Open, Closed......Open.

Why Design first? To make decisions that can be fixed with an eraser, not a demolition crew!

Original desire of this husband and wife client was to create a series of formal compartments for the various activities on the main floor. Enter, eat-in kitchen, pantry, dinning, study and living room....(not shown...just down past the dining room)

Received and incorporated changes yesterday to "open 'er all up", to use the more casual wording appropriate to this more open, casual, plan.

Now entry opens into a combined great room with just a little more division than a typical great room. Let's call it a "chunkified" Greay Room.

More connected living, more light, more views...

Where you live affects how you live....picture a day in the life inside your paper house before building the dream.

Original Addition and Remodel:



Final Addition and Remodel:




- Posted using BlogPress (during my morning walk....again) from my iPhone

Mission Possible

My new mission, and I have chosen to select it, is to transform this....into that.

Best part: it is for a class of '87 CHS (note the missing 'I') classmate and friend!



Upgrading my movie references, my first step is to determine if this project needs to be "Shaken" or "Stirred" to stay on budget.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Start with a Solid Foundation

Cambridge Center For the Arts (CCFA) has rented a storefront art gallery in Cambridge.

Plans for how to use the space, lessons, instruction, gallery, office, salon, coffee shop, etc. will soon be underway.

I measured and drafted up the floor plan. This will become the solid foundation to build on.

Stop in and see the Art. Check out the activities including local and trips to minneapolis!

www.cambridgecenterforthearts.org







- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Durant St NE,Isanti,United States

Simpler

Like this picture I just took?



In an place of abundance, rush and greed. A pause to reflect on the plenty we have could satisfy us....for a while.

This simple twig, to me just a compositional element in a photo, would be a family's highlight where it's discovery lead
to a months worth of fuel for heat and cooking.

What do you think of THIS picture?








- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Wrap around porch/deck/patio

Getting closer to the solution I think:











- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Never Burn a Bridge! Free CEU's for Architects!

Architects - free CEU's - just e-mail Brian (my former boss at Pella and a good guy)

CEU Presenters - there is one spot still open for this, and they do it quarterly. e-mail brian - must be AIA course and prefer HSW credit. Interested - also e-mail Brian anytime - day night, ten times a day - tell him it was my idea!

Building Codes vs. Business

In an earlier post I recommended not waiting to hire an architect to either help guide your move into a new space, or to bail you out if the move-in and use doesn't meet the code.

I found a relatively easy solution so this tutoring office, school, and potential worship space can keep their doors open just as they are.

Or price the cost to stay, change their program/use, expand the amount of space they rent, or move out.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone