Architecture: Volume II

ARCHITECTURE ARCHITECTURE Innovative Spaces Shaping Global Design

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ION Hotel in Iceland, photographed by Ragnar Th. Sigurđsson.

Architecture by Minarc. p. 134

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ARCHITECTURE Innovative Spaces Shaping Global Design

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Live Home is a sacred space. It’s a person’s private haven or a family’s lively hub, and thanks to innovative designers it comes in every shape, size, and style. From an Asian-influenced Hawaiian retreat to a glass-clad Manhattan penthouse, these homes are a physical expression of the personalities that reside in them.

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Teensy Tiny Apartments New York City joins the “micro” living movement that is sweeping urban areas. But is this really the future we want to be building? BY SAUNDRA MARCEL

PROJECT TYPE / MICRO APARTMENTS LOCATION / NEW YORK, NY PHOTOGRAPHER / MATTHEW WILLIAMS FOR LIFE EDITED

Who says small can’t be functional? Graham Hill’s 420-square-foot New York City apartment is designed to accommodate a range of activities, including sleeping, working, and entertaining, in a single room. Hill, the founder of LifeEdited, now preaches about the joys of downsizing—all from his tiny apartment.

When Mayor Bloomberg announced a competition last year to design and build the city’s first building composed of only micro apartment units, he wasn’t really breaking new ground. Teensy housing options have already become popular in cities across the country, particularly in urban areas where increasing density and demand have created extremely high costs of living. These are essentially dorm-sized rooms—sometimes with shared common spaces—that are being marketed as affordable alternatives for cost-conscious single people.

Single occupants, of course, because there is not enough space for co-dwellers. Populous cities including Boston, Portland, and San Francisco have all been amending their building

codes to allow for smaller and smaller apartments—like spaces that are 300 square feet and under. In Seattle, more than 40 micro developments have been built in the last three years.

In San Jose and Santa Barbara, the legal minimum size for an apartment is a whopping 150 square feet. Imagine this: Everything you own—sleeping-living-eating-bathing—is contained in the equivalent of a 10-foot by 15-foot room.

So, when The Museum of the City of New York put on a show this past summer called “Making Room: New Models for Housing for New Yorkers” that prepared Manhattanites for the “official” arrival of this new tiny living trend, it wasn’t talking about the future.

It’s already happening. We’re in a micro (CONTINUED...) apartment boom, folks.

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But what exactly does this mean for New Yorkers? People here already pack into small quarters in dense buildings and neighborhoods. In fact, many already live in acutely small apartments. But until now, the tiniest of these have always been ad hoc and scattered about town—not sanctioned by the city’s building codes. These are either illegal (one apartment chopped into several), or they’re really, really, old—built tenement-style before we learned to regulate for density, overcrowding, and safety. They include places like Felice Cohen’s Upper West Side 90-square-

(...CONTINUED)

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foot abode (of the illegal variety), which earned her 5 million YouTube views and Internet stardom. Wanting to live in Manhattan but needing to do so on a tight budget, Cohen hunkered into a 12-foot-by-7-foot single room where she lived for four and a half years.

“You can make a lot in a toaster oven, and I got pretty creative. But then you’re filling a hot pot in your bathroom sink and thinking, ‘Didn’t I do this in college?’”

Cohen says. “You just have to put your mind to it and learn how to live with less.

It’s not about buying what you want. You can only have what you absolutely need.”

Like many others who choose to live “tiny,” Cohen talks a lot about extreme minimization. Living small means not being able to cook at home, not being able to entertain, and bidding farewell to luxuries like closets and cabinets. Comfort hinges on cleanliness, and transformation is key. Cohen’s living area is a combination kitchen, bedroom, and office; so when one activity is happening, the others need to be “put away.”

But she was more than happy to sacrifice her quality of living to accomplish her greater priorities: writing a book and saving to buy a place of her own. At a bargain rent of $700 per month, her tiny abode was a steal by New York standards.

She did publish her book, called What Papa Told Me, a Holocaust memoir, and she also recently upgraded her space.

Cohen now lives in a 490-square-foot apartment (still tiny by many standards), for which she paid less that $300,000. “I still come home and pinch myself. I love it,” Cohen says. “I have a doorman, an elevator, and a lot of sun. It’s been fun cooking. I still can’t believe it’s all mine.

I’m proud of myself for saving for so long.”

Just like Cohen, fellow New Yorker Graham Hill also preaches living a life of extreme minimalism. He’s the founder of LifeEdited, a consultancy that works with architects and developers to “bring small-space living ideas to larger buildings.” In fact, Hill recently spoke at TED

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on the topic and wrote an opinion piece for The New York Times called “Living With Less. A Lot Less.” In it, he talks about his own life change, during which he downsized from multiple homes, gadgets galore, and personal shoppers into a 420-square-foot modular apartment, all in the name of environmental sustainability and personal fulfillment.

Because according to Hill, you can live small without “things” and be happy.

It’s the same mantra that Cohen espouses, but the differences between the two tiny apartment advocates are striking. Cohen kept her space clutterfree with mismatched shelving, inexpensive containers, and handwritten index cards. Hill, by comparison, is a serial entrepreneur who sold his first company for undisclosed millions and his second for $10 million. After a stint of world travel, he simultaneously purchased two SoHo apartments, crowdsourced architecture students to redesign them, and then hired professionals to gut and rebuild. The result is a “Transformer”style, high-tech living space with walls that glide, sleeping areas that metamorphose, and wall-to-wall custom cabinetry. The few things he does have are significantly finer than the average Joe’s: robotic floor care by Roomba and Scooba; polar-cap quartz-stone countertops; a nifty expanding dining table that pulls out to seat 10 (with a price tag of $5,595); a solar-powered charging station for his electronics; built-in invisible speakers and a LED/laser projection system.

Felice Cohen had to sit sideways to fit on her toilet in her tiny bathroom. Graham Hill has a “Caroma Invisi Series II Cube” with dual flush.

But it’s not really fair to pick on Hill.

He really is sincere about his enthusiasm for edited living. “Half the size of the apartment means half the energy used, and half of our footprint in a building.

It also requires fewer materials to build.

And since you have less space, you buy less stuff,” he says.

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INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Architect Jens Holm of HOA / Holm Architecture Office is no stranger to designing living spaces in dense, urban areas.

His proposed master plan for the city of Qingdao, China, incorporates high, medium, and low-income housing.

Each of the residential units is designed to maximize natural light and ventilation.

The problem is when someone like Hill—who is neither an urban planner nor an architect—has the power to influence decisions regarding our future city and how people should be living. He is a self-proclaimed leader in New York’s tiny apartment initiative.

“This is a model apartment that would be a part of a larger system: a whole building of these, then a whole neighborhood, et cetera,” he says. According to Hill, his entry in the adAPT NYC competition for the first micro-apartment building was not only a final contender, but a close second to the winner. Yet he is most (...CONTINUED)

definitely an entrepreneur. When asked about issues relating to neighborhood density, safety, and quality of living, his response reveals his lack of education in these areas: “The market either likes it or it doesn’t, and the market should decide what gets built or not built. If people want to live in 90 square feet, then great.

I’m not responsible for who lives in these units 15 years down the road.”

However, 90 square feet is an extreme example. (To be exact, it’s the size of two regulation Ping-Pong tables).

We are not really supposed to be living in such tight quarters. Since 1987, the

Jens Holm of HAO / Holm Architecture Office works on an international scale and is familiar with how other countries approach master planning for cities, and how regulations can dictate design. HAO recently won the competition to design the Samaranch Memorial Museum in Tianjin, China, and the Qingdao Master Plan in Qingdao, China.

“When you do housing in China, the government regulates not only the placement of buildings, but also things having to do with air and hours of sunlight.

For example, one to two hours of sunlight per day is needed in the main bedroom or living room, which means they must be south-facing.

That also means that the other tall buildings near you need to be far enough away to not block your sunlight or be in your shadow,” Holm says. Additionally, 20 to 40 percent of a property must be retained for public green space, which is put on the developers to do.

“The starting point of every project is always around the parameters established by the government in terms of sunlight and quality of living. This is a huge part of the project. In some ways it’s great, but in others, it puts massive restrictions on how to build.”

“We seem to have a hang-up on building height in the United States. But we don’t regulate for air, visibility, sunlight, or green space like they do in China. I think you need a combination. You don’t want to regulate too much or you’ll just get more of the same. But you need something, and neither is good alone.”

Holm isn’t building tiny apartments here or in China, but he does have an opinion of them: “Does anyone actually want to live in these?”

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minimum regulation size for an inhabitable, new residential construction in New York City is 400 square feet. (You also need things like a window, running water, a specific ceiling height, and a toilet.) So small is OK… but too small, now that’s against the law. At least for now.

AdAPT NYC My Micro Apartment “We were quite horrified by the idea of designing for such small apartments when we were first approached,” says Eric Bunge. Along with Mimi Hoang, Bunge is a partner at architectural practice nArchitects, winners of the city-sponsored adAPT competition for their My Micro NY concept. This challenge, initiated by Mayor Bloomberg in 2012, is actually a pilot program designed to test the validity and practice of micro living. If the program is successful, New York City could completely overturn its 400-square-feet minimum size rule for all new buildings moving forward. That’s right. The laws might be changing.

“It was a sympathy ‘horrified’—we thought people should have more space,” Bunge says. “But after doing research and looking at the demographic data that Citizens Housing Planning Council and others have put together, it points to a global trend—which is that more and more of us live alone. In Manhattan, there is a housing shortfall currently of 800,000 studio apartments. In terms of economic viability, the city is really quite worried right now that single people will be priced out and move to the suburbs. This would basically suck vitality out of the city.” Besides, adds Bunge, there are lots of people already living in very small, illegally subdivided apartments. And many of them don’t have proper light and air, with multiple unrelated adults living together. “Here’s our chance to ensure that the tenement

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“This is our opportunity to help identify a new—and better— prototype for the city” —ERIC BUNGE

era doesn’t happen again, because it’s here,” he says. “We saw this as an opportunity to do something right. We can create the humane and well-designed alternative. Additionally, this is our opportunity to help identify a new—and better—prototype for the city. ”

For the adAPT competition, teams of architects, development, and management companies partnered to create proposals for a building comprised entirely of single-person units ranging from 250 to 370 square feet, which will be completed in 2015. According to the NYC Department of Housing, this was the largest response ever received for a housing project—the competition proposal was downloaded more than 1,600 times and generated 33 entries.

The winning design by nArchitects focuses on quality of life and livability, and features 9-foot to 10-foot ceiling heights and Juliette balconies. It is also the first multi-unit building in

Manhattan to employ modular construction—meaning the units will be completely prefabricated off-site, and then over a two-week period delivered to the Manhattan location, hoisted into place, and wrapped in a brick façade.

Bunge suspects that the city will do away with specifying any kind of minimum size rule, however, he makes the caveat that there are other constraints that will keep the square footage up. For example, no single room dimension can be smaller than eight feet, and bathrooms and kitchenettes need to be accessible. As it stands, you have to be pretty clever in design and configuration to meet these specifications. But there’s always the question of the long-term future.

“So far, I would credit our current administration with the vision to improve New Yorkers’ lives in terms of public space and housing. But beyond that, I don’t really know (CONTINUED...)

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Designed by nArchitects, the winning entry for New York City’s adAPT competition features high ceilings and Juilette balconies

our community 1 borough, 1 neighborhood, 1 block, 1 street... 1 Mount Carmel Place

our micro towers 55 units, 4 towers, 10 floors, 1 community

what’s going to happen.

Market pressures may take care of some aspects of this—which is that if developers simply provide the smaller apartment with eight-foot ceilings, they may start to realize they don’t get the return.” Bunge also adds that even micros can be expensive to build—it’s not a matter of just shrinking the size to shrink the cost. “Will developers rush to build tons of these? Some. My guess is that there will be an influx of micros, but it will still be one of many choices.

“We hope the city won’t just allow developers to create smaller apartments. We think they should be required to have higher ceilings and more windows, not to mention more public spaces.

I’d like to see guidelines that go handin-hand with the new zoning. But that could be a naïve architect hoping that things go well.” (...CONTINUED)

Lifestyles of the Future While tiny apartments are ideal for many demographics—young, elderly, singles, and low income in particular— it’s not surprising that they’ve attracted a lot of attention from a huge creatively

our shared spaces 3525sf exterior space, 5470sf interior amenities... 1 key card

SIZE COMPARISON (square feet) 45: size of a Ping-Pong table 54: average jail cell size 90: Felice Cohen’s “smallest apartment in NYC” 150: regulation minimum apartment size in San Jose and Santa Barbara, California 220: San Francisco’s regulation minimum apartment size 250–370: NYC’s pilot program micro-unit apartments 400: NYC current regulation for minimum apartment size 2,700: average American home (according to the National Association of Home Builders) 55,000: The White House

minded audience. For this crowd, it’s an exciting way to see what kinds of unique solutions architects and product designers are proposing to make these small spaces livable: walls that move, rooms that convert, hydraulic beds that hide away, and purposeful nooks and crannies that maximize every extra inch. Everything is designed to cleverly tuck, stack, and fold away just so.

But the question is, could you really live in a space where you’re limited

our micro modules 92 modules, 2 weeks to erect them

my micro unit average 286sf, 2 zones, 1 home

to only the barest of essentials? Even Felice Cohen, who lived in her illegalstyle micro apartment for more than four years, says there’s a limit. “It’s not for everyone, and it takes a lot of work to maintain the minimalism. You have to completely change your attitude. I had only initially planned to live there for a year. I figured that, at least, could be do-able. For the rest of my life?

Definitely not.”

Actually, the question is more sobering than that. Because the regulations that cities have (or had) in place weren’t put there to protect the creative classes. They were put there to protect the poor—people who can’t afford anything but the smallest. So we must strip out the expensive furnishings and moderate the beautifully designed renderings as we consider this new “tiny” future. Remove all the expensive electronic gadgets and space-saving new products. Take away the granite countertops, 10-foot ceilings, Juliette balconies, and sweeping city views.

Eliminate common spaces, parking spaces, game rooms, workout facilities, and rooftop gardens. After that, what we’re left with is just very, very… small.

So, if this is the future we are building, ask yourself: Would you live here?

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Blank Slate FIRM / RIGG DESIGN PROJECT TYPE / PENTHOUSE LOCATION / NEW YORK, NY PHOTOGRAPHER / MICHAEL WEBER

With its west-facing, 26-foot-by-50-foot glass wall, temperature changes within the penthouse are extreme.

To address this, radiant floor heating replaced existing radiators and air conditioning was added.

Architect Sally Rigg got creative with an empty but dramatic penthouse space

Raw space is a blank canvas for an architect. So this shell of a New York City duplex penthouse—complete with a 1,000-square-foot roof terrace and 50foot curtain wall overlooking the Hudson River­—afforded architect Sally Rigg of Rigg Design ample opportunity for wide strokes of style.

Central to her design was maximizing the epic views and the idea of contrast, a concept the architect fleshed out with unexpected juxtapositions of materials and pieces.

“Prior to construction, the space was dominated by a dramatic angled glass and steel wall. To compensate for that severity, we used recycled barn wood, which immediately warms and softens the interior,” Rigg says. “In the upstairs guest bedroom, a bright green lacquer and glass wall contrasts with an oak and slate floor. On the stair wall, we set rusticated limestone, (CONTINUED...)

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The existing concrete staircase that links the building’s 10th floor with the penthouse was widened and its lower portion replaced with a steel staircase, rotated 90 degrees into the living space

which offsets the highly reflective epoxy floors.”

While the undefined floor plate offered endless design possibilities, it also meant a lot of additional work as Rigg would be essentially starting from scratch. Elevators weren’t equipped to transport construction materials so stone slabs and other materials like bathtubs needed to be craned 140 feet to the building’s rooftop and carried down to the unit—a process that required street closures and careful coordination.

But even with its headaches, the penthouse project, Rigg says, was a chance to do something different: “The client is thrilled with the transformation.” (...CONTINUED)

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FIRM / SPG ARCHITECTS

Prominent materials used in the project included weatherfriendly Ipe and cedar

PROJECT TYPE / BEACH HOUSE LOCATION / FIRE ISLAND, NY PHOTOGRAPHER / JIMI BILLINGSLEY (EXTERIOR), DANIEL LEVIN (INTERIOR)

Problem-Solving in Paradise

New York City-based SPG Architects faced plenty of challenges when designing this modernist beachfront home that borders Fire Island’s dunes, including strict FEMA and local codes, specific view corridors, and a detailed wish list from the clients. “Multiple site, code, and

zoning restrictions, along with the client’s program requirements, were a puzzle to be solved,” says firm partner Coty Sidnam, who worked with project manager Sandra Aranguren-Langston on the project.

Imagining a structure that addressed these concerns meant lifting the house high on pilings, concealing storage areas with breakaway enclosures that make up the first of the structure’s three architectural volumes, and rotating and offsetting those volumes to capture ocean views and create outdoor space.

The house accommodates the clients’ requested movie viewing capabili-

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The house’s compliance with new FEMA regulations and sturdy design proved beneficial when Hurricane Sandy struck—the property sustained no damage

ties, water sport equipment storage, and a ventilation design that wouldn’t require an air conditioning system, among other features. Accordingly, the five-bedroom, three-and-a-half bathroom property houses sleeping quarters on its lower levels and an open living space upstairs to maximize views, and uses strategically placed windows and skylights to ensure air circulation.

The innovative engineering design was matched by its cutting-edge aesthetic. “[The house is] modern in expression and abstract in form,” SPG partner Eric Gartner says. “The fact that this house was more modernist than any previously designed in the village caused angst during the building department review process and construction. All parties on the team were prepared for some push-back from the community. However, contrary to expectations, there was overwhelming support for and interest in the house—sometimes from the most unexpected quarters.”

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FIRM / SANITOV STUDIO PROJECT TYPE / HOUSEBOAT LOCATION / LONDON, UK PHOTOGRAPHY / COURTESY OF SANITOV STUDIO

sumption and minimize carbon footprint. The concrete hull on our floating home features a glycol heating system that capitalizes on heat differentials between the hull and the river to generate heating for the floating home. We are always looking for ways to push the limits of what is possible in terms of creating solutions for sustainable urban living.

DB: Tell us about the process of designing and building Inachus.

Rock the Houseboat You’ve never seen a houseboat like this. Frederik Weissenborn, founding partner of Sanitov Studio, discusses ‘Inachus’ (named after the Greek river god), the think tank’s prototype home for a new way of living on the river

DB: What inspired your concept for floating residential communities?

Frederik Weissenborn: Our f loating homes were initially inspired by the river Thames in London. As Danish expats, we were excited by living in a city with a real river, but also flabbergasted at how empty and underused this resource was. Our aspiration was to find a way of reintegrating the river into the urban fabric. Reintegrating the Thames could be a solution to some of the deeper problems faced by a city like London, where there is an estimated increase in population of 100,000 people per year— that puts pressure on the housing market.

DB: What kinds of solutions do these communities pose to the problems of urban living?

FW: Our f loating homes come with state-of-the-art design solutions that maximize the efficiency of energy con-

FW: A lot of people live on the waterways in London, mostly on refurbished barges. We wanted to reimagine what waterway living could be about and how it could contribute to the urban good life, so we needed to design a floating home that would integrate cutting-edge design and technology to improve sustainability. We have been working closely with shipbuilders down in the historic Chatham docks.

DB: Living on the water is typically associated with a luxury lifestyle.

How do floating homes address the issue of affordability in urban living?

FW: The Inachus prototype is a premium product, let there be no doubt about it.

That being said, we are very much aware of the issue of affordability and we would certainly like to explore different floating home types to accommodate different markets. I guess the vision is to have all sorts of people living on the urban waterways in all sorts of vessels: couples on barges, small families in smaller units, and bigger families on something like Inachus.

Our vision is not monochromatic.

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Rooms With a View A natural land formation dictated the dramatic design of this Ontario home

On the outskirts of Port Hope, Ontario, a deep ditch, originally created for a nowlong-abandoned railway, slices into the landscape. Running parallel, a natural cliff overlooks Lake Ontario, creating a dramatic site that demanded an equally dramatic structure.

The parcel could have posed a problem for architects Luc Bouliane and Stephen Teeple, but the team found inspiration in the unique setting instead. “The cut [in the landscape] meant that lake views are obscured from ground level on the property, which inspired the rising form of the building,” Teeple, of (CONTINUED...)

FIRM / TEEPLE ARCHITECTS PROJECT TYPE / SINGLE-FAMILY HOME LOCATION / PORT HOPE, ONTARIO PHOTOGRAPHER / SCOTT NORSWORTHY

The project was originally meant to be a renovation at another site, but when the cliff side acreage became available, plans changed

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ENGINEERED ASSEMBLIES Teeple Architects collaborated with Mississaugabased Engineered Assemblies for the Zinc Flat Lock Tile façade. “The walls have a maintenancefree life expectancy of several hundred years as stated by the German manufacturer of the zinc,” says John Kubassek, president and CEO of Engineered Assemblies and Praxy Cladding Corporation, which carry the latest in façade and cladding systems.

Lacquered and veneered millwork creates contrast against raw concrete walls

Teeple Architects, says.

“The home’s living spaces are lifted above the cut toward the lake while concrete walls reach back into the land, anchoring the house to its site,” adds Teeple.

With expansive clerestory windows and an orientation perpendicular to the lake to maximize views, the house’s design responds to the rural Canadian environment while still standing out architecturally from the more traditional home styles of nearby Port Hope.

“The project is very much a striking sculptural form placed in a raw natural setting,” Teeple says. “The house grows out of the land, twists toward the sun. As it twists, the building form spreads apart, creating expansive lake views.” (...CONTINUED)

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Architectural Chemistry As scientists, these Oklahoma homeowners wanted something smart and functional for their abode

The south-facing glass wall on the front of the house allows passive solar heating and natural light harvesting

FIRM / FREESE ARCHITECTURE PROJECT TYPE / SINGLE-FAMILY HOME LOCATION / OKLAHOMA CITY, OK PHOTOGRAPHER / RALPH COLE

Architecture is a kind of science.

Governed by laws and materials, it requires just the right combination of properties to achieve the desired reaction. For two scientists in the market for a new home in Oklahoma City, that reaction was one of efficiency and function, concocted with style by architect Brian L. Freese.

“[The homeowners’] goals were strongly weighted towards pragmatic needs, practicality, and function, even

to the extent that they wanted the aesthetic component of the design solution to express the operation of the home,” Freese says. “They wanted a maximum connection between interior spaces with a minimum of interior walls or barriers, an overall feeling of openness to the interior, and a focus on maximum efficiency of interior space, energy consumption, and construction.”

Rather than create traditional room divisions, Freese (CONTINUED...)

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At the top of the stairs, a large skylight produces a glowing box effect through the polycarbonate walls

organized the residence as a series of zones. Living, dining, kitchen, and study zones are on the first floor, flanked by the master suite on one side and service functions on the other; on the second floor, the couple’s daughter has a zone with an exposed wood frame and polycarbonatewrapped stairway to separate the sleeping and recreation space.

Freese characterizes the home’s style as “Midwest Modern”: “The materials are simple, low cost, and sourced from this area, and their implementation is direct and purposeful; the home responds to the local climate and geography (CONTINUED...) (...CONTINUED)

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At Freese Architecture, we take a very personal approach to client collaboration to create homes and buildings that artistically embody the spirit of each client’s way of living, working, and thriving. The results are always distinctive to each client’s personality and needs. Yet all our designs have elements in common intended to nourish the human spirit. These include clean-lined modern forms and open, light-filled spaces; carefully integrated opportunities for art and sculpture; and abundant visual and sensory interaction with the elemental beauties of nature. All details and technologies are expertly considered and integrated. Each project is a creation of working, living sculpture. Each client is a valued and cherished partner.

Brian L. Freese, AIA | Freese Architecture 1634 South Boston Avenue, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74119 918-744-7667 Phone | 918-978-7667 Cell freesearchitecture.com

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The walls and roof were assembled in five days

with various components that mitigate our harsh sunlight and storms and concurrently become important aesthetic elements of the home, such as deep roof overhangs, louvers, and trellises,” Freese says.

“The home has a strong visual connection to the outdoors with abundant glass, and the overall form and lines of the home are very horizontal to reflect the ever-present horizon line of the Midwest prairie.” (...CONTINUED)

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FIRM / ALTERSTUDIO PROJECT TYPE / SINGLE-FAMILY HOME

One of These Things Is Not Like the Other A modern but modest residence is nothing like its neighbors, but a perfect fit all the same

LOCATION / AUSTIN, TX PHOTOGRAPHER / PAUL FINKEL, WHIT PRESTON

On a quiet Austin street named for the Boy Scout camp that once stood on its grounds, street after curving street is lined with typical builder-grade stone houses. But one couple wanted something different. The only problem for architect Alterstudio Architecture, LLP, was that in a community governed by a homeowners association with strict covenants and building restrictions, “different” was a difficult sell.

Though the house wouldn’t qualify as inexpensive, Alter says the project was completed with straightforward construction techniques that kept construction costs “typical.” For instance, laminated sheet glass windows allowed Alter and his team to maximize transparency in the house’s corners by using one pane with no distracting seams.

“It doesn’t say that you’re not allowed to build a modern home, but it does have requirements for the pitch of a roof, how much glass you can use, et cetera,” Kevin Alter of Alterstudio says.

“The clients were convinced that they could get what they wanted even though our experience with these things is that generally people want everything to look exactly the same.” As it turned out, the modern but modest house (CONTINUED...)

Tanner Residence

Szweda Residence

David Isaacs | Isaacs Custom Homes P.O. Box 742 Claremore, Ok 74018 918-519-3440 Phone | 918-923-6455 Fax isaacscustomhomes@yahoo.com

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live luxuriously

INTELLIGENT DIRECTION • SKILLFUL EXECUTION • DEFINING LIFESTYLES

YRA DESIGN INC. YRAINC.com

5707 S Dixie Highway, Suite 8

West Palm Beach, FL 33405

P. 561.493.1500

F. 561.493.1560

LIC# AA-00002536

ONE OF THESE THINGS IS NOT LIKE THE OTHER

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The house provides an unobstructed view to the Colorado River escarpment and treetops below, including the nest of a red-tailed hawk

Alter and his team proposed got an unexpectedly warm reception from the neighbors. “We were able to convince [the homeowners association] that it was a good idea in part because had we built the exact same house as the others it would have blocked the light from the neighbors,” Alter says. Because of the house’s largely glass façade and low horizontal orientation, the community’s views and access to natural light remained intact.

Divided into a public wing on the right and a private wing on the left, the house is connected by a glass corridor (...CONTINUED)

and a central courtyard seeded with Emerald Zoysia, a softer alternative to the coarse St. Augustine grass found throughout the city. Intricate brickwork casts interesting shadows throughout the day. Inside, rich features like mahogany floors and stone finishes warm up the space. “You drive through that neighborhood and it’s pretty stifling, more or less the same house over and over again,” Alter says. “And then you walk into their house and it’s like you’ve gone through some kind of portal—you come out the other side and you re-see the world in a different way.”

CENTEX SASH & DOOR The Scout Island project may have been the first time that Alterstudio worked with Centex Sash & Door, LP—but it wouldn’t be the last.

“We have since worked on numerous projects together,” says Chris King, president of Centex, a family-owned, high-end window and door supplier. “Lincoln Windows were chosen on this project based on structural ratings and price. Everyone was amazed at the performance of the products,” says King.

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FIRM / YRA DESIGN PROJECT TYPE / SINGLE-FAMILY HOMES LOCATION / VERO BEACH, FL PHOTOGRAPHER / JAMES NORTHEN

Be Our Guest Inspired by old European style and luxe island living, YRA Design creates two visitor-friendly estates

For the Barbadosinspired home (top left), the design team opted to use a more durable coral stone rather than the soft and brittle stone from Barbados. In the European-style home (top and bottom right), a smoother cast stone that emulates oldfashioned limestone was chosen.

Attracting houseguests is a given when your beachfront home is inspired by a medieval castle or a Barbadian beach estate. Luckily, accommodating visitors was just what Kermit White and his business partner Dennis Rainho of YRA Design had in mind when they dreamed up the Vero Beach Estates.

The two luxury homes differ starkly in details and aesthetic, but they share a design that gives visitors a guest suite about the same size as the master, ocean views, and private balconies.

“The elegance of these homes is in the simplistic detailing” —KERMIT WHITE

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To meet local code requirements, the homes’ design needed to address potentially strong storm surges. White and the rest of the YRA team created a “frangible” basement construction designed to break away and leave the remainder of the house standing on stilts should an emergency arise.

White and Rainho’s designs channeled the old-world sophistication and elegant island style the properties’ owner had experienced in Barbados, respectively, for the homes built on spec to appeal to a variety of buyers. “We did not want to create another over-embellished Spanish Mediterranean estate,” White says.

Instead, the designers incorporated dramatic, high-end choices such as a covered, elevated, stone-clad entryway; a grand circular staircase; and an infinity edge oceanside pool set among ample indoor/outdoor space.

Even with the lavish details, White and Rainho were careful not to overdo it.

“It’s easy when designing such high-end estate homes to want to create elaborate, intricate details, but the elegance of these homes is in the simplistic detailing,” White says. “Through the use of elegant materials, rich colors, and varying textures we were able to create a luxurious style and design that makes a dramatic statement but is not cluttered with unnecessary busy detailing.

We deliberately selected styles that had clean lines.”

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One of the house’s most unique details is its circular kitchen. Clad in new glass-front cabinetry and tile backsplash, the space is one of Lewis’ favorite areas of the house. “The unique shape and structure allows anyone standing inside the kitchen to look out at the house’s ocean views,” she says. “From the living room, the view frames the circular kitchen, providing a nice glow and layer of light.”

Calming Compromise A dramatic circular kitchen, Japanese spa bath, and international art contribute to this worldly design

FIRM / VENTUS DESIGN PROJECT TYPE / SINGLE-FAMILY HOME LOCATION / HONOLULU, HI PHOTOGRAPHER / DANA EDMUNDS

A designer can often play the vital role of referee when disagreements inevitably arise among client couples, carefully channeling two tastes into one cohesive result. But what happens when half the couple is the designer?

Reiko Lewis of Honolulu-based Ventus Design says while she prefers clean, sleek, Italian lines, her husband favors a more Asian-inspired style. So when the couple made design decisions for their oceanfront property, Lewis was tasked with juggling the parts of both client and consultant.

“What I ended up creating was a simple, yet sophisticated interior space that provided the perfect backdrop to showcase our art,” Lewis says. “It complemented the international design of the house’s exterior while reflecting our lifestyle.”

The existing house, Lewis was told, had been built as a 1964 school project

by University of Hawaii students study-

ing under famed architect Vladimir Ossipoff. Despite its breathtaking vistas, the structure needed some serious updates. Lewis modernized the antiquated kitchen with solid wood cabinets and state-of-the-art appliances. Old carpeting was replaced with Brazilian teak flooring, and energy-efficient, layered LED lighting systems were incorporated throughout the house.

To showcase the various pieces of the couple’s extensive Asian art collection, amassed during their business travels for former employer CNN, Lewis created an open layout that allowed for energy and views to flow from room to room continuously. In the same vein, the master bath’s serene Japanese spa, or “onsen,” includes a shower and sunken tub that offers striking views of the majestic nearby mountains and clouds.

And you can’t very well argue with that.

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Lewis and her husband’s collection of Asian art and artifacts includes a praying wheel blessed by the Dalai Lama, an ancient Buddhist statue, Asian furnishings, and a wedding kimono, among other pieces

Ventus Philosophy and Mission: Reality contains its own unparalleled beauty coming from the endless recreation of nature. The fantastic and unexpected, the ever-changing and renewing are exempliďŹ ed in life itself. Ventus is the wind on which change wafts into your space, honoring tradition while instilling new life.

5888B Kalanianaole Hwy, Honolulu, HI 96821 t. 1-808-396-5477 c. 1-808-358-9135 e. rlewis@ventusdesignhnl.com www.ventusdesignhonolulu.com

BEHIND THE BLUEPRINTS

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What’s the most unusual request you’ve gotten from a client?

“D

uring construction of the renovation of a high school, the client asked if we would teach a class of students about the construction.

I was terrified; I may know how to design a school, but to actually teach! In the end, though, it was a great experience.

And now we offer to meet with the students during the construction process on all of our jobs in existing schools.”

– Christine Schlendorf, Perkins Eastman, p. 128

“I had a couple who were very proud of the bathroom they had designed, which had two toilets facing each other across the bathtub. The clients were not pleased when I suggested that they change that to the traditional one toilet per bathroom.”

– Sally Rigg, Rigg Design, p. 16

“The first time I ever learned what it means to be a ‘swinging’ couple... They wanted me to build a separate living space above their four-car garage for ‘visitors’ and entertaining ‘friends.’ During the residential phase of my career I regarded myself more as a marriage counselor than a licensed professional.”

– Michael Pellis, Michael Pellis Architecture, p. 88

“You buy dinner, and I’ll buy the wine.”

– John Marx, Form4 Architecture, p. 166

“It is unprintable!”

– Eddie Jones, Jones Studio, p. 144

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Work “The office” has long been considered synonymous with fluorescent-lit cubicles, monotonous filing cabinets, and uninspired conference rooms. But these firms are working to change that perception. The workplaces they’ve imagined are on the cutting edge of corporate design—and drawing employees who are eager to report for duty.

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Rapt Studios designed the office for VT Outdoors, parent company to The North Face and JanSport, in Alameda, California.

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Thinking Outside the Cubicle The company behind Adobe’s sprawling (and eye-popping) new Utah outpost and offices for Apple and Google, multidisciplinary design firm Rapt Studio knows a thing or two about creating innovative workplaces. We spoke with principals David Galullo and Cory Sistrunk about what drives their work and where “the office” goes from here.

FIRM / RAPT STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHER / ERIC LAIGNEL

DB: How has office design changed in recent years?

David Galullo: For a while, it was enough to do a fun game room with a Ping-Pong table and paint a wall orange. There’s more honesty to the dialogue right now about why people work where they work.

At the end of the day, people want to belong to something larger than themselves.

Our response to that is when we design office space there has to be a meaningful connection between that employee and the culture and the brand of that company.

And if we can do that, then that allows that person to show up for work every day and understand why they matter.

Other specific things are changing, too. I think we see more open environments. We see less cube farms being de-

veloped. It used to be one size fits all; let’s dumb it down so it works equally badly for everyone. There’s a greater willingness on companies’ parts to customize and say, ‘Hey our workers need different things from workspaces.’ They can choose to sit at their desk or sit in the café or blow off steam in the afternoon and go for a bike ride.

Cory Sistrunk: It’s really that idea of choice. People will take salary cuts to be a part of something they believe in, so the design of office space can’t just be the superficial skin. It’s really got to be the backbone that’s driving all these things.

DB: Because of technology and the way we live now, some people argue we don’t need offices (CONTINUED...)

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THINKING OUTSIDE THE CUBICLE

This page: Rapt Studios found plenty of inspiration from VT Outdoors’ brands for the company’s office

Opposite page: Adobe Systems’ new Lehi, Utah campus, includes playful references to typography and computer software

(...CONTINUED) anymore. Why is it important that we still have these spaces?

experience it. Giving [employees] those things that make them want to come here and feel like they can’t do it at Starbucks.

DG: Certain organizations have tried to push for that harder than others, but I do think there is a greater weight on space bringing people together. You can never replace the human connection of people inside of a room working something out together. If you’re looking at design itself, it’s not just what it looks like, it’s how you

DB: How do you design offices that speak to a company’s brand and its values?

DG: I think that’s the question. It relies on our ability to be fluid and flexible because every organization is different.

Why should you matter (CONTINUED...)

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“You can never replace the human connection of people inside of a room working something out together” DAVID GALULLO

(...CONTINUED) to your customer and why should you matter to your employees?

We spend a lot of time in that discovery phase and we engage them, we empower them, and then we connect with them. A lot of design firms want to figure out what [the need] is and then go off and solve it in a vacuum, but we actually bring our clients in to make sure that we’re testing some of the things that we heard against what they think they are.

CS: We’ve found that usually uncovers much more than getting in a room and hearing, ‘Well, we want 10 conference rooms, we have 500 people, and we have a lot of parking issues.’ We want to bring the dialogue beyond just what you physically need in the space.

DB: What is the future of office design?

DG: I think that it will continue to evolve, mainly because people who are working in offices are continually evolving. If what’s important to that employee keeps shifting, then the office obviously needs to keep shifting.

CS: With the rate of technology and apps and the rest of the ways we engage in our daily lives, we really try to look at the space as an interface. For so long it was like, well here’s the architecture: deal with it. We try to say, ‘How does the architecture respond?’

How many times are we building rooms that don’t get used (CONTINUED...)

THINKING OUTSIDE THE CUBICLE

THINKING OUTSIDE THE CUBICLE

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Designed by Rapt Studios in collaboration with base building design partner WRNS Studio, Adobe Systems’ Lehi, Utah campus, is on track to receive LEED Gold certification

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Rapt Studio’s work with earth-friendly, pest control company Alterra demonstrates its multidisciplinary approach. Rapt designed Alterra’s new identity system (from logo to uniforms), website, digital and print advertising, and corporate headquarters. The new office space includes polished concrete slabs, FSC-certified plywood and glass partitions.

because they were built in the wrong proportions, and realize that had it been three feet wider or five feet shorter, it would have been operable? So can we create a building that actually responds to the daily needs of our changing environment?

It hasn’t been done yet, but it is something we’re driving toward. (...CONTINUED)

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Building a Greener Office Environmentally conscious architects team up with their client, a green construction builder, to design an office that’s worthy of LEED Gold

What do you get when a sustainably minded architecture practice designs a new office for a high-end builder who also specializes in eco-friendly construction? For San Francisco design studio Jones | Haydu and its client Buck O’Neill Builders, the result is a space that is green from the top of its second-story, air-filtering living wall to the bottom of its cork floors. Principal architects and LEED-accredited professionals Paul Haydu and Hulett Jones discuss how they collaborated with their builder client to turn the basic 1,100-square-foot commercial condo into a showcase for sustainable construction practices that is on target to achieve LEED Gold certification.

DB: What was it like to have a green builder as a client?

Paul Haydu: It allowed for quite a lot of discussion. Buck [O’Neill] (CONTINUED...)

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FIRM / JONES | HAYDU PROJECT TYPE / OFFICE BUILDING LOCATION / SAN FRANCISCO, CA PHOTOGRAPHER / BRUCE DAMONTE

The condo’s small, 1,100-square-foot floor plate made the office layout a challenge.

Workspaces, including single occupant and shared workstations, are situated on the bottom floor. “As proponents of collaboration, we felt it important to have the workspaces on the same level for easy communication,” Jones says. The mezzanine level features a kitchenette and conference room with rolling glass panels.

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BUILDING A GREENER OFFICE

The design incorporates many recycled and reclaimed materials.

Workstation countertops are made from paperstone, while the workstation partitions, entry wall, and cantilevered stairs feature reclaimed Douglas fir.

The kitchenette, conference rooms, and bathrooms feature ecofriendly cork floor tiles.

Echo Wood veneers are a green alternative to wood cabinets in the kitchen.

noted that he wanted the space to ref lect his commitment to high-quality construction and his interests in green building practices.

Though there were many constraints (the space was small, in a fairly nondescript building in an industrial area, his budget not excessive), he still wanted to make a ‘jewel.’ That intrigued us.

DB: Was LEED Gold a goal from the beginning?

Hulett Jones: Early on, the notion of a living wall was brought up, as were ideas of reclaimed and green materials. Buck had access to certain reclaimed items from his other project sites. For example, a project of his was the source for the fir on the partitions.

When he mentioned access to it, we said ‘grab it!’

HJ: Workstations were positioned near the storefront glazing and their partitions sized to allow access to light and view. Lights are on occupancy sensors.

Selected materials are either reclaimed or have requisite percentages of recycled content. As well, they are sourced from fabricators and factories within LEED-compliant distances.

(...CONTINUED)

PH: We were hoping to get LEED Gold from the onset, but weren’t sure we could get there. Given the space’s small size and relatively limited systems and infrastructure there are fewer variables that we can control and sculpt to LEED standards.

DB: How did you achieve a balance between sustainability and aesthetics without sacrificing either?

HJ: The key is simplicity: A simple, wel l- chosen m at er i a l s pa let t e.

Minimizing spatial gymnastics. Not placing too many things within the space. We selected a few key moments and details and attempted to do them well and thoughtfully. The remaining components are simple and quiet and do not compete.

PH: The living wall, the cantilevered stair, and workstation and office partitions were discussed, debated, and mocked up. That they comprise air filtration, reclaimed materials, and visual access to natural light only adds to the delight.

BUILDING A GREENER OFFICE

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“The stair and living wall were wonderfully collaborative efforts,” Haydu says. “The design of the stair railing resulted from discussions with metalsmith Chris Whitney. We modeled the handrail in the computer and opened it up to discussion and improvement regarding dimensions of specific pieces and extent of glazing.” Whitney, of Inka Bioshperic Systems, also fabricated the living wall.

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Tear Down These Walls A growing San Francisco architecture firm maintains its everyone-counts culture by designing an open office space

FIRM / FELDMAN ARCHITECTURE PROJECT TYPE / OFFICE BUILDING LOCATION / SAN FRANCISCO, CA PHOTOGRAPHER / JASPER SANIDAD

Everyone worked around one long table in Feldman Architecture’s previous office—and loved it.

Now the team works in three areas with shared tables, “but in a space that is so open that everyone has a sense of what someone across the room is working on,” Feldman says.

As its team jumped from four people to 12 over five years, Feldman Architecture needed a greater office space to suit its growing ranks. But at a company full of creative architecture professionals, principal Jonathan Feldman says it felt like the project had 12 clients and 12 designers to please. “We had designed our previous office but we had few options then as the space was much smaller,” Feldman says. With more than double the amount of space to work with in the new office, located in the circa-1926 Abbott Building in Telegraph Hill, Feldman had plenty of options. But one thing everyone agreed was a must-have was an open, communal feel with lots of natural light.

“Our new space previously had been divided into private offices and conference rooms near the windows, with cubicles in the center and to the back of the office that were dark,” Feldman says.

To create some breathing room and give light from the north-facing wall of windows a way to travel, they made the decision to tear down almost all of the walls in the space. In the end, only the server room and a supply room were walled off.

The team also pulled up the carpeting to highlight the concrete (CONTINUED...)

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© Steven Hall | Hedrich Blessing Photographers

© Chris Barrett | Chris Barrett Photography

© Steven Hall | Hedrich Blessing Photographers

Clune Construction Company is proud to have collaborated with Goettsch Partners on the sucessful Baker & McKenzie project

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floors and large structural columns of the vintage building.

In the conference room, they created custom translucent glass and metal sliding doors so light could flow through whether they were open or closed. The rest of the room was clad with wood paneling that’s black on the outside and white on the inside, an unexpected detail that is one of Feldman’s favorites. Hidden tracks between the panels allow custom shelves to move for displaying art or pinup boards as needed. The warm and homey custommade wood table at the center of the room nods to Feldman Architecture’s real specialty—residential design—as does the spacious kitchen where four or five people can make lunch at one time.

“We hope this openness conveys the sense that we are all a vital part of the organization,” says Feldman. “Everyone has a voice and a presence.” (...CONTINUED)

“One important aspect of the design was that we could use it to communicate to prospective clients how we work and what is important to us,” Feldman says. “Our bike rack hallway demonstrates the importance we place on alternatives to driving to work, and also displays a beautiful set of bikes that changes daily.”

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Office Space Ambitions The combination of form and professional function in this Chicago law office was hardly business as usual

At first glance, the carefully defined design directives that drove Goettsch Partners’ plans for international law firm Baker & McKenzie’s Chicago office seem to be all business. But allowing for must-have qualities like professional collaboration, agility, and authenticity called for some decidedly buttoned-down ingenuity.

“ When you think of collaborative cultures, the legal profession doesn’t naturally come to mind,” Goettsch principal Jim Prendergast says. “You have people working in private offices, behind doors, and they don’t want to be disturbed, so immediately it challenges common sense to see how [making collaboration a top design directive] could work.”

The project team was up for the challenge, delivering a new office for the firm at the top of a vertically expanded Chicago office tower that was initially conceived and designed by Goettsch Partners more than a decade earlier. To foster collaboration and communication, the team added formal and informal meeting spaces throughout the firm’s floors, replaced traditional closed offices with floor-toceiling glass ones, and widened circulation zones to encourage conversation.

Rather than being weighed down by heavy marble secretarial stations or limited by permanent millwork cu-

bicles, Baker & McKenzie’s employees now have the ability to adjust to their evolving needs—demountable Teknion furnishings were used so spaces can be easily reconfigured. “They needed an office environment that could move and breathe with the business,” Prendergast explains. Capturing the firm’s global personality was a matter of details.

Prendergast and his team expressed the brand through internationa l touches, colors that align with Baker & McKenzie offices worldwide, and timeless furniture and accents that communicated the company’s commitment to “fluency” in all its forms. “[It’s all about] the balance between smart and beautiful,” Prendergast says.

FOUNTAIN TECHNOLOGIES “Water features provide an opportunity for artistic, architectural, mechanical, and electrical elements to come together to unify the space,” says Bob Watson, principal at fountain design/build/ service firm Fountain Technologies. The firm was contracted by Goettsch Partners to design the mechanical and electrical systems for the office’s water feature. “All of the equipment was custom designed to fit into a limited space,” he adds. “It was both very challenging and also very rewarding.”

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FIRM / GOETTSCH PARTNERS PROJECT TYPE / OFFICE SPACE LOCATION / CHICAGO, IL PHOTOGRAPHER / STEVE HALL Š HEDRICH BLESSING PHOTOGRAPHERS

The many glass walls in the design increase interaction and collaboration between employees. They also offer panoramic views of Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline that are visible from nearly every desk.

Fountain Technologies DESIGN + BUILD + SERVICE

The delight and fascination of water At Fountain Technologies we create beauty, tranquility, and awe inspiring effects with water. Our fountains and water features enhance the natural beauty of their environment. From traditional fountains, to water falls, to interactive fountains with music, lights, and multi-media, our fountain designs create atmospheres for work, study, health, inspiration and play.

Our planning staff starts with an understanding of your vision and goals. Then our award-winning professionals interpret, design, engineer, construct, and maintain your water feature.

423 Denniston Court | Wheeling, IL 60090 | p 847.537.3677 | f 847.537.9904 | www.fountaintechnologies.com

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FIRM / STEPHEN DYNIA ARCHITECTS PROJECT TYPE / OFFICE REHAB LOCATION / DENVER, CO PHOTOGRAPHER / RON JOHNSON

Twist of Freight Stephen Dynia Architects turns a Denver freight terminal into a dynamic office environment

The word “visionary” gets tossed around a lot when talking about architects, but when one of them can look at the carcass of a 30,000-square-foot 1950s industrial freight terminal in the middle of a railroad yard and picture a thriving commercial space filled with office suites for small businesses, it most certainly applies.

Jackson, Wyoming-based architect Stephen Dynia’s award-winning Freight project transformed a massive terminal in Denver into an innovative new community while retaining the character of the building’s past life.

“Its public face celebrates its past,” says Dynia, who used a corrugated skin that recalls shipping containers and bright orange accents on the façade to relate to the nearby rail cars. Inside, Dynia designed a large corridor that

cuts through the building to link the individual units and provide public space with seating and meeting areas.

New garage doors on the existing docks where tenants are housed act as giant operable windows in each space. The steel structural framework is intermittently exposed to keep the industrial past constantly in mind, and recycled materials from bowling alleys, hockey rinks, and nearby industrial buildings are reused for partitions and furnishings.

“The gritty spatial character lends a durability that appeals to a wide variety of tenants,” Dynia says. “Art dealers and design professionals mix with Internet companies and an innovative pre-school. This varied mix of tenants creates a vibrant neighborhood within the building.”

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FIRM / RANDY FLOYD ARCHITECTS PROJECT TYPE / RETAIL LOCATION / OKLAHOMA CITY, OK PHOTOGRAPHER / JOSEPH MILLS

Metal pendant light fixtures were salvaged from a 1930s retail store. Floyd had them powder coated to renew the finish. “Set against the high, black ceiling slit running down the center of the space, they punctuate the long room and add a touch of nostalgia,” she says.

To save money, the concrete slab floor was stained, not refinished

Trade Secrets Designing her husband’s interior design showroom was an exercise in creativity for Randy Floyd

For the cavernous Design Resources showroom, architect Randy Floyd had 12,000 square feet of raw industrial space to work with... and a shoestring budget. The showroom would need to serve a variety of purposes: as a drapery workroom, office, warehouse, window covering showroom, client experience area for demonstrations of integrated lighting, window covering and audio systems, and a media center for presen-

tations. Instead of being intimidated by the challenges, Floyd was inspired.

“I wanted the public side to be appealing to [Design Resources’] primary customer—the interior designers, architects, and their clients,” Floyd says. “I wanted the private side of the space to be functional but invisible to clients.”

To achieve this effect, Floyd and her team used the space’s best feature,

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DESIGN RESOURCES

its volume, to their advantage, giving the window covering displays ample ceiling height and room to shine. Rather than use valuable budget dollars on repairs, joints and cracks in the floor were left as patina. Interior walls were finished in gypsum board and paint.

With hardly any windows to work with, Floyd and her team created a clever fix: Two-foot-deep light boxes fitted with dozens of dimmable fluores-

cent lamps simulate daylight behind window coverings.

The fact that the owner of Design Resources happens to be Floyd’s husband was a definite perk. The couple had collaborated before on their own home and a related project, so the partnership was a natural fit. “We enjoy working together and fortunately share a preference for spare and unornamented spaces,” Floyd says.

For architect Randy Floyd and her client, Design Resources owner Michael Smith, the showroom project was a true labor of love.

The husband-and-wife team turned their personal partnership into a successful professional collaboration that resulted in a flexible, multifunctional showroom for the Oklahoma City company, which specializes in high-end window treatments. “It really performs what we wanted to accomplish,” owner Michael Smith says. “It flows nicely, gives our staff the space and tools they need to work, and is just a well-designed space.” In addition to an office, warehouse, and workroom for Design Resources’ custom drapery operation, the new 12,000-square-foot space includes multiple spaces that allow design professionals to experience Design Resources’ many window covering options in person. “They give people an idea of how these products work in real time,” Smith says. The showroom has opened up new opportunities for the business, Smith adds: “We are now attracting more high-end interior designers.”

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‣Incomparable Quality ‣Specifier Grade Products ‣Window Treatment Motorization Specialists

Serving the interior design trade and architectural community since 1951

Design Resources www.designresources.us 7720 N Robinson - Suite B3 Oklahoma City, OK 73116 Voice 405.521.1551 Fax 405.235.1834 info@designresources.us A Diamond Level Lutron Dealer www.lutron.com

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A Moveable Office Fun and flexibility highlight a Toronto office expansion

Once upon a time, a centrally located water cooler sufficed as the social hub of the office. But that wasn’t going to cut it for Klick Health, a Fortune 500 company that creates digital solutions for the health care industry. Hired to create all of the interactive spaces as Klick expanded its headquarters from two to three floors, Prototype Design Lab saw the perfect opportunity to apply its research into progressive office design.

“We noticed a trend toward work spaces that incorporate other types

FIRM / PROTOTYPE DESIGN LAB PROJECT TYPE / OFFICE SPACE LOCATION / TORONTO, ONTARIO PHOTOGRAPHER / BEN RAHN / A-FRAME

“The wavy wood wall is inspired by patterns of rippling water,” Tadrissi says. “It was designed by laying image maps of water over a model.

The maps were extruded into 3-D forms, which were then edited for the desired shape. The piece has approximately 500 layers of plywood.”

The inside material of the boardroom walls is cork, which acts as an acoustic material as well as a pinup board.

Its Mondrian-inspired composition acts as an artistic backdrop.

of places like homes and playgrounds, which changes the traditional atmosphere of the workplace,” says Antonio Tadrissi, partner-in-charge at PDLab. “We read that companies with such designs—Google, Facebook, Red Bull— have employees with higher levels of productivity, loyalty, and ultimately happiness. They don’t consider ‘work’ to be a repetitive or mundane task because they love to be in the environments in which they work.”

Adjacent to the jaw-dropping “command center” of the space, a tapering stainless steel reception desk that would make Captain Kirk green with envy, sits a custom-designed Lego wall where workers can doodle in 3-D. A yoga studio, horizontal climbing wall, video arcade, and other creative elements are dispersed throughout. For the employee cafe, PDLab sliced a 40-foot shipping container into pieces and used it to clad

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the space. The staff are even encouraged to add graffiti, Tadrissi says.

But the most action-packed spot in the whole office may be the boardroom, which Prototype designed with 160 linear feet of collapsible walls capable of transforming the area into a “town hall” where company-wide meetings with up to 250 people could be held comfortably. “The wall panels are on wheels,” Tadrissi says. “They each pivot and then everything folds up into the sides of the space.” And since the tremendous boardroom table would be out of place when the town hall opens up, PDLab created a base of 24 functional bicycles so it could easily be pushed away.

“Klick is a creative company that thrives on teamwork and interaction between employees,” says Tadrissi. “We were hoping to use our design of unusual environments to increase the productivity of the company.”

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FIRM / TSOI/KOBUS & ASSOCIATES PROJECT TYPE / MEDICAL RESEARCH CENTER LOCATION / BOSTON, MA PHOTOGRAPHY / COURTESY OF TSOI/KOBUS & ASSOCIATES

The facility’s tenants include Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Kowa Pharmaceuticals, and The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering

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The center earned LEED Gold certification. It uses 69 percent less potable water and 30 percent less energy than comparable structures.

Cure for the Common Medical Center With its cutting-edge design, the new Center for Life Science resuscitates Boston’s medical district

Jutting into the Boston skyline, the Center for Life Science was just what the doctor ordered for one of the few open sites within the city’s dense Longwood Medical Area. The new 20-story, 776,000-square-foot laboratory and research facility now serves tenants from Harvard Medical School to the Pfizer Center for Therapeutic Innovation, but when architects Tsoi/ Kobus began the ambitious project, the occupants had yet to be determined.

“We did not necessarily know who the users would be, and so we had to plan for a wide range of laboratory environments,” Tsoi/Kobus’ senior principal Rick Kobus says. “The success of the project depended in large part on

‘getting the bones right’—achieving the most cost-effective core and shell, providing maximum flexibility for virtually any scientific or engineering demand, and allowing for future change with minimal disruption to ongoing scientific activities.”

The resulting structure allowed for wet, dry, computational, and translational research; allocated utilities to accommodate each tenant’s individual use; and was organized around the concept of open modular labs with support facilities placed at the complex’s core. An angled glass curtain wall sets the center apart from its concrete surroundings and with its bifurcated, interlocking volumes, the building reflects “the progressive,

analytical nature of the research process occurring within,” Kobus says.

“The design optimizes an unusual site configuration by varying the floor size as the building rises, creating a uniquely memorable façade.”

As if the work going on inside wa sn’t g roundbrea k ing enoug h, through tilting planes, cantilevers, and curves, the Tsoi/Kobus team burst through the area’s unofficial 200-foot height barrier as well with full support from the community.

“We created a building form that is sympathetic with the context of the existing neighborhood,” Kobus says. “But it’s a taller form that is more emblematic of cutting-edge research.”

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TK BEHIND

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THE BLUEPRINTS

When did you know you wanted to be an architect?

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n my early teens I used to love to try and figure out the floor plans of the houses in my favorite TV shows and would lose myself in the art and set design of movies. But I think the biggest impression that made me want to be a designer was when we were fortunate enough to stay in very grand hotels on family vacations. The majesty, beauty, and uniqueness of such places inspired me to want to learn how to make places like that, where the experience of space was impressive and uplifting.”

– David Zacharko, Zacharko Yustin, p. 173

“In high school. I grew up in New York City and always walked around with my eyes pointed upward. I felt more comfortable among buildings than trees. I loved math and art equally.”

– Terry Kleinberg, Terry Kleinberg Architect, p. 150

“I knew I wanted to be an architect when I was 14 years old.”

– Deborah Berke, Deborah Berke Partners, p. 152

“I was around 10.

We moved into a new house, and I remember noticing and liking the design details, such as the built-in desk that continued through an opening in the wall between my room and my sister’s.

I remember my sister wanting to rearrange the furniture in her room, and telling her that it was arranged the way it was for a reason.”

– Sally Rigg, Rigg Design, p. 17

“Once I realized my dream of being a professional baseball player probably wasn’t going to happen, it was the only thing I could see doing for the rest of my life.”

– Adam Goldstein, Studio Collective, p. 92

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Play Even places meant for decidedly un-serious business are taken seriously by their designers. When people venture out for a meal, a ball game, or a night on the town, they’re expecting an escape from the ordinary, and these sustainable, high-tech, and often whimsical hospitality spaces have delivered it.

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A Whole New Ball Game Event venue design firm Populous builds stadiums of the future

BY GWENDOLYN PURDOM

FIRM / POPULOUS PHOTOGRAPHERS / AARON DOUGHERTY, ALISTAIR TUTTON, CHRISTY RADECIC, POPULOUS

Populous designed Sporting Park for the local soccer team in its hometown of Kansas City, Kansas

Peanuts and Cracker Jack aren’t the only things that take fans out to the ball game these days. There are interactive LED screens, sustainably sourced concourses, and highly customized seating options drawing spectators, too. According to Jon Knight, senior principal at Kansas City firm Populous, designing large-scale sporting and event arenas today, as his company does, requires a fresh perspective. “I think a lot of it has to do with the additional entertainment and hospitality that’s become part and parcel of the experience of a sporting event,” he says.

The Populous team has dreamed up stadiums and arenas from Miami’s bold new Marlins Park to the dramatically curved Olympic arena now under construction for the 2014 Winter Games

in Sochi, Russia. With each new design, holistic visitor experience is the top priority. A decade ago, design choices may have revolved around technical and traditional considerations like good sight lines and layout, but now contemporary design puts a premium on creating an immersive visit “from parking lot to seat,” Knight says.

At the Kansas City Chiefs’ home turf, Arrowhead Stadium, for instance, he and his colleagues turned a nondescript entry ramp in the five-decade-old building into what Knight calls a “fan activation space” with a band platform, interactive video screens, and light and sound features. “Instead of just the leftover space, it’s become a focal point during the process of moving from your car into the stadium. It’s (CONTINUED...)

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A WHOLE NEW BALL GAME

A WHOLE NEW BALL GAME

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Sporting Park, Kansas (left). Home to the Miami Marlins, the new Marlins Park boasts interactive features that engage fans.

(...CONTINUED) about creating those points along the way, rather than having nothing in between your car and your seat,” Knight says. “We’re putting those interactive zones between us and the field.”

Another example of an unexpected detail that has made a big impact can be found at the new Marlins Park, where a wall of plastic bobblehead figures is rigged to be in constant motion. “It doesn’t matter what inning it is, there’s always a crowd of people around that,” Knight says. “These are the kinds of things we’ve learned over time to include.”

That focus on all-encompassing fan experiences extends to offering guests more sustainable venues as well, even if the guests can’t actually see the green elements. “So much of what we do is really about the technology of mechanical systems: how we heat and cool, how we recycle and collect water, and how we filter water and reuse it. Those things are a lot more difficult for most people to see and understand,” Knight says. But Knight doesn’t think that will always be the case. As these kinds of practices

become more mainstream, he predicts more visible systems like solar panels and green roofs will gain popularity.

A more obvious (yet persistant) challenge is the fans themselves, who keep turning up in even greater numbers . “It’s pretty crazy stuff when you start talking about designing an arena for 22,000 people or a collegiate football stadium for 50,000 students or a convention center that’s going to turn 100,000 guests over three days,” Knight says. His firm relies on years of research and observation of human behavior and patterns, as well as special software, to dictate the way their plans will accommodate such volume.

“You have to pay a lot of attention to how people move through spaces, how to make them stop when you want them to stop architecturally, and how to keep them moving when you want them to f low,” he says. Moving forward, Knight thinks event venues will become increasingly personalized. In years past, a typical stadium might offer 80 suites, 10,000 club (CONTINUED...)

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A WHOLE NEW BALL GAME

Populous designed the Olympic and Paralympic stadium for the 2012 Summer Games in London (left). The stadium transformed from a 80,000-seat venue for the opening and closing ceremonies to a 25,000seat space for smaller, more intimate sporting events.

seats, and 50,000 general admission seats, Knight says. Today, those numbers are drastically different—five or six types of suites or club seats, and a variety of other options for fans to choose from, are common.

“We really started paying attention to who’s coming to the game,” Knight says. “You can be cynical and say we’re thinking about the fans as customers rather than fans, but you could also say, I bet the fans are happier because we’re now giving them more exactly what they want.” (...CONTINUED)

Perhaps just as important as people is place. Because these types of structures often serve as a symbol of a city or its team, there’s a lot of added pressure to get the personality of the design just right. “The only thing that’s consistent with different soccer stadiums [for example] is the size of the pitch,” Knight says. “But after that, it’s all about the place and the personality of the team, what their goals are, what they’re trying to attain, how they want to build their fan base, and how they want to build community.”

A rendering of the stadium for the 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Sochi, Russia designed by Populous

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Shelf Life John Tong of Toronto studio +tongtong wanted to create a flexible space for fashion boutique Annie Aime, so he merged architecture and product design to build the new display system Les Ailes Noires, or “black wings.”

We talk to Tong about the freestanding, welded steel racks.

DB: How did the owner’s desire for a flexible space translate into the new shelving system?

John Tong: I wanted the space to reverberate from art gallery to innovative fashion store. I wanted the displays to be expressive on their own without overshadowing the product. I wanted it to be structural while fluid, controlled while haphazard, rigid while free, static while moving, urban yet refined.

DB: How has your architectural background shaped your ventures into product design?

FIRM / +TONGTONG PROJECT TYPE / RETAIL LOCATION / TORONTO, ONTARIO PHOTOGRAPHER / BEN RAHN / A-FRAME

JT: I have always been a generalist in terms of bringing together inspirations from my surroundings into my work. I am interested in all things related to how we live, work, and play and how culture is integrated into how spaces and objects are shaped and used. It is a concept that goes

back to the Bauhaus philosophy of architectural training, which included everything from graphic design, photography, industrial design, and the decorative arts.

DB: Besides retail, what other type of environments do you envision Les Ailes Noires being used in?

JT: I had always envisioned that each shape can be used individually, in the foyer of a home, a studio, or gallery.

I could also see them in hotel rooms or suites where it would look great as an object with no clothes hanging to being loaded with many, much like the shift from winter to summer—lots of coats in winter to none in the summer, or just an umbrella in the spring.

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From Field to Table A San Francisco architecture practice designs wineries, bars, and everything in between

Everything but the seed: That’s one way to describe Aidlin Darling Design’s scope of work in the food and beverage industry.

Since teaming up in 1998, partners Joshua Aidlin and David Darling have designed structures for wineries, farms, and even an organic “schoolyard” garden and market for children, as well as bars and restaurants that serve the resulting fare.

The duo’s dedication to designing site-specific spaces that incorporate sustainable materials and handcrafted, locally sourced products has earned them recognition from an industry that prizes those same qualities, including a James Beard Award for outstanding restaurant design. Here, Aidlin and Darling share their recipe for design that is as nutritious as it is delicious.

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FIRM / AIDLIN DARLING DESIGN PROJECT TYPE / FOOD AND BEVERAGE IMAGES / THOMAS WINZ, MATTHEW MILLMAN (PHOTOS); AIDLIN DARLING (RENDERINGS)

Aidlin Darling creates restaurants that are as thoughtfully crafted as the food they serve.

Bar Agricole (left) won a James Beard Award for best restaurant design

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FROM FIELD TO TABLE

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DB: Northern California has long been associated with great wine and more recently with farm-fresh, locally sourced cuisine. How has your location impacted your work?

Joshua Aidlin: We are located within a virtual cornucopia of culinary resources, creativity, and cultural diversity. With some background in hospitality and restaurant design, and with a genuine passion for the notion that food and wine can connect people to place and community, our practice has evolved literally from field to table.

David Darling: One of our earliest commissions involved the redesign and master planning of the last dry-farmed vineyard in Sonoma County. A few years later, a residential loft project for a chef/ restaurateur led to a wine bar/restaurant. Since those early years, we have always had at least one or more food- or wine-related projects in the office and remain active in those communities.

DB: The designs of your restaurants often reflect the type of cuisine that each restaurant serves.

Why is that?

DD: Enjoying a great meal in a restaurant has the potential to be a holistically sensual experience that starts with the food but also includes acoustics, light, space, materiality, and smell. To realize the full potential of any restaurant experience, we feel that the cuisine and the restaurant design should cohesively speak to each other and to the diner. It is about tapping into the ethos of the chef’s or bartender’s creations and creatively complementing their concept.

JA: Before we start designing a restaurant, we sit down with the chef or owner

The design of the proposed Paso Robles Winery adapts a historic winery into a contemporary hospitality space

and talk at length about the ideas behind the cuisine, everything springs from the food. From there, we typically are asked to respond to an existing carcass of a building where the new restaurant will eventually reside. ‘Location, location, location’: It’s the second most important entity that catalyzes the design concept, following the food. The successful marriage of cuisine and site makes for a great restaurant.

DB: Does location also play a role in your winery designs?

JA: It is through a very rigorous immersive process that we begin to uncover the latent spirit of each project. To cite some of the more tangible influences, our design for the Paso Robles Winery exploits the quality of material and light that penetrates some of the old barn structures in the area. At the Scribe Vineyards, the history of the site and the notion of storytelling led to the name on the label. We are treating the site as a palimpsest that reveals and celebrates old and new layers.

DB: Paso Robles involves the adaptive reuse of a 19th-century winery.

What’s your approach to restoration? Does architecture, like wine, get better with age?

DD: Assuming our presence here on earth is expanding, the most responsible thing we can do is to adaptively reuse the buildings we already have, or if we are creating new ones, to design them to last.

I would argue that it’s often the relationship between two epochs or histories that are meaningful. The Guggenheim Museum in New York is a great example. I think a building—old or new, foreground or background—is worth salvaging when it contributes to a sense of place.

DB: All this talk of food has made us hungry. Do you have any good recommendations from your clients?

JA: I would say if you are looking for a good dish or drink, you can’t go wrong with any of our clients.

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The firm’s restaurant designs often reference the type of cuisine that is served. At Wexler’s, a much-lauded San Francisco barbeque joint, a dark, rippling wave of fiberboard fins echoes the smoke and charred wood of barbeque cooking.

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FIRM / MICHAEL PELLIS ARCHITECTURE PROJECT TYPE / WINERY LOCATION / LOUISA, VA PHOTOGRAPHER / MATTHEW SQUARZINI

Cheers to Green A LEED Platinum winery in the Virginia countryside drinks in its surroundings

When architect Michael Pellis and his family relocated from the San Francisco Bay area to Richmond, Virginia, eight years ago, California friends teased that his days of designing hip wineries were over. That is until Pellis connected with two forward-thinking winery owners who’d dreamed of turning their existing facilities into a cutting-edge vineyard for years.

“They had a folder full of images they collected over the 10 years that they planned for this project, data on square footage needs, and electric consumption historical documentation,” Pellis says.

“We went to several tasting rooms and they discussed what they liked about each one and why they wanted certain features in their facility.”

The resulting design, Cooper Vineyards, is carved into a hillside, its covered deck opening to a scenic vista of vines and grounds. Overhead, a butterfly roof allows the owners to take in panoramas of the vineyards through a ribbon of clerestory windows above the roof deck.

Below, naturally cool temperatures in the basement level of the three-story structure were ideal for wine storage.

The building is composed primarily of stone, glass, wood, colored concrete, and steel. “We tried to create a highperformance building that also intertwined the materials into a unique sculptural expression that matches the caliber of their award-winning wines,” Pellis says.

Signature characteristics like the butterfly roof weren’t just added for visual appeal: The feature doubles as a rainwater collection system. It’s one of the many sustainable details that scored the project the U.S. Green Building Council LEED rating system’s highest honors, Platinum certification. The vineyards boast locally sourced labor and materials, geothermal heating and cooling, and structurally insulated panel systems for exterior walls and roofs, among other environmentally minded choices. The project was awarded two USDA grants, one for energy efficiency and one for renewable energy. Testing so far shows the project is operating 67 percent more efficiently than the project team anticipated.

“Many of the subcontractors had never worked on a project like this before and there was a learning curve for everyone involved,” Pellis says. “The rainwater harvesting system and several other systems were the first of their kind in this area of the state. Several [subcontractors] rose to the challenge and we have them to thank for the success of this building.”

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CHEERS TO GREEN

CHEERS TO GREEN

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GRADIENT Civil engineering design firm Gradient created the site design at the Cooper Vineyard.

“Basically the elements outside the building including the building location and orientation,” says Gradient president Claire Smith Shirley.

“The biggest challenge was to create the desired view from the patio over the vineyard.

We had to get high enough on the main floor to take advantage of the beautiful vista from the patio level yet stay low enough on the cellar level to allow for drainage away from the building.”

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FIRM / STUDIO COLLECTIVE PROJECT TYPE / RESTAURANTS LOCATION / LOS ANGELES, CA PHOTOGRAPHER / SCOTT SNIDER

The movie Inception was the jumping off point for the design at Chi Lin (this page). The design is an homage to Hong Kong, the chef’s hometown.

Two for One

DB: How did you come up with the concept?

known restaurant in L.A. out on Sunset Boulevard and the client [Innovative Dining Group] wanted to break it into two concepts because it was a really big space. Because of the nature of the lease and various technical reasons, they had to maintain one kitchen, so they came to us and said hey, we’ll give you two projects at once.

IDG came to us with the idea of creating one Italian concept and one Chinese concept. Both restaurants had different chef partners and offered different types of services and IDG was very clear that they wanted each concept to have its own distinct look and feel, almost as if they actually had different owners.

CS: The idea actually came from the client. The existing space was a well-

DB: How would you describe each of the aesthetics?

Tasked with turning one restaurant into two different concepts, Studio Collective opted for bold contrast

Pairing the rustic romance of an Italian villa alongside the dreamlike vibrancy of urban Hong Kong is no easy feat.

We talked with the three principals of L.A.’s Studio Collective—Adam Goldstein, Leslie Kale, and Christian Schulz—about the process of splitting one big restaurant into separate eateries Chi Lin and Rivabella.

AG: Rivabella is a modern spin on a traditional Tuscan villa with more contemporary furnishings—light, bright, airy, and a little bit warmer. It takes advantage of a large outdoor patio with a retractable awning that allows for true al fresco dining. It has a great Southern Californian indoor/outdoor feel to it.

Chi Lin is more inward focused; it’s nighttime only, dark and sexy. It’s meant to take you to another place and time. We took a lot of our design cues from Hong Kong, which was the chef’s hometown; once you’re in the space it’s meant to evoke more of a dream world.

LK: All of the furniture for both projects is custom and was manufactured using local vendors with the exception of the 300 authentic lanterns that were fabricated especially for Chi Lin in China.

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AG: For Chi Lin, [the clients] came to us with an image of the opening scene of the movie Inception which is this dream sequence of a very traditional Chinese dining hall featuring a lot of reflective surfaces. You’re not sure if you’re awake or in a dream, and that was sort of their jumping-off point, so we took that and ran with it.

DB: What are your favorite details?

CS: We all have our own favorites. For Rivabella, Leslie found a travel diary at a local thrift store. It was written by an American who traveled through Italy in the ’20s and [wrote in] beautiful cursive

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penmanship about their travels. We thought it was really romantic.

We like the hand being eminent in all our work whether it’s artwork or the craftsmanship. So we took various pages that had interesting passages and had them blown up by a bookmaker and framed on the wall and then Leslie made these really beautiful leather straps that hang the pictures on the wall. It’s a nice little moment that you discover.

At Chi Lin, we knew we wanted to do these 3-D boxes but we didn’t know the coloring or idea, so Leslie and [local artist] Jocelyn Marsh did a series of mock-ups and created these 3-D infinity boxes. At first we weren’t sure how they would turn out but once we developed the storyline behind them and simplified the direction inside, they became these really ethereal beautiful 3-D mirrorscapes. As you’re sitting in the booth and you have a moment between conversation, you turn your head and you notice that they’re constantly moving. They’re really dynamic.

Rivabella (below) is a modern spin on a traditional Tuscan villa. A large outdoor patio with a retractable awning offers al fresco dining.

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FIRM / FUSION INTERIORS GROUP PROJECT TYPE / HOTEL LOCATION / BARCELONA, SPAIN

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Though they mocked up a room using real wood floors, ultimately vinyl tile flooring was chosen for its look and soundabsorbing qualities

PHOTOGRAPHY / COURTESY OF FUSION INTERIORS GROUP

Oh My Gaudí!

After working with the Citadines hotel brand in France, Fusion Interiors Group takes inspiration from Barcelona’s most influential artist for its Spanish outpost

Paved with playful tiles and splashed in painterly colors, the streets of Barcelona have inspired creativity for generations, from the surreal curves of Antoni Gaudí’s civic contributions to the imaginative designs of contemporary firms like Fusion Interiors Group. So when the latter took on the design of Citadines hotel group’s Barcelona location, nestled in the heart of the hip Las Ramblas neighborhood, they infused every element with the city’s distinctive flavor.

“One of the ideas we presented was to take inspiration from the famous hexagonal tile designed by Gaudí,” Fusion Interiors Group’s Hilary Lancaster says.

“Gaudí is normally known for his broken tile mosaics, and people do not realize that the hexagons that pave most of the streets of Barcelona were also designed by him. The hexagon then became a theme of the rooms. It’s used in the flooring in the entrance, kitchen, and bathroom in a mosaic, Barcelona ‘patchwork’ style, as well as on the wallpaper of the studio apartments.”

Colors and images of the city grace the walls and other surfaces in the form of artwork and details like a bold yellow kitchen backsplash and brightly upholstered chairs and throws. “The aesthetic is clean lines, contemporary, with a color scheme that is soft and suitable for both the business and the leisure guest,” Lancaster says.

In renovating the hotel’s lobby and each of its 170 rooms, the Fusion team built off the momentum of previous design work they’d done with Citadines elsewhere, adding a uniquely Spanish twist to suit the site.

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CONTRATAS GIMENO Fusion Interiors Group partnered with Barcelona-based Contratas Gimeno, a multidisciplinary construction company that specializes in high quality-interior renovation projects.

“The most complicated aspect of the project was to adapt the new design to the existing building,” Ricardo Gimeno Lluís says. “In addition, the renovation was performed while the hotel was still operating, with all the difficulties that it implies. We are really proud of the final result of the project—it is elegant and welcoming.”

A new wing includes a gym, laundry area, and vending facilities as the four-star hotel aims to accommodate longer-stay guests

GRADIENT, PC, 701 St. James is a full service Richmond, VA woman-owned design firm. Providing all aspects of land development and site design for governmental, institutional, commercial, residential, and industrial clients, GRADIENT’s services range from site layout and master planning to utilities and stormwater management.

GRADIENT strives to incorporate low impact and ecologically responsible design in every project.

Every project is a unique and welcome challenge.

MANUFACTURAS CELDA S.L., founded in Valencia, is a company of great tradition with a large business trajectory. It started during the 50’s with the production of contemporary furniture and lighting for the retail market.

The company has since been adapting itself to market needs. At present, Manufacturas Celda S.L. is focused in contract market, offering a turnkey service with custom-sized product under the name of UNO Design. Several well-known hotel and restaurant chains, as well as public buildings and hospitals have been furnished by UNO Design during the last 10 years.

M A N U FA C T U R A S C E L D A S . L .

www.GradientEnvironment.com | 804.399.0500

Autovía Ademuz Km. 13 nº 40 46184 San Antonio de Benageber, Valencia (Spain) Tel. +34.96.135.02.63 Fax. +34.96.135.06.41 www.manufacturascelda.com

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Paradise Found Coastal design gets a colorful, modern twist at this oceanfront hotel

The Pacific coast was a literal ocean of inspiration for Hatch Design Group when it created the colorful interiors for the Hilton Carlsbad Oceanfront hotel.

Contrasting white stone and dark wood, bright artwork, and other beachy textures and tones drove the design, Hatch’s Ryoko Nasu says.

“The client was looking for interiors displaying a modern interpretation of the coastal location smoothly blended with the arts and crafts exterior of the building,” Nasu says. “By utilizing bold

FIRM / HATCH DESIGN GROUP PROJECT TYPE / HOTEL LOCATION / CARLSBAD, CA PHOTOGRAPHY / COURTESY OF HATCH DESIGN GROUP

Nasu calls the hotel’s style “California coastal modern,” which she defines as having clean lines, high contrast, and bold colors

colors, influences from the neighboring ocean, and beautiful contrasts in stone and wood, we were able to create an upscale, modern-coastal hotel.”

In the hotel’s restaurant and bar Chandler’s (named for owner Bill Canepa’s partner), the firm’s aesthetic shines through in an entry wall and outdoor fireplace clad in white-stacked stone, natural wood tones for the floors and millwork, and sleek walnut furniture backed in wicker on the patio. Rustic, handcrafted glass pendant lamps hang from the ceiling. Suspended over the bar, a dramatic wood-stained trellis accents the space’s lighting. Elsewhere, bright accents and artwork continue the beachfront feel.

Says Nasu: “The design paid tribute to the clean and airy feeling of the ocean breeze, harmoniously colliding with the exotic brightness that is seen in the coral reefs.”

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DUCHATEAU FLOORS DuChateau Floors provided the floors for the project.

Designed to reflect old-world European styles, their wideplank, hardwood floors come in handcrafted textures that highlight the natural changing grain patterns of the wood and create the time-worn look of a true vintage floor. The floors are FSC-Certified and treated with allnatural, hard-wax oil.

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DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATES “Development Management Associates worked with Klai Juba to create a modern building that used Midwestern materials and a design vocabulary suited to the region, yet clearly expressed the excitement and distinctive experiences to be found within,” says DMA’s Jason Westrope. “For example, most casino exteriors use synthetic exterior finishing systems.

The exterior of the Rivers Casino features Kesota Limestone, a special curved and polished red precast that can only be made in the Midwest.”

A Design Hits the Jackpot Clever features and a surprisingly sustainable design make Rivers Casino a winner

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t has slot machines, table games, and live entertainment, but Rivers Casino in Des Plaines, Illinois, is not your average gambling hall. As Klai Juba Architects’ senior associate Steve Peck tells us, design-wise, there are several reasons the project stands out.

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FIRM / KLAI JUBA ARCHITECTS PROJECT TYPE / CASINO LOCATION / DES PLAINES, IL PHOTOGRAPHY / PEOPLE PLACES & THINGS PHOTOGRAPHICS

The World’s First LEED Gold Casino While LEED certification wasn’t originally a top priority for the casino’s owners and architects, as the project moved forward, it became clear that sustainable design was a logical fit. The 43,000-square-foot facility is non-smoking, earning its designers and builders access to several HVAC, health, and environmental credits. Building off that head start, Peck and his team added other eco-friendly choices such as natural landscaping with smart irrigation and water systems, motion-sensor lighting that automatically shuts off when not in use, efficient HVAC and other mechanical systems, regional materials, bike racks, car charging stations, and more.

Collectively, the features added up to an unexpected opportunity when it came to LEED certification—the first casino in the world to achieve LEED Gold. “We saw that with just a couple more points we could go for gold,” Peck says. “And that’s what we did.”

A Clever Legal Life Preserver According to Illinois gaming law, casinos can only operate on or over water.

Historically, gaming was legal on riverboats as they floated up and downstream, but over the years, immobile riverboat casinos have gotten the OK as long as they’ve been docked on water.

For Rivers, Klai Juba got creative.

Instead of setting the casino afloat, the

architects created a shallow pool buried beneath parts of the building.

“If you’re on a gaming floor, about two feet below you is six inches of water and that met the requirements of Illinois gaming law,” Peck says. The tactic, which had been used in at least one other casino, is supported by a system of pumps and irrigation channels that are only visible for gaming board officials to see in two sections of the back of the house.

“It was a complicated little detail because we had to work around structure, and plumbing, and electrical, and things like that,” Peck says.

Upscale Exteriors Away from the glittering casinos of their Las Vegas homebase, the Klai Juba architects were careful to create a space that fit in with its surroundings.

“We know that the greater Chicagoland area is so rich in architecture and history, and because a casino can sometimes be polarizing, we were not going to be overly flamboyant, with neon and flashing signs and all things ‘Las Vegas,’” Peck says. “We were respectful and created what we consider a solid, approachable design.”

Accordingly, the owner and design team looked to finishes not commonly seen in casino design. Instead of industry-standard EIFS exteriors, Peck and his team used custom precast concrete, natural stone, and metal paneling, among other high-quality finishes.

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THE BLUEPRINTS

What did playing with Legos or other building toys as a child teach you?

“U

nfortunately, Legos were not invented yet when I was a child. Blocks, erector sets, and Lincoln Logs were my discovery medium.

Ironically, I now play with Legos all the time with my brilliant grandson. Any self-imposed puzzle becomes a composition.”

– Eddie Jones, Jones Studio, p. 144

“I played Legos as a child but what taught and inspired me the most, and has had the greatest influence in the work I do today, is pottery. It taught me many things including the beauty of form, texture, patience, and that beauty could be sometimes made how it’s meant to be.”

– Reiko Lewis, Ventus Design, p. 40

“More often dump trucks and other construction vehicles. I think I gravitate towards renovations because I always liked to take things apart and reassemble them.”

– Terry Kleinberg, Terry Kleinberg Architect, p. 150

“The great thing about Legos is the endless possibilities of things you can create using them. Build one thing, play with it for a while, then take it apart and build something completely different. This is a lesson that has proven useful in our current practice as, more often than not, the spaces we design served some other function prior to us getting our hands on them.”

– Adam Goldstein, Studio Collective, p. 92

“We both drew a lot growing up.

Coty drew details of mechanical and technical parts and pieces particularly beautifully, and I built miniature cities incessantly as a child.”

– Eric Gartner and Coty Sidnam, SPG Architects, p. 20

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Engage These unexpected civic and spiritual spaces don’t just demonstrate one-of-a-kind design, they also invite their users to take an active role in the experience of the buildings.

Whether they’re learning, praying, or exploring, those who enter these structures are in for an architectural awakening.

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Balancing Act A quirky English vacation rental sparks a dialogue between the countryside and modernist architecture

Generic hotel rooms and boring breakfast buffets don’t make for the most rejuvenating vacations. Sweeping, scenic surroundings and eye-popping, imaginative accommodations, on the other hand? Now that’s a holiday.

FIRM / MOLE ARCHITECTS, MVRDV PROJECT TYPE / VACATION RENTAL LOCATION / SUFFOLK, UK PHOTOGRAPHER / CHRIS WRIGHT

Originally MVRDV considered colored rubber façades.

Eventually the stainless cladding was chosen to reflect local farm building materials and literally reflect the changing colors of the site.

Dutch firm MVRDV, in collaboration with Mole Architects, had that in mind when they dreamed up a one-of-a-kind vacation destination in Suffolk, England. The Balancing Barn, as they dubbed the unexpected structure perched on a rural English hilltop, came about as a project for Living Architecture, a social enterprise dedicated to creating architecturally striking modern holiday rental properties. “The idea was to reclaim the countryside by creating an outstanding modern home

that would engage its surroundings in a beneficial dialogue,” says Mole project architect Ian Bramwell.

That dialogue turned out to be a decidedly unique one. With gleaming steel exteriors reflecting the natural setting, a playful juxtaposition of modern and rustic styles, and innovative engineering that sets half the house floating perilously over the slope of the hilltop, the design more than met Living Architecture’s not-for-profit goal of promoting inspired modern architecture. To achieve the daring design, the architects worked with Jane Wernick Associates to calculate how much vibration the building could take (“slightly more than in an office but much less than in a bridge”) considering its unusual 50-foot cantilever.

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The building is designed as 10 roughly 10-footlong bays, each about 23 feet wide. Five bays sit on the ground with the concrete floor acting as a counterweight restraining five bays cantilevering out over the lower landscape

A ground source heat pump provides hot water and heating, while rainwater is recycled and used in toilets. Fresh water is sourced from a well and borehole on-site.

Ecolog ica l considerations also came into play as the property sits on the edge of a nature reserve. “An extensive ecological mitigation program was undertaken, with slow worms, grass snakes, newts, and bats all requiring temporary re-hom(...CONTINUED)

ing,” Bramwell says. Non-native trees and plants were removed and native tree species were replanted to attract wildlife and recreate extensive meadow areas in the landscape.

Even with all of the house’s statement-making features, though,

Bramwell says one original detail stands out above the rest: “The addition of the swing to the underside of the cantilever has to be the best detail,” she says. “It brings the cantilever into focus and is a witty take on the playful nature of the building.”

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School of Style The School of the Art Institute’s new student center grows out of creative input from the entire campus community

FIRM / VALERIO DEWALT TRAIN PROJECT TYPE / STUDENT CENTER LOCATION / CHICAGO, IL PHOTOGRAPHY / COURTESY OF VALERIO DEWALT TRAIN

The center now houses student galleries, studios, lab spaces, event spaces, student government offices, and campus life offices, among other things

“When art is the main focus, the space has to be ‘background,’” architect Mark Dewalt of Chicago’s Valerio Dewalt Train Associates says. Art may have been the main focus at the prestigious School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s new LeRoy Neiman student center, but Dewalt and his colleagues poured plenty of passion into that “background” too.

The 40,000-square-foot renovation located in the city’s downtown Loop offers students, faculty, and staff a muchneeded home base, complete with dining, office, classroom, and gallery space.

Housed in the first two floors of the historic Sharp Building, a brick tower designed by legendary architects William

Holabird and Martin Roche, the center consolidated school functions that had previously been scattered in buildings across the city into one central hub.

Since it’s for an art school, the multipurpose facility needed flexibility, so the project incorporated a minimal amount of fixed walls. “Galleries are always white boxes. Our challenge was to create a white box that was sculptural and had great vitality and was welcoming,” Dewalt says. The project team consulted with various members of the campus community throughout the planning and design process, hosted work sessions and presentations, and attended classes and (CONTINUED...)

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Custom light fixtures were a favorite detail for Dewalt. “Since the project had to be gallery-neutral, we used the ceiling to add some design,” he says. “The large format tiles with the custom pendant lights that hang through the openings give the ceiling a threedimensional quality.”

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SAIC traded part of the Sharp Building’s first floor with an adjacent 50-story condo tower in exchange for several floors of classrooms and private graduate studios in the tower

campus events to get a better sense of the school’s culture. Renovation work included repairing floor slabs, installing new mechanical systems, and rebuilding the storefront system that faces the street. A monumental staircase was added to improve circulation and flow.

The result is bright and open, and while it ties together formerly separate aspects of the school, it also stands out.

“Sometimes I think that there is a default reaction to academic facilities based on Jefferson’s design for the University of Virginia, which integrated a number of buildings around a single space presenting a unified whole. This isn’t the only answer,” VDTA principal Joe Valerio says. “In a dense urban core, a homogeneous design contradicts the energy of the city.” (...CONTINUED)

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Going Public Swiss artists Sabina Lang and Daniel Baumann create installations that change the way people engage with space

FIRM / LANG AND BAUMANN PHOTOGRAPHY / COURTESY OF LANG AND BAUMANN

Lang and Baumann’s Spiral #3—Of Bridges and Borders, Valparaiso, Chile

You can’t put a label on Lang and Baumann.

The wide range of category-defying works they’ve created since partnering in 1990 inject whimsy and wonder into the built environment, challenging the public to interact with old space in new ways. We chat with them about blurring the boundaries between art and architecture.

DB: How do you select your sites?

Daniel Baumann: We mostly get invited to create work at a specific site or in a specific room. We also have the opportunity to look for sites that fascinate us. For instance, we did “Spiral #3” for Valparaiso, Chile, after being invited to design a work somewhere in the city. We liked the idea of using an element that’s really typical in this city—there are several of these elevators and their structures are visible in the skyline—and creating a temporary work on this strange platform.

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Top: Lang and Baumann’s Street Painting #7, 2013, in Rennes, France.

Bottom: Beautiful Steps #4 (Arles), 2013, in Arles, France

(...CONTINUED)

DB: What types of architecture and environments inspire you?

Sabina Lang: Often we’re attracted by something, such as architecture, topography, or other elements, that is very present or well known, but which the inhabitants or users don’t really appreciate or look at anymore. We love to focus on forgotten things.

DB: You’ve said that you consider yourselves to be artists that use elements of architecture and design in your work. What’s the difference between art and architecture?

SL: We believe that architecture is something that is built to be used. It requires a user, inhabitant or visitor. We use elements of architecture in our work not because we are looking for a user, but because they remind the viewer about something that is familiar to him or her and add an immediate relation to his or her scale.

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Look to the Light A Massachusetts temple is reborn as a center of light and community

FIRM / MARYANN THOMPSON ARCHITECTS PROJECT TYPE / HOUSE OF WORSHIP LOCATION / GLOUSTER, MA PHOTOGRAPHER / CHUCK CHOI

The sanctuary is designed to be sectioned off into smaller spaces to accommodate differentsized congregations throughout the year

Several years after a devastating fire burned Temple Ahavat Achim to the ground, architect Maryann Thompson and her team rebuilt the house of worship in Glouster, Massachusetts, with a design that centers on light.

The concept plays out in different ways throughout the space. In the intricate unfolding structure of the entryway, a brick screen creates an indoor/outdoor courtyard filled with dappled light. “It’s really beautiful, the light comes through the bricks in a way that’s almost like light through leaves,” Thompson says.

Inside, large story windows top the second-floor sanctuary’s soaring, 22-foot bamboo walls. “When you’re in the sanctuary you can see the clouds and the library steeple and you have the connection back to the town and to nature

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and to the light,” Thompson says. The effect is one that straddles the public and private qualities a community place of worship demands: “The building is trying to address that fine line between being introspective and extroverted.”

With ocean views and sound-absorbing panels modeled after the built-in acoustical systems of old symphony halls, the sanctuary space includes some of the architect’s favorite details, as well.

Though the new temple’s more modern aesthetic initially stirred some controversy in the traditional New England community, the building is now featured on the historic town’s architecture walking tour. And the mahogany front door—the only piece of the original structure Thompson’s team could salvage—once again welcomes the temple’s congregants inside.

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RECLAMATION LUMBER, LLC Maryann Thompson recently designed another enlightening space for a different type of congregation: scientists in the making. The Temple Ahavat Achim architect created a new science building designed to inspire the students at the Foote School in New Haven, Connecticut. Thompson worked with Reclamation Lumber LLC to integrate salvaged wood into the new space. The Connecticutbased wood manufacturing operation specializes in antique and reclaimed lumber for paneling, beams, and millwork. “Our extensive experience in the lumber industry and building trade prior to getting involved in the antique lumber business gave us greater insights into the fabrication and design challenges of such a unique material,” says Reclamation Lumber managing member Robert Fecke. “That background allowed us to help [Maryann Thompson Architects] evolve their aesthetic and structural needs.”

The temple’s southfacing orientation helps with energy flow and helps Thompson create a passive solar building

LOOK TO THE LIGHT

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The museum was funded as part of the City of Manhattan’s Downtown Redevelopment Project, through the city’s STAR (Sales Tax and Revenue) Bond program

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The museum houses science and history exhibits, a theater, gift shop, café, classroom space, and more

Pride of the Prairie The design of a Kansas museum celebrates the natural beauty of the state’s prairies

FIRM / VERNER JOHNSON PROJECT TYPE / MUSEUM LOCATION / MANHATTAN, KS PHOTOGRAPHER / SAM FENTRESS

W hen ma na g ing principa l Brad Nederhoff and his colleagues were sharing their plans to equip the new Flint Hills Discovery Center’s distinctive central glass cylinder with a programmable colored light system, the mayor of Manhattan, Kansas, had one question: Could the cylinder lights shine in Kansas State University purple?

The Verner Johnson architects assured the mayor that the feature could, in fact, celebrate the local university’s colors—and that would be only one of the building’s many imaginative details.

Inspired by the colors, textures, and landscapes of the state’s Flint Hills prairie, the Discovery Center’s curving design would be the anchor of an extensive city improvement plan that would include a new hotel, convention center, entertainment spaces, and retail.

“They wanted something that was iconic and of significance visually. It became sort of a gateway building. When

you enter the city, you drive across a bridge and then at the end of the bridge is the building. It’s the first thing you see,” Nederhoff says. “So we wanted to make something that was a strong statement and that was emblematic not only of the museum but also of the city.”

Using local limestone to recall the natural forms of the region—the country’s last remaining tall grass prairie—Nederhoff and project architect Jonathan Kharfen created a series of undulating plateaus, connected by ramps and stairways. Museum exhibits were designed with a similar mindset by Hilferty & Associates. The glass entry cylinder also followed nature’s lead, its various blue tones echoing the water that once covered the landscape.

“One of the things we did was blur the lines between where the building starts and where the site starts,” Nederhoff says. “It appears to grow out of the site.”

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Young at Home Architect Jeff Zimmerman creates innovative housing for a new generation of active seniors

FIRM / ZIMMERMAN & ASSOCIATES PROJECT TYPE / SENIOR HOUSING LOCATION / OAKLAND, CA RENDERINGS / COURTESY OF ZIMMERMAN & ASSOCIATES

Zimmerman says his design for the development centers on self-sufficiency and sustainability for the senior residents both economically and environmentally

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“Not everybody goes to play golf or sips tea and plays bridge [when they get older],” according to architect Jeff Zimmerman. That’s why Zimmerman, along with his California-based firm Zimmerman & Associates, is in the process of envisioning architecturally smart alternatives to address the needs of a population living longer than ever.

Renderings for the Phoenix Commons senior community, in permitting at press time, show a thoughtful design that features ample space for much-needed socialization.

“Social atrophy is a big killer with seniors today. Light and air in buildings lifts the soul, and modern architecture embraces openness better than any other style. Allowing the units to open to both circulation and community spaces invites interaction,” Zimmerman says.

“In these f lats with large glazing on each end, one can move from public to

private within 30 feet. The circulation system is open to the elements and has niches where people can stop, chat, and rest. It all leads to the waterfront, where abundant communal spaces allow for community to exist. It’s architecture as a social art.”

Set to open in fall 2014, the 60,000-square-foot structure emphasizes group input, incorporating non-bearing partitions that residents will ultimately arrange in coordination with the design team; an open floor plate dotted with a community kitchen, bathrooms, and exits; and more than 40 efficient living units.

“I have been designing senior projects since the mid ’80s and we have really come a long way. It used to be just concrete block bomb shelters called nursing homes,” Zimmerman says. “The cohousing model comes from the Danes, the happiest people on the planet.”

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Overland Park, KS

MUSEUM ARCHITECTS & PLANNERS “The building itself will be an icon for decades to come. New structures of this significance are rarely created, and when they are, they are seen as representations of the values of a whole community or region.”

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Designing modern structures for tomorrow’s landscape.

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THE BLUEPRINTS

Where do you think architecture is headed in the future?

“O

ur world has become too generic and architects need to find inspiration locally. Cities everywhere should look different, but I’m afraid with large international competitions and the world wide web flooding our minds with imagery from elsewhere, that skylines are becoming too similar. I hope that the future of architecture celebrates the uniqueness—not sameness—and that cultural elements are embedded in the buildings we create.”

– David Yustin, Zacharko Yustin, p. 173

“Architecture, like fashion and art, is always going through transitions, albeit much slower moving. Every few years we see a lot of people in architecture jumping on the next design trend.

For us, good architecture is about staying culturally relevant, while still having authenticity. The architecture of today and tomorrow will feel fresh and exciting, but still have a sense of permanence, and not feel dated in five to 10 years time.”

– Christian Schulz, Studio Collective, p. 92

“There’s every indication that people expect more from buildings and architecture, the more they see what is possible.

Architecture is getting better and better: more energy efficient, more exciting, and more thought put into the design of cities.

I’m optimistic!”

– Meredith Bowles Mole Architects, p. 103

“Towards a greater sense of emotional meaning.”

– John Marx, Form4, p. 166

“Computer technology has changed the face of what’s possible in design so profoundly that it’s hard to predict what next technological innovation will alter the built environment and how. Perhaps we’ll be massproducing buildings on 3-D printers!”

– Terry Kleinberg, Terry Kleinberg Architect, p.115

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Revive Some might have looked at these buildings as lost causes. But the right designers and architects see endless possibilities.

Whether injecting a tired design with new life or restoring a beloved landmark to its original glory, these projects illustrate a spirit of resourcefulness crucial to rehab projects.

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Lessons in Design A former Manhattan warehouse finds new life as the first campus of a progressive, international school

FIRM / PERKINS EASTMAN & BONETTI/KOZERSKI STUDIO PROJECT TYPE / PRIVATE SCHOOL LOCATION / NEW YORK, NY PHOTOGRAPHER / CHRIS COOPER

A progressive school for pre-K through 12th-grade students, Avenues: The World School in New York City was designed with today’s students in mind

Tucked along Manhattan’s celebrated High Line park, a 205,000-square-foot former warehouse now holds a very different kind of worker: pre-K through 12th-grade students. The building is the first campus for the innovative Avenues: The World School private school organization. Architects Perkins Eastman and interiors studio Bonetti/Kozerski joined forces for the ambitious transformation.

Their respective project leads, Christine Schlendorf of Perkins Eastman and Enrico Bonetti of Bonetti/Kozerski, share how they turned yesterday’s industrial facility into the school of tomorrow.

DB: Avenues is a new school model.

How does the design of its Manhattan school reflect that?

Enrico Bonetti: The direction from Avenues was to design a school that would be custom-made to the teaching requirements. A big component of contemporary teaching is the use of technology, already underway, in smaller increments, in other schools. But most of the time technology is added as a retrofit, atop an existing structure based on a 1950s model of education.

In designing Avenues, we tried to start from scratch, repositioning every functional element one by one and cleaning the field of components that are obsolete. For instance, classrooms in most schools are loaded with visual clutter that pollutes an environment that should foster creative learning. We cleaned up the spaces by creating several hidden storage locations and plenty (CONTINUED...)

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of organized displays. In this respect, only what is supposed to be seen—as a reference, model, or inspiration—is visible, while supplies and other logistics are hidden from view.

(...CONTINUED)

DB: What impact does that streamlined design have on the students?

EB: A lot of effort went into creating a calm and coherent space. We tried to keep all the details quiet; while every element is there for a specific functional reason we decided not to advertise its role. We are creating the settings for a great education and the architecture should be a supporting actor, not the main attraction.

Avenues’ direction was to have the students spend a little more time outside the classrooms every year. To this end, we created various configurations of public seating spaces. In the simplest layout we have a few desks and stools, in other locations we have armchairs and later banquettes with café style tables, evolving floor by floor into something more elaborate, since students move up the floors of the building as they progress from grade to grade.

DB: How does the design respond to the age of the students?

Christine Schlendorf: Since Avenues is pre-K through 12, we had to compose four different schools underneath one roof. We strived to give each school its own central space by subtracting from the existing historical building. We removed floor slabs in different areas, creating double-story spaces pertinent to each school. This is where students are able to congregate and sit informally with colleagues and teachers. The third-floor cafeteria brings all of the schools together in one unique place: Connected to the main entrance on 10th Avenue by a wide staircase, it doubles as a study common and opens directly to a balcony overlooking (CONTINUED...) the High Line.

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DB: How did the High Line and the Manhattan setting impact the design?

CS: The High Line was the inspiration for the grand entry stair connecting the lobby on 10th Avenue to the trees of the High Line at the third floor. The third floor has the tallest floor-to-ceiling height in the building. For this reason, it was the natural choice to locate the school’s dining and common areas. These facilities have views onto the park and access to the building terrace that runs along the High Line. This terrace is the old train platform for the building, which once operated as a wholesale grocery warehouse.

DB: How does the architecture speak to the building’s new use?

CS: Schools need to be built to last, but also built to adapt to changing pedagogies.

The design needs to be flexible, allowing spaces to be used differently from year to year to accommodate population growth, curriculum changes, and technological advancements. Schools also need to be durable. Children are active by nature and a school needs to be designed to withstand that type of use. Schools are also public buildings that can serve as the center of the community, and so they want to be inviting, but still secure. Balancing these ideas, which at times can seem at odds with one another, is one of the wonderful challenges of designing schools.

The designers worked closely with the Avenues creative director Andy Clayman and graphic designer Susan Hochbaum on graphics for the new school. All signage is tri-lingual and etched on walls and doorways.

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Fire & Ice From its folklore to its fields of lava, Iceland inspires a new hotel for adventurous travelers

Elves and trolls generally aren’t a concern for architects embarking on a new project.

But Erla Dögg Ingjaldsdóttir and her husband and partner Tryggvi Thorsteinsson, of Santa Monica’s Minarc architecture, were careful to keep the creatures in mind when they transformed a former corporate housing facility into Iceland’s ION Hotel.

“The history that lives in the nature, elves, and trolls and the superstition that Icelanders have learned to live with are very important to us and we would never take nature for granted,” Erla says. “You never know what the elves would do…”

Folklore wasn’t the only inspiration the duo tapped from (...CONTINUED)

FIRM / MINARC PROJECT TYPE / HOTEL LOCATION / ICELAND PHOTOGRAPHER / TORFI AGNARRSON, RAGNAR TH. SIGURĐSSON, ART GRAY

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The hotel’s Northern Lights bar uses double-height, floor-to-ceiling windows to provide unobstructed views of its namesake natural phenomenon

ARCTIC PLANK In keeping with the project’s theme of adaptive reuse, the Minarc designers partnered with Hogni Stefan of Arctic Plank to create tables made from reclaimed wood shipping pallets.

The Iceland-based company salvages and repurposes wood for projects of every shape

the hotel’s epic natural surroundings. Perched on the edge of a UNESCO World Heritage-listed national park, the structure is sandwiched between the remote lava field beneath it and, when conditions are right, the shimmering aurora borealis above, features Erla and Tryggvi showcased in their design. Large picture windows in each room offer striking views of Lake Thingvallavatn and the surrounding mountains. Images of Icelandic wildlife adorn the walls. Black corrugated

and size. “We have done flooring, wall coverings, and furniture, as well as cabins and other interiors for restaurants, hotels, and private homes,” Stefan says. “We see the benefit of using reclaimed wood as giving life to something that would otherwise be thrown away.”

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sheet metal wraps the hotel’s exterior to emulate flowing lava.

“We wanted to make sure that wherever you are you feel that you are outside in nature,” Erla says. “It fits with nature in color and texture rather than imposing on it.”

Originally, the building on the site housed workers for a nearby power plant. Minarc renovated the existing

structure and expanded it into a luxury hotel, adding 22 rooms. Inside, Erla and Tryggvi utilized reclaimed tables, and chairs and couches made from recycled wood. The hotel’s bold exterior details (a cantilevered glass box, concrete finishes, and history-inspired supporting pillars among them) are all the more daring against the scenic and storied landscape—elves, trolls, and all.

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A New Brew A historic San Antonio brewer’s cottage is transformed into a hip new BBQ joint By John F. Rizor

The legacy of San Antonio’s Pearl Brewery can be traced back to 1881, when it was founded as the second brewery in the city. After decades of service as a working brewery, Pearl was decommissioned in 2001, leaving a sprawling, defunct campus with a bevy of empty building stock in San Antonio’s urban core. Silver Ventures bought the 22-acre parcel with the intent to create a dynamic culinary and cultural destination for locals and tourists alike. The former home of chief cooper Ernst Mueller is one of the latest developments in the 12year process, becoming the “new” home for The Granary Cue N’ Brew restaurant.

The Granary is a working artifact: It’s both a piece of Pearl history and a sign of new progress. The historic home was adapted for its new use as a restaurant/brewery by architect Kristin Hefty of the San Antonio-based (CONTINUED...)

FIRM / DADO GROUP PROJECT TYPE / ADAPTIVE REUSE LOCATION / SAN ANTONIO, TX PHOTOGRAPHER / RYANN FORD PHOTOGRAPHY

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A NEW BREW

Local artists were hired for the custom wood tables and chairs, lighting, murals, and artworks used in the restaurant

Dado Group to serve this new urban community and its influx of residents. What sets The Granary apart, however, is the balance it has struck between preservation and progress.

The existing Mueller House had no working utilities, its interiors were worn and outdated, and the configuration of spaces was not suitable for res(...CONTINUED)

taurant needs. Dado Group wrapped the new kitchen, dining porch, and screened porch around three sides of the house. The contemporary structure is constructed of bricks salvaged from a dismantled west Texas mercantile warehouse, while the side dining porch is a modern, simple interpretation of the historic front porch.

To showcase the restaurant’s commitment to the community, Dado Group also worked with local artists, including glassblower Jake Zollie Harper, who designed the restaurant’s lighting; artist Amada Miller, who created the exterior mural; wood artist Rain Gilbert, who designed and fabricated custom tables and chairs; and artist Greg Mannino, who consulted on the color and décor and art production. In a complex characterized by new construction, the Granary has energized an otherwise dilapidated home into a vibrant new environment that balances the site’s historic past with a fresh, contemporary vibe.

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Peter and Scott‌ are frank and earnest.

Fulcrum Contracting, Inc.

(307) 739-1833

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FULCRUM CONTRACTING, INC. Before this project even got under way, it became apparent that the existing foundation was not going to be adequate for the new house. So Fulcrum Contracting, Inc. developed and oversaw the entire project, from initially lifting the entire house to forming and pouring the new foundation beneath it.

“And that was just the beginning,” says Peter Wood, vice president of operations. “The entire project is a series of custom built structural elements, starting with the full walk-out basement foundations under all three buildings, a second floor garage above the guest suite, inverted butterfly roofs, and a series of landscaped green roofs—and that’s just the outside. Inside, Wood and his team were tasked with integrating the original post-and-beam detail into the new structure.

Finishes include venetian plaster walls, bamboo plank ceilings, and an underground wine cellar.

But Wood’s favorite detail is the hand rail. “I am particularly pleased

Rugged Remodel Ward + Blake Architects refreshed a Wyoming residence without compromising its original features

FIRM / WARD + BLAKE ARCHITECTS PROJECT TYPE / RESIDENTIAL REMODEL LOCATION / WILSON, WY PHOTOGRAPHY / COURTESY OF WARD + BLAKE ARCHITECTS

A seamless transformation from bachelor pad to spacious family abode requires careful consideration and a healthy dose of creativity. And that’s just what the architects at Ward + Blake Architects delivered at this rustic Wyoming residence.

The remodel was meant to update and expand the 1980s home, without forfeiting its distinctive character.

“The owners had deep regard for the land and the original house,” Ward + Blake principal Tom Ward says.

Accordingly, the project emphasized original details and maintained the same scale as the original structure.

The site presented a challenge as the floor plan is situated on a plateau just below the edge of the road above, leaving only one area for the new addition. New foundations were added to stabilize the existing structure before constructing the addition.

Inside, the Ward + Blake team added a master bedroom and office suite, garage, and mother-in-law suite to the existing house. Interior details in the remodel included tongue-and-groove ceilings, end-grain fir floors, as well as a dramatic new kitchen for its “foodie” homeowners.

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The property’s “rain screen” exterior cladding was one of Jones’ favorite details.

“There is no visible flashing or gutters to clutter the forms,” Jones says. “Exhaust grilles, air intakes, and privacy screens are laser cut directly into the cladding.”

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Winter Wonderland An Arizona architect embraces the snow when designing the addition to a Montana retreat

FIRM / JONES STUDIO PROJECT TYPE / RESIDENTIAL ADDITION LOCATION / MISSOULA, MT PHOTOGRAPHER / MARK BRYANT

Having a client that happens to be a pilot with his own jet comes in handy when you’re a Phoenix-based architect and the house you’re designing is located in Missoula, Montana.

It’s a commute Eddie Jones made often while he designed a two-building addition to the homeowners’ residence.

“Owning [another] house in Scottsdale frequently put [the client] in Arizona, increasing opportunities for me to hitch a ride,” Jones says. Set against 80 acres of forest and mountain scenery, the existing house and its simple pitched pavilion roof forms struck Jones as an inspiring starting point. The couple’s adventurous enthusiasm further fueled the creative fire. Jones created a dramatic “living pavilion” first, then a new freestanding garage. Finally, the house was renovated with (CONTINUED...)

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LENTZ CONSTRUCTION As general contractor and project manager on the Starwood residence, Lentz Construction manager Dan Haffey had a number of “firsts.” “Most of the exterior detailing was a first for us as well as for architect Eddie [Jones],” says Haffey. “It would be hard to pick just one favorite detail as there are so many, but I would start with the stainless steel Bermuda roof.”

guest rooms on the ground floor and a master suite upstairs.

“Light and views were everything,” Jones says. “Foreground views of the thick forest positioned the more private, secluded program and distant mountain views are primarily for the public spaces and master.”

Outside, the living pavilion’s glimmering stainless steel roof is meant to reflect the sheen of winter snowfall. (CONTINUED...)

(...CONTINUED)

With so much glass used in the design, energy calculations were a challenge.

As one part of the solution, the house is now heated by radiant flooring.

Overhangs and cross ventilation passively cool the interior in the summer months.

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INNOVATIVE, SUSTAINABLE, EFFICIENT BUILDING SOLUTIONS Artfully integrated landscaping and architecture 615 Oak | Missoula, MT | Tel: (406)721.3300 | Fax: (406)721.0078

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Inside the clients wanted plenty of color, while a desire for minimal maintenance dictated the exterior

The surroundings amplified the impact of the construction’s massive glass expanses as well.

For Jones, the end result was well worth the trek. Working with local contractor John Lentz and a team of subcontractors, the architect found more perks in Missoula than he was expecting. The remote site, he says, came complete with deer, flocks of turkey, icicles, and perhaps best of all? Snow days. (...CONTINUED)

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City Living A New Jersey couple’s chic city abode gets an urban upgrade

FIRM / TERRY KLEINBERG ARCHITECT PROJECT TYPE / APARTMENT REMODEL LOCATION / NEW YORK, NY PHOTOGRAPHER / BRETT BEYER

Operable windows that opened within an inch of the ceiling presented a challenge as they weren’t compatible with most window covering hardware systems. Full-height Vertical Wave fabric slats solved the problem.

With a house in New Jersey and work that brought them into downtown Manhattan often, architect Terry Kleinberg’s clients were looking for a place to stay on their frequent visits to New York City. The new empty nesters needed space and storage, but wanted a more sophisticated, airy, and urban look than their other homes.

“It’s contemporary, fresh, and uncluttered, but it’s not bland,” Kleinberg says of the apartment’s new look. “The furniture and accessories provide a counterpoint to the more minimalist architecture and were selected for their color, shape, and texture.”

Kleinberg eliminated some walls, opened up the kitchen, and used light colors and unadorned details to make the apartment feel more spacious. For the couple’s things, she made use of “dead corners” in the kitchen, incorporated carefully planned closets, and selected furniture that doubled as storage space wherever possible.

Contemporary details like a translucent polymer dining table that appears to float, reflective surfaces, and a distinctive tile backsplash in the kitchen keep the apartment feeling fresh and open.

Though the unit is in a distinctive 1952 building that overlooks the East River, Kleinberg says the interior details were dated and not worth preserving: “We changed all doors, door frames, base moldings, flooring, lighting, etc., in order to create a totally new aesthetic.”

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Gunn Landscape Architecture (212) 988-7065 info@gunnlandscapes.com

345 7th Avenue New York NY 10001

26 Cedar Lane Remsenburg NY 11960

gunnlandscapes.com

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FIRM / DEBORAH BERKE PARTNERS PROJECT TYPE / RESIDENTIAL ADDITION LOCATION / WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NY PHOTOGRAPHER / JASON SCHMIDT

On the home’s exterior, Berke used dark mahogany, warm white stucco, and gray zinc roofing

Mad for Mod A new addition enlivens a 1960s residence

Trendy TV dramas and fashion runways have fueled a 1960s renaissance in popular culture, but nostalgic recreations can’t compete with original style.

That’s what architect Deborah Berke had to work with when she reinvigorated a mod 1960s masterpiece in Westchester County, New York.

The existing 6,500-square-foot stucco and concrete structure got a major update without compromising its inherent exterior character when Berke and her team added a complementary two-story addition on the east side. That feature allowed for an eat-in kitchen that connects not only to the adjacent office and living space but also the scenic grounds through wall-spanning windows.

“We were inspired by the lush site that surrounds the house and reimagined the 1960s plan so that the landscape plays an active role in the living experience,” Berke says. “The addition, for example, created new opportunities to connect light and views to our sequence of flowing spaces.”

To embrace the open, loft-like feel the homeowner sought, Berke added details such as a frameless, acid-etched glass panel between the kitchen and the entryway, and a free-standing, rosewood entry closet, that divided spaces without confining them.

“This project is all about modern, serene living,” Berke says.

Light gray limestone extends from the floor of the main public areas to the exterior terraces, while wide-board oak covers the floors in the private spaces

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FIRM / KEVIN KENNON ARCHITECTS PROJECT TYPE / RETAIL RESTORATION LOCATION / NEW YORK, NY IMAGES / DONNA DOTAN (PHOTOS), KEVIN KENNON ARCHITECTS (RENDERINGS)

Kennon calls the renovation “conservative and restrained” as his team has aimed to let the buildings’ original historic condition to shine through

Miracle on 34th Street An iconic retail flagship shows off its new goods—a major restoration

With shoppers and tourists bustling through its doors year-round, the flagship Macy’s in Manhattan’s Herald Square can’t exactly close for renovations, which forced architect Kevin Kennon and others who came onboard to get creative. The team was brought on to restore the landmark 1902 building back to its original glory, restoring the flagship’s exterior and entryways.

“These projects are usually done in kind of a hodgepodge fashion, simply because the store is always open.

Unfortunately, over time it can look a little inconsistent,” Kennon says.

“What we tried to do was celebrate the idiosyncrasies of the particular façades and entries and vestibules [that had been updated in different phases in the past], but at the same time try to give them a consistent language that was closer to the original condition without necessarily being slavish to it.”

The design team consulted local heritage groups before starting the phased renovation of the (CONTINUED...)

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Removing a canopy in the store’s original main entrance, the architects made the space double height and showcased the original archway.

A photo by Donna Dotan shows the new façade.

EMPIRE ARCHITECTURAL METAL & GLASS Empire Architectural Metal & Glass fabricated and installed custom ornamental metal and glass at Macy’s Herald Square.

From glass guardrails and architectural wire mesh inside to antique windows and bronze doors outside, the firm worked with Kevin Kennon Architects on all aspects of the job from design to completion.

“We consider it a great honor to be chosen for such an iconic location and paid very close attention to the specific details,” says Empire’s president and CEO Val Frankola.

National Register-listed complex. Clerestory windows that had long been hidden by granite panels were restored, bringing light and interest to the store’s mezzanine. Inside, the main Broadway street vestibule was clad in bronze, glass, and marble to complement similar touches throughout the store’s interior. An inch-thick layer of decadesold paint was removed, and Kennon and (...CONTINUED)

his team used a vibrant custom metalflake paint to return accents to their original bronze color.

“Macy’s itself is now a city icon, and with a building like that you have to recover the essential qualities that made it what it is, [qualities] that might have been lost over the years, plastered or painted over,” Kennon says.

By integrating new multipurpose LED screens throughout the design and adding other updated features as the process moves forward, Kennon hopes not only to restore the store’s historic character, but also to freshen up its look and create a more consistent feel for Macy’s loyal customers. “The real test will be this Thanksgiving when the parade actually stops in front of the new building, which will be illuminated in a different way,” Kennon says. “That image in particular represents what this is all about.”

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Heart of the House Forget the family room, the hub for this New York home is its cozy new kitchen

The addition bumped out the house’s footprint.

Rather than create an additional interior space below the second-story kitchen, Fivecat designed an outdoor patio, flanked by archways that give the space the feeling of an enclosed room.

Without a traditional family room, the homeowner of this Westchester County abode was looking to emphasize the most social room in her house: the kitchen. As a result, Fivecat Studio’s team reimagined the space, doubling the size of the existing kitchen and dividing it into two: A working space and a kid-friendly eating area that doubles as a place for creative projects and playtime for the client’s daughter.

“This is sort of the central hub of her house now where she can spend a lot of her work time and social time,” Mark LePage, a partner at the firm, says. The homeowner was very involved with color and material choices throughout the renovation process. Gleaming subway tiles, banquette table seating, custom cabinetry, an island topped with a thick butcher’s block, and other details give the new kitchen design a fresh look within context, LePage says.

“The style was intended to work with the more traditional style of the house,” LePage says. “But it did have a modern edge.”

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CROWN POINT CABINETRY This home was one of many collaborations for Fivecat Studio and Crown Point Cabinetry. “It was a perfect partnership of Fivecat’s architectural talents and our design skills and attention to detail,” says Crown Point Cabinetry senior designer Carole Stevens.

The family-owned custom cabinetry shop collaborated with Fivecat on a variety of innovative solutions for the kitchen, including strategically placed storage for cooking utensils and recycling, deep drawers for linen storage, and a broom cabinet.

FIRM / FIVECAT STUDIO PROJECT TYPE / RESIDENTIAL ADDITION LOCATION / WESTCHESTER, NY PHOTOGRAPHER / SCOTT LEPAGE

Despite the area’s dense population, the property’s heavily treed backyard feels private, a sense the team amplified in thekitchen with lots of windows and light

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Take Two An architect returns for a refresh of a contemporary cottage he designed 25 years earlier

More than two decades after KSQ Architects’ David Short first designed a contemporary cottage in a historic Oklahoma neighborhood, he was asked to give it a second look. The homeowners wanted a fresh twist on Short’s original

FIRM / KSQ ARCHITECTS PROJECT TYPE / RESIDENTIAL REMODEL LOCATION / OKLAHOMA PHOTOGRAPHER / MELISSA LUKENBAUGH

The dark stairwell leading to the thirdfloor master suite was lightened up with a new dormer window

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1988 plans, so the architect removed interior walls to create a more open feel, added a pool and outdoor living space, and replaced a breakfast nook with a custom curved kitchen counter to fit the already dramatic doublevolume ceiling.

“As an infill in a historic neighborhood, this home feels both slightly modern and yet at home among bungalows and colonial-inspired architecture that’s more than 100 years old,” Short says. “The home features symmetry, clean lines, and little surprises, like the cupola-style skylights on the second and

third levels, which lend an almost nautical feel to the home.”

The outdoor space the homeowners requested bucked neighborhood tradition, placing entertaining space alongside a new pool and water feature, in the area of the property typically reserved for the garage. From the dining room, the homeowners and their guests can now see directly to the double-sided fireplace outside thanks to the remodeled kitchen’s new sightlines.

“It’s a nice symmetrical feature that is really pleasing to the eye,” Short says.

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TAKING DESIGN TO NEW HEIGHTS.

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We Didn’t Inven t L uxur y,

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THE BLUEPRINTS

What was the first structure you ever designed?

“F

or my fourth-grade French class we were to draw our own homes and describe them in front of the class in French. I drew the home of my dreams at that time—my own version of an International Style home, spanning like a bridge over a running stream— instead of my family’s builderesque French Provincial home. I described in fractured French this very unusual abode, which was unlike any my classmates had ever seen in Oklahoma. My teacher was very curious where our home was, and I proceeded to break down in tears and tell all. She said she appreciated my honesty. Then I remember her saying something like ‘That is a really amazing home you drew.’”

– Brian Freese, Freese Architecture, p. 29

“It was technically a fort. My sister and I would spend hours as children devising ways to create our own space. We managed to utilize every cushion and pillow in the house in order to transform my parents’ bedroom into a catacomb of tiny tunnels and rooms.”

– Leslie Kale, Studio Collective, p. 92

“The interiors of the Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay. It contains a 2,000-seat lyric theater and concert hall.

Three years of my life went into this early on in my career. I was very fortunate to have worked on such an innovative building.”

– Hilary Lancaster, Fusion Interiors Group, p. 94

“A church I designed when I was about 15. I found the drawings recently—It was great to see how confident I was at that age!

I wouldn’t say it was any good, but showed a good grasp of threedimensional form and a hankering after making something stylish.”

– Meredith Bowles , Mole Architects, p. 104

“A grocery store using wooden alphabet blocks. I was in kindergarten!”

– Eddie Jones, Jones Studio, p. 144

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Details Grand cathedrals and cloud-busting skyscrapers may have earned accolades throughout history for their ambitious scope, but it’s attention to detail that sets these great buildings apart.

The whole is nothing if not the sum and celebration of its carefully chosen parts. And, luckily for us, these firms chose those parts very carefully.

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Work of Art With the vision of an artist and the precision of an architect, John Marx elevates his San Francisco home by adding creative details

When architect and painter John Marx was designing a house for himself and his family, a creative approach was a must.

After all, the San Francisco property had been home to artists for decades.

FIRM / FORM4 ARCHITECTURE PROJECT TYPE / RESIDENTIAL LOCATION / SAN FRANCISCO, CA PHOTOGRAPHER / BRUCE DAMONTE

Architect and painter John Marx gave his 1907 home a fresh perspective by adding features like dichroic glass windows that channel the works of Dutch artist Piet Mondrian

Marx, of Form4 Architecture, renovated the 1907 residence accordingly: paintings by four generations of Marxes (including the architect’s father, grandfather, his wife, his daughter, and his own work) line the living area walls, the inspiring ocean views are framed with dichroic glass windows, and bright colors are splashed throughout the space.

In fact, it was a piece Marx had created back in 1988—a colorful geometric watercolor, painted in a similar style as the work of Dutch artist Piet Mondrian—that sparked his initial vision for the house.

“I thought that style would be the perfect bridge between the old house, which is sort of arts and crafts, and something very modern,” Marx says.

“So it allows us to have bright colors and interesting patterns and to sneak a little bit of modern and a little bit of traditional in at the same time.”

A bay-view statement window in the living room draws from that original painting. Color-blocked in glazed yellow, blue, and orange panes, it works with the room’s painted accent walls and bright furniture, including armchairs in primary blues and yellows and a cobalt work desk. “The colors that we picked are specifically the colors of a California morning, but we intensified them a little bit,” Marx says. “The trick is to have the bright colors without (CONTINUED...)

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Previous artistic inhabitants of the house include writers Charles Caldwell Dobie and Ruth Teiser.

Paintings from four generations of Marxes line the living room walls

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Detail photos of the new addition highlight the painterly qualities of the wall planes

The dramatic spiral staircase was created

by San Diego artisan Kenny Reeve

making it overwhelming. And that’s what we hope that we achieved.”

Downstairs, that lively spirit manifests itself in a topiary wall textured with faux greenery. The feature fittingly dominates the “tree shop,” studio space Marx’s wife, Nikki, uses to fashion miniature artificial trees for architectural models.

“It’s a very livable house, it’s not a decorator showcase or a museum house,” Marx says. “Even though there’s a lot of artwork, it’s a very comfortable house. You don’t feel like you shouldn’t touch anything because it’s too precious.”

Designing his own house was a departure for Marx not only because the rectilinear aesthetic of the house is a stark contrast to the sweeping, curvaceous civic spaces he often creates overseas, but because he was emotionally invested down to the last detail. “Usually,” he says, “if you’re an architect, your personal house expresses your design philosophy at its purest and you don’t want to compromise.”

Clearly, he didn’t. (...CONTINUED)

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Canada Cool

FIRM / ZACHARKO YUSTIN ARCHITECTS PROJECT TYPE / RESIDENTIAL

Contemporary SoCal style meets Canada’s great outdoors at this Vancouver home

LOCATION / VANCOUVER, BC PHOTOGRAPHER / EMA PETER

Breeze block and aluminum panels were a lowmaintenance solution ideal for Vancouver’s marine climate

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Combining Vancouver’s natural beauty with retro California cool, architects David Zacharko and David Yustin wanted to give their successful client a sleek space for entertaining and a peaceful place for introspection.

“Starting with [the client’s] original notion of Southern California living, it brought to mind the concept of a modern contemporary lifestyle, white brick, and breeze block; it’s that Frank Sinatra feel,” Zacharko says. “But we wanted it grounded as well, so it’s a real blend between what we would see (CONTINUED...)

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CANADA COOL

BLP MANAGEMENT LTD.

The veining in the marble alludes to the house’s waterfront location and street-side water feature

For custom millwork and home builder BLP Management Ltd., the biggest challenge can sometimes bring the greatest reward. When designing the millwork for the Vancouver beach house, “our biggest challenge was the alignment of the grain structure throughout the space and tying all the elements together,” principal Borge LindPetersen says. “It was also our favorite design feature.”

A horizontal window backsplash in the kitchen frames the property’s city views

as those clean, California lines with the livability and urbanity of being in Vancouver.”

The small site on an urban waterfront presented some unique urban planning challenges. Privacy, too, was a concern for the client, so the architects set the house in such a way on the property that it was secluded, while being careful not to shut out the street entirely. A water feature separating what Zacharko calls the public space from the client’s private space, creates an entry at the garden gate rather than the front door. (...CONTINUED)

The house also affords its owner plenty of opportunities to connect with his surroundings—features like an outdoor shower, personal rooftop yoga courtyard, and walls that open up, to name just a few. “We [designed them] in such a way that they aren’t kitsch or contrived, they just become part of the house,” Yustin says. “When these walls are open, your sense of space is extended beyond the structure of the house.

You feel the entire property is your living space, not just the building itself.”

The British Columbiabased company produced the millwork for the kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms, walk-in closets, paneling, doors, and stairs. “The most interesting fact about this project was the amazing skill demonstrated by the artisans involved and watching them come together to create this stunning home,” Lind-Petersen adds.

“This involved the selection of veneers, the handling of hundreds of pieces of veneers by the stitcher who assembled them, the people who pressed the veneers, and our team who manufactured and installed the product and finished it on-site.”

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Understated Statement Awe-inspiring elements are balanced

by Zen-like style at a high-end home developer’s new abode

FIRM / VICTOR ERIC DESIGN GROUP PROJECT TYPE / RESIDENTIAL LOCATION / VANCOUVER, BC PHOTOGRAPHER / MICHAEL WEBER

What do you do when your client is a high-end home developer herself?

“One of the things I wanted to do here was to showcase her and showcase the design of the high-end homes that she’s done,” VictorEric’s Eric Lee says.

“This had to top it all.”

To wow the client, Lee added impressive details like a water feature, grand entrance, in-house spa, and media room made for entertainment to her 11,000-square-foot home. The signature features begin at the entrance to the house, where guests are greeted by

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a pond that flows between the floating front steps into the house and a striking 20-foot waterfall in the front entryway.

In the backyard the water elements include a hot tub and pool that Lee added to project a continuous serenity.

Inside the home, the Zen theme continues. “It’s almost like a little mini resort in the two basement levels, there’s everything you need,” Lee says of the house’s spa-like features such as a massage room and an upstairs soaking tub.

“Once you’re in this home you feel like you’re in another world.” Lee softened up the massage room with rich drapery that added a pop of color. Above the Jacuzzi in the client’s en-suite, he situated a skylight that opens up to sunshine or moonlight.

But not every space in the house is dedicated to relaxation. When the client is ready to turn up the volume, she can transition to the media room, where details like a glowing onyx bar, wine wall, and karaoke audio visuals were designed for maximum entertaining.

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FIRM / STUDIO SHK PROJECT TYPE / RESIDENTIAL AND MUSEUM LOCATION / CALIFORNIA PHOTOGRAPHER / BESS FRIDAY, JOE FLETCHER

Dark and moody, HopeKennedy’s design for The Exploratorium science and art museum was inspired by an industrial lab

Diverging Designs Two very different projects from designer Sherry HopeKennedy demonstrate her range of detailed design work

T

he Van Tassel house is a study in clean lines and timeless, yet modern style, whereas the “Mad Science” lounge is edgy and industrial, influenced by chemical structures and laboratory instruments.

Despite their differences, these diverse projects share a common link: their designer. Sherry Hope-Kennedy demonstrated her design range with the California family residence and the temporary installation for San Francisco’s Exploratorium museum. Here’s how she approached each project.

VAN TASSEL HOUSE Designed around a central, light-flooded courtyard, the U-shaped house needed an update to accommodate a growing fam-

ily with three young children. “I intended to thoughtfully combine modern architecture with a warm aesthetic,” HopeKennedy says. “I created an open floor plan for the family, doubled the square footage from the original house, and gave the space a sense of livable luxury.”

Sustainability was a major driver in Hope-Kennedy’s design, but strict building codes prevented many changes to the home’s exterior. Instead, the house uses Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood, recycled glass tiles, natural fabrics, non-toxic paint, and non-formaldehyde insulation.

Bedrooms and communal spaces make the most of the home’s shape, dividing seamlessly, and with French doors opening to the central courtyard and an indoor/outdoor fireplace, the house took full advantage of its California location, too.

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STUDIO 81/69

Bright and airy, the Van Tassel home is built around a central, U-shaped courtyard.

Sustainbility was a driving design factor for the family home, which incorporates Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood, recycled glass tiles, and non-toxic paint.

“MAD SCIENCE” LOUNGE The Exploratorium, a hands-on museum dedicated to science and art, enlisted 25 local designers to envision their version of a lounge for the museum’s opening gala. Hope-Kennedy was inspired by the building’s intersection of science and design. Her temporary creation, meant to seat a total of 10 guests for the gala’s dinner and cocktail reception, taps these themes through cosmic and mechanical shapes, fixtures, colors, and textures.

“My intent was to create a moody yet relaxing atmosphere invoking an experimental laboratory through the use of dark shades and industrial shapes,” she says. “In designing the furniture, I deliberately used shapes that mimic chemical structures, as well as the profiles of scientific instruments. Additionally, I wanted to infuse elements of playful-

ness and whimsy evident in some of the artwork and accessory choices.”

Those choices included a cocktail table made from a slab of reclaimed wood resting on two Lamborghini mufflers, Timorous Beasties graphic wallpaper, graffiti by local artists Matthew Jacuzzi “Chez” and Ian Ross, and other vintage and found art.

“I wanted to create a space layered with textures, while utilizing a rich neutral palette of charcoals and browns.

Metal, wood, and leather played a large role in creating the moody laboratory atmosphere,” Hope-Kennedy says. “The vintage furniture, lighting, and framed art gave the space the feeling that it had been collected and curated over time.”

Constructed off-site, dismantled, and rebuilt in just a day—what the installation lacked in permanence, it certainly made up for in style.

Designer Sherry HopeKennedy knows the value of versatility. So it’s no surprise that she enlisted the help of another multitalented designer on the Van Tassel residence. As a general contractor for the familyowned EuroAmerican Construction and founder of the custom furniture design and fabrication company Studio 81/69, Benjamin M. Radutiu is a Jack-of-all-trades. He put his diverse skills to use on Van Tassel, where he helped to design everything from the floor plan to the dining room table. “My crew and I built the entire house,” Radutiu says. “With the help of our good subcontractors, we did from demolition, foundation, and concrete work to framing, roofing, interior and exterior millwork, and tile work.

And, of course, I built all the kitchen cabinets, bathroom cabinets and built-ins, and the ‘Bubbinga’ dining room table.” Of his wide-ranging talents, Radutiu says, “It’s in my DNA. My dad is a CPA by profession but also a craftsman who works with his hands and my mom is an artist.” Radutiu channels that combination of hands-on craftsmanship and artistry into his furniture designs, which he describes as “hipstermodern-retro-eclectic” pieces that incorporate materials like exotic woods, steel, leather, and resin. His signature style was a match with Hope-Kennedy’s, says Radutiu: “Sherry and I connected on a design style level. She was always pushing the envelope with new ideas, and I always enjoyed the challenge.”

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FIRM / INTERIORS BY DEBBIE MILLER PROJECT TYPE / RESIDENTIAL INTERIORS

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A silver travertine wall extends from exterior to interior. Retractable doors allow the whole home to open up to the outdoor living space.

LOCATION / LAS VEGAS, NEVADA PHOTOGRAPHER / DARIUS KUZMICKAS

Inside Story Interior designer Debbie Miller put a minimalist touch on this showstopping Vegas residence

Even one of Las Vegas’ hottest summers on record couldn’t get in the way of Debbie Miller’s cool interiors.

While temperatures averaged in the hundreds outside, work got underway on the 8,000-square-foot modern home that needed a total remodel, inside and out, in a timeline of just eight weeks.

Miller used “modern simplicity and classical minimalism” to showcase the house’s striking features like its central, floating steel and walnut staircase, 28foot ceilings, linear Isokern fireplaces, and 900-square-foot, state-of-the-art movie theater. Outside, 15-foot waterfalls descend from the balcony onto the wet deck of the pool, which offers 360-degree views of the Las Vegas strip.

“The design concept is marked by clean, simple, and sophisticated lines, as well as a palette of neutral colors, interesting textures, and contemporary

furnishings accented with one-of-akind pieces,” Miller says.

In a home that was already so dramatic, Miller was going for understated elegance in her design. “People think that minimalism is cold, but I see it as elegant, sophisticated, warm, and inviting,” she says.

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Brandon says his favorite detail on the project was the staircase. “There’s a 5-degree angle to the staircase that carries all the way to the third floor which widens as you go up,” he says.

Tailor Made Creative custom details define a modern home

To save space, the project team designed a large courtyard with pocket doors that are adjacent to the kitchen and connect the dining room table to the kitchen island

FIRM / BRANDON ARCHITECTS PROJECT TYPE / NEW RESIDENCE LOCATION / CORONA DEL MAR, CA PHOTOGRAPHER / JERI KOEGEL

Closets are a coveted amenity in any house—though generally they’re used as storage, not art. The creative homeowners who worked with principal Christopher Brandon of Brandon Architects on the Acacia house opted for the latter: a jawdropping, 17-foot-tall shoe wall in the master suite that requires a rolling ladder to access the stilettos and boots stashed on its highest shelves.

Such highly tailored features personalized the modern-style house the couple was after. “We wanted something that not only filled their needs for a home but inspired them in their daily lives,” Brandon says. “Whether it’s being social and meeting the many neighbors that walk the area or watching the sunset on the Pacific Ocean at the end of the workday. We tried to create moments rather than spaces.”

Brandon flooded the home with natural light, using transparent glass in details like an opening in the ceiling beneath the stairs and the house-anchoring atrium space. Other materials included cast-inplace concrete walls and exposed structural steel. On the exterior, Brazilian Ipe was chosen to combat the elements with little maintenance.

“We believe that structure doesn’t always need to be covered up and quality materials should be allowed to express themselves without additional treatments,” Brandon says.

Even with eye-catching resources, Bra ndon says his biggest sources of inspiration were the homeowners themselves: “The best kind of client is the one that pushes you to do more and trusts you at the same time.”

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The 6,500-square-foot home was conceived as a series of overlapping “boxes” that flow into each other. The ingenious layout allows the family to be separate and together at the same time.

A House Divided A Hamptons vacation home is arranged to aid a busy lifestyle— and provide a break from it

FIRM / BATES MASI ARCHITECTS PROJECT TYPE / VACATION HOME LOCATION / BRIDGEHAMPTON, NY PHOTOGRAPHY / COURTESY OF BATES MASI ARCHITECTS

The busy family who escapes to this Bridgehampton stunner tasked architects Paul Masi and Harry Bates, principals in Sag Harbor-based Bates Masi Architects, with creating a house that would help them multitask. They wanted a place where multiple activities could happen at once without interrupting each other—so a dinner party for the grownups in one area wouldn’t have to compete with entertainment for the kids in another area, or guests could come and

go in their own space without wearing out their hosts’ welcome.

If it sounds like they needed more than one house, well, that’s sort of what they got. “The program is separated into volumes, so for example the master bedroom and bath are a volume, the kids’ rooms are another volume, the dining and living room are another,” says Masi.

“Each volume is a separate zone and private since there are fewer adjacencies for noise and activity to transfer.”

But this is a family vacation home, after all, so Bates and Masi overlapped the “boxes” that make up the 6,500-square-foot home in key places to create interesting thresholds and highlight dramatic interior spaces.

Witness the fireplace. The attention-getting piece, clad in darker patinaed bronze on the outside and polished bronze on the inside, also serves a number of key functions: It’s a load-bearing

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structure that allowed the architects to use lots of glass on the walls, and it conceals a coat closet and HVAC equipment to boot.

The striking but limited materials palette—ceilings, f loors, and walls are wrapped in mahogany and travertine clads terrace floors and exterior walls— links the inside and outside, where interstitial spaces between the boxes are filled with gardens and patios that bring everyone together.

“The goal was to achieve continuity between the exterior and interior,” Bates says. And with the open-ended boxes arranged to focus views from the street through the house to the landscape in the rear, and the more closed-off boxes sited to provide privacy from neighboring houses, we’d say mission accomplished.

The home’s materials palette is limited but striking. Mahogany wraps the ceiling and walls, while travertine tile flooring extends from the interior to the exterior. The fireplace, a focal point in the main living area, is clad in bronze inside and out.

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THE BLUEPRINTS

What’s your favorite type of structure to design and why?

“B

elieve it or not, I like to design apartment bathrooms in New York City. It’s an incredible luxury to have a generous bathroom in the city, and they are usually the most compromised spaces, even though of course we spend important personal time there!”

– Sally Rigg, Rigg Design, p. 17

“I enjoy the challenge of adding to or modifying historical buildings, whether significant or not.”

– Randy Floyd, Randy Floyd Architects, p. 66

“We obviously love to design homes, which represents a big part of our portfolio, as the relationship between our client, our team, and the site is always very inspiring. ” – Eric Gartner and Coty Sidnam, p. 20

“Designing a hotel was a pleasure.

We hope we get more.”

– Erla Dögg Ingjaldsdóttir and Tryggvi Thorsteinsson, Minarc, p. 134

“I believe a person’s home, when properly designed for them, is the most intricate and involved project an architect can attempt.”

– Chris Brandon, Brandon Architects, p. 183

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resource guide

ARCHITECTURE

architects/designers ARIZONA Jones Studio 4450 N. 12 St., Ste. 104 Phoenix, AZ 85014 jonesstudioinc.com T: 602.264.2941

MASSACHUSETTS Studio Collective 1201 Montana Ave., Ste. 201 Los Angeles, CA 90403 T: 310.393.7252 studio-collective.com

Maryann Thompson Architects 14 Hillside Avenue Cambridge, MA 02140 T: 617.491.4144 x1015 maryannthompson.com

Studio SHK California T: 925.890.5619 studioshk.com

Tsoi/Kobus & Associates One Brattle Square P.O. Box 9114 Cambridge, MA 02238 T: 617.475.4000 tka-architects.com

CALIFORNIA Aidlin Darling Design 500 Third St., Ste. 410 San Francisco, CA 94107 T: 415.974.5603 aidlindarlingdesign.com Brandon Architects, Inc. 3001 Red Hill Ave., Bldg. 1, Ste. 102 Costa Mesa CA, 92626 T: 714.754.4040 brandonarchitects.com Feldman Architecture 1005 Sansome St., Ste. 240 San Francisco, CA 94111 T: 415.252.1441 feldmanarchitecture.com

Zimmerman & Associates 100 Gate 6 Rd. Sausalito, CA 94965 T: 415.289.0660 zmanarch.com

Verner Johnson Old City Hall 45 School St. Boston, MA 02108 T: 617.437.6262 vernerjohnson.com

FLORIDA YRA Design, Inc. 5707 S. Dixie Hwy., Ste. 8 West Palm Beach, FL 33405 T: 561.493.1500 yrainc.com

Populous 300 Wyandotte St., Ste. 200 Kansas City, MO 64105 T: 816.221.1500

Hatch Design Group 3198-G Airport Loop Dr. Costa Mesa, CA 92626 T: 714.979.8385 hatchdesign.com Jones Haydu 1 Arkansas St., Ste. D2 San Francisco, CA 94107 T: 415.558.0400 joneshaydu.com Minarc 2324 Michigan Ave. Santa Monica, CA 90404 T: 310.998.8899 minarc.com

NEVADA Ventus Design 5888 Kalanianaole Hwy. Honolulu, HI 96821 T: 808.396.5477 ventusdesignhonolulu.com

ILLINOIS Goettsch Partners 224 S. Michigan Ave., Floor 17 Chicago, IL 60604 T: 312.356.0600 gpchicago.com Valerio Dewalt Train Associates 500 N. Dearborn St., Floor 9 Chicago, IL 60654 T: 312.260.7300 buildordie.com

Terry Kleinberg 170 West End Ave., New York, NY 10023 T: 212.362.2977 terrykleinbergarchitect.com KSQ Architects, PC 235 Main St., Ste. 410 White Plains, NY 10601 T: 914.682.3700 ksqarchitects.com Perkins Eastman 115 Fifth Ave. New York, NY 10003 T: 212.353.7200 perkinseastman.com

MISSOURI

HAWAII Form 4 126 Post St., 3rd Floor San Francisco, CA 94108 T: 415.775.8748 form4inc.com

Kevin Kennon Architects 180 Varick St., St. 410 New York, NY 10014 T 212.219.1171 kkarchitect.com

Rigg Design 300 W. 23rd St., Ste. #2E New York, NY 10011 T: 917.714.1870 riggnyc.com SPG Architects 127 W. 26th St., Ste. 800 New York, NY 10001 T: 212.366.5500 spgarchitects.com

Klai Juba Architects 4444 W. Russell Rd., Ste. J Las Vegas, NV 89118 T: 702.221.2254 klaijuba.com

OKLAHOMA

Debbie Miller 7601 Rolling View Dr., Ste. 201 Las Vegas, NV 89149 T: 702.501.8442 debbiemillerdesign.com

Freese Architecture 1634 S. Boston Ave. Tulsa, OK 74119 T: 918.744.7667 freesearchitecture.com

NEW YORK

Randy Floyd Architects 401 W. Sheridan Ave., Ste. 401 Oklahoma City, OK 73120 T: 405.272.0288 randyfloydarchitects.com

Bates Masi + Architects 138 Main St. Apple Bank Building, Second Floor Sag Harbor, NY 11963 T: 631.725.0229

TEXAS

Morphosis Architects 3440 Wesley St. Culver City, CA 90232 T: 424.258.6200 morphosis.com

Deborah Berke Partners 220 Fifth Ave. New York, NY 10001 T: 212.229.9211 dberke.com

Alter Studio 1403 Rio Grande St. Austin, TX 78701 T: 512.499.8007 alterstudio.net

Rapt Studio 8970 Washington Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232 T: 310.202.9600 raptstudio.com

Fivecat Studio 48 Wheeler, Floor 2 Pleasantville, NY 10570 T: 914.747.1177 fivecat.com

Dado Group 120 W. Mistletoe Ave., Ste. 200 San Antonio, TX 78212 dado-group.com T: 210.828.4599

resource guide

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VIRGINIA

CANADA

photographers

Michael Pellis Architecture 201 W. 7th St. Richmond, VA 23224 T: 804.212.9024 michaelpellis.com

Prototype Design Lab 22 Enterprise Rd. Toronto, Ontario M9W 1C3 Canada T: 416.842.0275 pdlab.ca

Agnarrson, Torfi torfi.com

WYOMING Stephen Dynia Architects P.O. Box 4356 1085 W. Broadway Jackson, WY 83001 T: 307.733.3766 dynia.com Ward+Blake Architects 200 E. Broadway P.O. Box 10399 Jackson, WWY 83002 T: 307.733.6867 wardblakearchitects.com

Teeple Architects 5 Camden St. Toronto, Ontario M5V 1V2 Canada T: 416.598.0554 teeplearch.com

Beyer, Brett brettbeyerphotography.com Billingsley, Jimi jimibillingsley.com Bryant, Mark bryantphotographics.com Choi, Chuck chuckchoi.com

Mills, Joseph josephmills.com Norsworthy, Scott scottnorsworthy.com Northen, James jnorthen.com People Places & Things Photographics ppt-photographics.com

Cooper, Chris chriscooperphotographer.com

Peter, Ema emapeter.com

VictorEric Design 15 E. 3rd Ave. Vancouver, BC V5T 1C5 Canada T: 604.677.0021

Damonte, Bruce brucedamonte.com

Preston, Whit whitpreston.com

Dotan, Donna donnadotan.com

Rahn, Ben aframestudio.ca

Zacharko Yustin Architects 525 Seymour St., Ste. 601 Vancouver, BC V6B 3H7 Canada T: 604.688.8814

Edmunds, Dana danafoto.com

ryann ford photography

Fentress, Sam samfentress.com Finkel, Paul pistondesign.com

INTERNATIONAL Lang Baumann Lyssachstrasse 112 3400 Burgdorf Switzerland langbaumann.com Fusion Interiors A 108 New Bond St. Mayfair, London W1S 1EF UK T: +44.2074919698 fusioninteriorsgroup.com Mole Architects Burleigh House, Floor 2 52 Burleigh St. Cambridge CB1 1DJ UK molearchitects.co.uk Sanitov Floating Homes Morring 3, Riverside Quarter Eastfield Avenue London SW18 1LP UK T: +44 (0)7875 162 597 sanitovfloatinghomes.com

Fletcher, Joe joefletcherphoto.com Ford, Ryann ryannford.com Friday, Bess bessfriday.com Gray, Art artgrayphotography.com Hall, Steve hedrichblessing.com Johnson, Ron studio3301.com Koegel, Jeri jerikoegel.com Kuzmickas, Darius kudaphoto.com Laignel, Eric ericlaignel.com LePage, Scott scottlepage.com

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Levin, Danielle daniellevinphotography.com Lukenbaugh, Melissa melissalukenbaugh.com

Cole, Ralph ralphcolephotography.com

+tongtong 42 Gladstone Ave., Ste. 204 Toronto, Ontario M6J 3K6 Canada T: 416.504.6563 tongtong.co

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Sanidad, Jasper jaspersanidad.com Sigurđsson, Ragnar Th. arctic-images.com Schmidt, Jason jasonschmidtartists.com Snider, Scott sniderphotos.com Squarzini, Matthew masqphoto.com Tutton, Alistair alistairtutton.com Weber, Michael michaelweberphoto.com Williams, Matthew lifeedited.com

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ADVERTISERS

FEATURED COMPANIES

Arctic Plank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Aidlin Darling Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

B&M Noble Co./DuChateau Floors . . . . . . . . . 100

Alterstudio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

BLP Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Bates Masi Architects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Brandon Architects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Bonetti/Kozerski Studio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Centex Sash & Door, LP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Brandon Architects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Champlain Stone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Dado Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Clune Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Deborah Berke Partners. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Contratas Gimeno. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Feldman Architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Crane Revolving Doors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Fivecat Studio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Crown Point Cabinetry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Form 4 Architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Design Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Freese Architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Development Management Associates. . . . 100

Fusion Interiors Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Dolz Coleccion International. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Goettsch Partners. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Empire Architectural Metal & Glass Corp. . . 156

Hatch Design Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Empire Laser & Metal Work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Interiors by Debbie Miller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Engineered Assemblies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Jones | Haydu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Form 4 Architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Jones Studio Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Fountain Technologies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Kevin Kennon Architects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Freese Architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Klai Juba Architects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Fulcrum Contracting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

KSQ Architects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Gradient. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Lang Baumann. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Gunn Landscape Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Maryann Thompson Architects. . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Isaacs Custom Homes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Michael Pellis Architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

KSQ Architects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Minarc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Lentz Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Perkins Eastman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Manufacturas Celda S.L.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Populous. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Maryann Thompson Architects. . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Randy Floyd Architects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

PPG Industries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Rapt Studio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Paradigm Structural Engineers Inc.. . . . . . . . 169

Rigg Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

Pavarini Northeast Construction Co. . . . . . . 141

Sanitov Studio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Polar Shades. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

SPG Architects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Prutting & Co. Custom Builders. . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Stephen Dynia Architects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Reclamation Lumber, LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Studio Collective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Rigg Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

Studio SHK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Studio 81/69 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Teeple Architects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Thermal Windows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Terry Kleinberg Architect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Terry Kleinberg Architect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

+tongtong. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Valerio DeWalt Train Associates. . . . . . . . . . . 119

Tsoi/Kobus & Associates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Ventus Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Valerio DeWalt Train Associates. . . . . . . . . . . 110

Verner Johnson Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Ventus Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

YRA Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Verner Johnson Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Zimmerman & Associates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Victor Eric Design Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 Ward + Blake Architects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 YRA Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Zacharko Yustin Architects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Zimmerman & Associates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

IT’S MORE THAN JUST BUILDINGS. This is a collection of the spaces that influence our lives—the homes we live in, the offices where we work, the restaurants and museums and stadiums where we spend our leisure time. This is a dialogue with more than 60 professionals about their inspiration, the details behind their most innovative designs, and the innovations that are shaping the built environment. This is architecture.

$40 US/WORLD