Kelly Porter had an office inside her Ellicott City home, but she never used it. Each day she would set up shop with her laptop at the kitchen island. The home office, which her family of five shared, "never felt right," says the designer and color consultant (http://www.porterhousedesigns.com). "I never felt comfortable. I never felt…
Susan Serra, an acclaimed kitchen designer who lives and breathes kitchens, now offers one-hour phone consultations. We can't all be lucky enough to live near a kitchen designer whose work has appeared in many major magazines. But her wisdom and insight is still available: Here's what Susan posted on her blog, The Kitchen Designer: I've…
Modic, Italy — Amid the fabled 100 churches that line the sun-cracked streets of this Sicilian city, the New York architects William Brockschmidt and Richard Dragisic found a second home. By modern standards the property is no ordinary dwelling. It includes a centuries-old cave in the area’s volcanic rock that once was a place of…
Can a Cambridge architect pull off a complete renovation — including a new high-end range — for less than $20,000? Is a budget-minded kitchen renovation with a high-end range and custom carpentry an oxymoron? Not in the case of architectural designer Chiong Lin’s rehab of an 11-by-14-foot Cambridge kitchen. The story begins in 2005. Lin…
When Harriet Burke and her daughter Kathy Scheidemen decided to expand Burke’s 1961 tract house into a “green,” energy-efficient home for the two of them, they agreed they would spend $200,000 and “not a penny more,” Scheidemen recalls. The two women made a list of their desires, including two separate living areas, vaulted wood ceilings,…
I asked green-leaning Berkeley architect Robert Nebolon to make a list of the top green-building innovations from his perspective. Of course, he had to make two lists— architectural and non-architectural — and if you know any architects, you'll know it's pretty typical that he did more than was asked for. Robert also consulted a colleague,…
See all photos Charles Darwin might have found an interesting research subject in the Burke family's Goleta, Calif. home, which has evolved over the last 47 years as the family has changed. Chuck and Harriet Burke purchased the five-bedroom tract house in 1962 as a place to raise their five rambunctious kids. As the children…
"Cliff May and the Modern Ranch House" by Daniel P. Gregory, with photographs by Joe Fletcher and a foreword by Joel Silver. (Rizzoli; 256 pages; $60) Reviewed by Robert Nebolon (Robert Nebolon, a Berkeley architect, designed a contemporary Hermosa Beach home featured previously on this blog.) Cliff May, the father of the California ranch house,…
Michael Abel, an architect and contractor from California, and his Israeli-born wife Nava, built and decorated this 1,800-square-foot, five-bedroom, three-bathroom home in the town of Zichron Yaacov, Israel, which overlooks the Mediterranean. This is from an article in the New York Times. The article says that many of the building materials, including interior doors, were…
While Gretchen Zee bought her 1960s tract house in Santa Barbara for its lush one third-acre ocean-view lot overlooking an oak-covered hillside, she had to go outside the house to get any sense of nature. The house was, in fact, backed up to the views, oriented to offer visions of the driveway from the family…