting rooms with a comfortable modern elegance that’s more contemporary Cap Ferrat than coastal California. Clean furniture silhouettes—from Cassina, Poltrona Frau and B&B Italia—a Massimo Vitali… - [Recursive House](https://www.houzz.com/hznb/projects/recursive-house-pj-vj~2703344) - Location: San Francisco, CA - Photos: 11 - Description: Where can a line lead you? The Surrealists believed automatically drawing one continuous line could take you into your subconscious. Many artists also use one unbroken line to create two-dimensional portraits or to limn recognizable forms. For Axis Mundi, one uninterrupted line leads to home. Or, more intriguingly, to the rhythmic underlying structure of this concept house for a successful digital entrepreneur in the Palm Springs desert. An homage to Austrian architect Frederick Kiesler’s 1950 “… - [Penthouse for MIss X](https://www.houzz.com/hznb/projects/penthouse-for-miss-x-pj-vj~2703181) - Location: San Francisco, CA - Photos: 4 - [Projects in Progress 2](https://www.houzz.com/hznb/projects/projects-in-progress-2-pj-vj~2714897) - Location: San Francisco, CA - Photos: 9 - [Vertical House](https://www.houzz.com/hznb/projects/vertical-house-pj-vj~2703368) - Location: San Francisco, CA - Photos: 5 - Description: European gardens of the 18th and 19th centuries boasted architectural follies that mimicked Greek temple ruins, Chinese pagodas, Egyptian pyramids and other buildings. They were intended to make connections to the virtues of classical antiquity, travels to exotic lands and other evidence of one’s sophistication and breeding. This house adopts the idea intriguingly by excising pretense and frivolity to devise a unique solution to the steeply sloping topography of this site in Smuggler’s Nest, Ver… - [Sky High Penthouse](https://www.houzz.com/hznb/projects/sky-high-penthouse-pj-vj~2703120) - Location: San Francisco, CA - Photos: 6 - [Contemporary Duplex](https://www.houzz.com/hznb/projects/contemporary-duplex-pj-vj~2709850) - Location: San Francisco, CA - Photos: 18 - [House for an Art Collector](https://www.houzz.com/hznb/projects/house-for-an-art-collector-pj-vj~2703382) - Location: San Francisco, CA - Photos: 6 - Description: Modernism’s most sacred tenets—simplicity, utility, order, rationalism, form following function—were nothing new to the Shakers who settled New York’s Columbia County. This house, therefore, picks up on these parallel precedents to embrace both Shaker ideals and their natural outgrowth in the architecture of today. Here, a 16-foot entrance gallery lined with clerestory windows serves to separate principle living areas from bedrooms, while also functioning as exhibition space for a perpetually ev… - [Modernist White Apartment](https://www.houzz.com/hznb/projects/modernist-white-apartment-pj-vj~2703206) - Location: San Francisco, CA - Photos: 11 - Description: It wasn’t necessary to overthink things when Axis Mundi designed interiors for an apartment in downtown San Francisco, the luxury building by Richard Meier already endowed with all the “starchitect” bells and whistles, as well as drop-dead stunning views of the harbor. What did require considerable aptitude was to strike the right balance between respect for these assets, particularly the panoramas, and livability. The all-white scheme doesn’t just complement Meier’s own aesthetic devotion to th… - [Studio Duplex](https://www.houzz.com/hznb/projects/studio-duplex-pj-vj~2703192) - Location: San Francisco, CA - Photos: 12 - Description: Packing a lot of function into a small space requires ingenuity and skill, exactly what was needed for this one-bedroom gut in downtown. When Axis Mundi was done, all that remained was the expansive arched window. Now one enters onto a pristine white-walled loft warmed by new zebrano plank floors. A new powder room and kitchen are at right. On the left, the lean profile of a folded steel stair cantilevered off the wall allows access to the bedroom above without eating up valuable floor space. Be… - [Mr. James Bond](https://www.houzz.com/hznb/projects/mr-james-bond-pj-vj~2709861) - Location: San Francisco, CA - Photos: 7 - Description: Good design must reflect the personality of the client. So when siblings purchased studios in Downtown by Philippe Starck, one of the first buildings to herald the revitalization of Manhattan’s Financial District, the aim was to create environments that were truly bespoke. The brother’s tastes jibed synchronously with the insouciant idea of France’s most popular prankster converting a building that once housed the buttoned-up offices of JP Morgan Chase. His collection of Takashi Murakami works,… - [Apartment for a Novelist](https://www.houzz.com/hznb/projects/apartment-for-a-novelist-pj-vj~2715024) - Location: San Francisco, CA - Photos: 1 - Description: For a young novelist, Axis Mundi provided some quick design response on how to recharge her Dining Area. We applied a bold color-field striped wallpaper, selected a carbon-fiber Moooi chandelier by Bertjan Pot, Tom Dixon felt chairs and an oval Eero Saarinen dining table. Design: John Beckmann © Axis Mundi Design LLC - [Downtown Duplex](https://www.houzz.com/hznb/projects/downtown-duplex-pj-vj~2715035) - Location: San Francisco, CA - Photos: 9 - Description: The mammoth phalanxes of white-brick apartment houses that proliferated in the 1960s occupy an architectural purgatory; generic, with boxy interiors devoid of detail, many aren’t even interesting enough to excite a raised eyebrow. Our solution for this exemplar near Astor Place, which fortunately was blessed with premium skyline views, was to relieve the interior ordinariness by stimulating the senses with tactile variety. Axis Mundi created a complexly layered textural palette that injects visu… - [Ms. James Bond](https://www.houzz.com/hznb/projects/ms-james-bond-pj-vj~2709869) - Location: San Francisco, CA - Photos: 5 - Description: Good design must reflect the personality of the client. So when siblings purchased studios in Downtown by Philippe Starck, one of the first buildings to herald the revitalization of Manhattan’s Financial District, the aim was to create environments that were truly bespoke. The brother’s tastes jibed synchronously with the insouciant idea of France’s most popular prankster converting a building that once housed the buttoned-up offices of JP Morgan Chase. His collection of Takashi Murakami works,… - [Pool Pavilion](https://www.houzz.com/hznb/projects/pool-pavilion-pj-vj~2703394) - Location: San Francisco, CA - Photos: 3 - Description: Question: What is more luxurious than a view of the sea? Answer: A private view of the sea. This pool pavilion on the western coast of Quepos in Costa Rica achieves that level of luxury without imposing walls or gates. Instead, it builds toward it slowly and stealthily. Access to the view is not grand, just purposefully nondescript, offering a supremely unassuming gap in a wood-framed screen as an ambiguous point of entry. Once in, however, we discover it conceals a lush secret garden to the lef… - [Ark House](https://www.houzz.com/hznb/projects/ark-house-pj-vj~2722803) - Location: San Francisco, CA - Photos: 5 - [Client Presentation Boards](https://www.houzz.com/hznb/projects/client-presentation-boards-pj-vj~2718859) - Location: San Francisco, CA - Photos: 22 [See all 45 projects](https://www.houzz.com/professionals/architects-and-building-designers/axis-mundi-sf-pfvwus-pf~61568170) ## Ideabooks - [Spaces](https://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/92685574/list/spaces) — 33 ideas - [Lighting](https://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/92685575/list/lighting) — 16 ideas - [Furniture](https://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/92895641/list/furniture) — 43 ideas [See all 3 ideabooks](https://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/users/axismundidesign) --- *Source: Houzz professional profile. Reflects the profile as of 2026-08-17.*