Jon Brumit and Sarah Wagner have been designing and building together for 28 years. Both are accomplished artists and are very complementary in skill sets and vision. Jon is “wide angle” and helps keep them centered on the big picture and brings intuitive engineering, welding, carpentry, electric, electronics and plumbing skills to the team. Sarah is “zoom” with incredible focus, and brings carpentry, masonry (including wet plaster), welding and sewing skills to their collaboration.
In 2015 Jon Brumit and Sarah Wagner purchased a property with two collapsed residences and 3 dilapidated warehouses that had been vacant for 25 years. With 28 dumpsters, a lot of carpentry, masonry, reused materials and love the property has come a long way.
A Beirgarten hired Brumit and Wagner to design and build two yurts to provide outdoor seating during covid-19. Some fabricators made sneeze guards, we made yurts!
CMAP (Carrie Morris Art Productions) hired Jon to design and build unique siding for her Puppet Theatre. Each “stripe” is hand cut so as to mimic a drawn line. Carrie also hired Jon to build amphitheaters on the six lots surrounding the house. The fences, also built by Jon, were designed by architect Aaron Jones. Sarah provided assistance in all aspects of designing and building. Alex Buzzalini assisted building.
Jobs that begin with the question “you are a dinosaur artist, right?” are rare, especially for a sound, performance and installation artist. Jon has been on a reality tv show and told the producers that he met the star of that show when he saw a dinosaur built with car parts outside Beau’s shop. This translated to “dinosaur artist?” Never one to shy from a challenge, Jon took the last minute, small budget, job for the sizzle (teaser) reel B story where he is the fabricator building an anzu wyliei for a paleontologist (the A story). Sarah was in Ohio repairing a moldy shower for her sister and had just finished casting the new concrete shower liner when she got the “I need help building a dinosaur!” call. So she drove to Detroit, helped build the dinosour from car parts (it is motor city after all!), got to go to the VIP opening for the dinosaur exhibit, and then drove back to Ohio to tile her sister’s (thanks for your patience, Cathy!) shower. Pics of the shower liner and finished job are below. Alex Buzzalini assisted with the dino.
Brumit and Wagner built a small 550 square foot house
Some friends asked for design build help to enlarge their small house
Everyone likes to build houses, especially kids. Sarah taught several design/build workshops to kids where in a day they build a prototype and then work together with a sheet of plastic to make a place to play.
We were asked for assistance in designing and building P + D’s kitchen and bathroom. The shower is cast in place.
Explore Jon Brumit’s website here
