“Green” has become a new buzzword in the building industry, like “Organic” in the food industry.  I imagine there are a lot of marketing departments sitting around large conference room tables saying “Now how can we get the word ‘Green’ on the package?”  When most people think of Green building, they think of solar panels on the roof, windmills, and high efficiency equipment.

Another important factor in Green building is reducing the amount of waste that construction produces.  According the the National Home Builders Association the building of every 2000 square foot house produces about 8000 pounds of waste.  That number is just from the construction of a new home.  Think of all of the waste created when  an existing building is demolished.  One way to cut down on the waste is to salvage as much as possible out of these structures before they are razed.  It’s also imperative for the contractor to minimize waste while building, which not only helps the environment, but his bottom line as well.

In the Stonewood Products building, set to open this spring, we’ve been fortunate to be able to use many of the products they sell.  One such item is the antique heart pine you see in the above picture.  In the cuts  you can see these are the very center of an old growth pine tree.  These boards were salvaged from a 100 year old mill before the building was demolished.  These were very heavy duty floor boards (they are about 3-1/2″ thick).  Each one is about 20 feet long.  They are very dense and hard, very different than new yellow pine you would find at most lumber yards today.  We’ve used these boards in a number of places in the building.  By ripping each board we were able to use the top section with it’s original paint finish as a ceiling material.  We then made custom windows and doors out of what remained.  Small bits were utilized as trim and accents so that very little of each board ever made it into a dumpster.

Check back soon for more photos of how this unique reclaimed material was used.

After doing a number of renovations over the years, there are many things we’ve found as you start to do the demolition work.  Stripping sheetrock and plaster off the walls can sometimes reveal a time capsule of sorts.  Some can be intentional by the people who built it, or old newspapers that give you an idea of the last time that space saw some light.    Perhaps the oddest of the them all, however, is an item we’ve found more than once…. underwear.

Here’s a list of the top four weirdest things we’ve found in demolition work.

1. Underwear- The bra’s above were found trapped in an old laundry shoot.

2. Tighty-whities- The BVD’s pictured below we found recently in a wall.

3. Devil Doll- This was also found in a wall.

4. An envelope that read “Extra Money”-  Alas, it was empty.

Here is an interesting article on how the current economic climate has forced changes to the design and use of our American homes.

How the economic times impact modern American home design.

We are finding that many people are making due with less.  Instead of selling their home to buy a larger one, many people are asking us to look at how we can make their home more efficient, comfortable, and spacious without adding much square footage, or spending a lot of money.  In many cases, adding storage solutions and taking down walls can do so much that people end up loving a house they previously were ready to sell.

In Cambridge, many houses have small kitchens in the back of the house.  At the time most of these houses were built, the idea of entertaining in the kitchen was unheard of.  The kitchen was a place of pragmatic function and not something you would show off to your neighbors.  A kitchen’s use has changed greatly in the last fifty years to where it is often the most used, most expensive, and most talked about space in the entire house.

Before photo courtesy of JeffreyDodgeRogers.com

This house in Cambridge is one half of a two story duplex in which most of the rooms are quite small.  Indeed, there isn’t even a dining room in this house, so the kitchen also serves double duty as the dining space.  There is a lot that has to go into a modern kitchen.  Who among us doesn’t stock their kitchen with several sets of dishes and enough electronic toys to put most toddlers to shame.  Some people have the luxury of a large dining room that, with the help of a hutch or shelving, can be used to store dishes, glassware, cookbooks and the like.  No such luck in this house although the result fits everything you could need into a fairly compact area.

Our solution here is to keep the kitchen cabinets and counters in an “L” shape along the inside walls.  Upper cabinets provide storage for glassware, dishes, and even a wine rack.  what was once an odd closet used as a pantry and dishwasher space (see above) becomes a nice recess for the fridge with enough space for a recessed area to keep all electrics, which clears up much needed counter space in a small kitchen.  A new sliding glass door opened up the space to the backyard and the addition of a deck made summer grilling easy with direct access to the kitchen.

As you can see above, the opposite wall with an existing window was utilized for more storage by adding custom shelving to fit on either side of the window, while also covering an exposed radiator directly below the window.  It’s a bright space aided by white cabinets, under-cabinet lighting, decorative pendant lights along with the existing window and new large sliding glass door.

In many modern kitchens today you find an island.  They make great working surfaces that mean you don’t have to stare at a wall while you chop carrots.  Here we didn’t have room for both an island and a dining table.  Instead we designed and built our own table at counter height.  This means it can be both a work surface and, with some higher chairs, also serve as a dining table for up to 6 people.  The table has a welded steel base with a solid cherry top.

There is a lot packed into a small footprint in this kitchen, but the result is an attractive kitchen that satisfies all the requirements of modern kitchens, providing effecient working conditions while being able to entertain at the same time.

Learning as much as possible about a particular business is paramount to designing a new building that is purpose built for that business.  How does it function?  What is the product?  How is that product displayed so that a customer can make an informed decision and feel good about what they purchased?  How do you balance the needs of employees and customers in the same building?

It’s a lot to keep track of.  In the case of the Stonewood Products building in Harwich, it took a considerable amount of time to gather up the necessary information and answer many questions related to a business that’s figuring out it’s growth strategy.  For our client, going through the design process helped to define not only the form of the new building, but helped to shape the face of the expanded business.

Circulation and View Diagrams

This sheet of diagrams was used to explain how the simple placement of the check out desk affects the occupant’s use of the building.  Since there are both contractor and public entrances at either end of the building, the placement of the desk will determine how long the circulation path is for a customer to check-out.  Simultaneously, the employees behind that same desk need to be able to see not only who’s inside the building, but also if there are customers outside in the courtyard.  It’s easy to see that a placement somewhere toward the middle makes the most sense from both a circulation standpoint and for views out from the desk.

Stonewood First Floor Plan

Where we ended up was complicated by the addition of a kitchen for employees and a bar seating area for customers but the idea of having a central desk that can see much of the site remained a key goal. The desk is located in the right hand portion of the building with the previously mentioned kitchen and bar area for customers immediately to the left of the check out desk.  This will give contractors easy access to the desk and allow them to check out quickly and easily.  The public customer is more likely to meander through the showroom area to look at all the great flooring, stone, tile, and reclaimed wood that will be displayed on sliding racks in the front portion of the building.  Employee functions are organized along a series of rooms at the bottom of the page  with lots of glass and large openings that help the company keep track of who is in the building, and who might need assistance out in the courtyard.

Check back soon for updates on the progress of this new building, or stop in and say “Hi” on Great Western Road in Harwich and see the new building for yourself.

Designing and building on Cape Cod can present a number a challenges.  For instance how do you make a large building that fits in with its surroundings and doesn’t look out of scale, all while meeting the needs of a large business?  In the case of the Stonewood Products building, we do that in a number of ways.  We separated the building mass into two distinct buildings, each with their own volumes but connected inside to maintain a good workflow for the business.  We chose different materials for each building including siding and roofing.  To the eye they read as distinct buildings which helps to control the perception of a smaller building than it’s interior would suggest.  Keeping similar details, such as windows and trim, helps to unify the whole structure so that the two buildings can still relate to each other.

Perspective rendering

Another way to control the amount of mass you see is by adjusting the proportions of the building in order to manipulate how the eye perceives the bulkiness.  In creating the small setback on the front of the building, we were able to control both the height and pitch of the main front gable independent of the width of the building.  The result is a front elevation with much better proportions than if the front were a simple straight gable over the entire front facade.

Stop in to Stonewood on Great Western Road in Harwich, MA to see the building under construction and check out some great stone and flooring while you’re there.

We are proud to anounce the construction of a brand new building for Stonewood Products in Harwich MA.  Stonewood Products sells flooring, stone pavers and veneers, as well as hard to find hardwoods and reclaimed woods.  The new building will house offices and a showroom for their expanding business.  Look for more soon on its design and development as we get closer to completion.

Here are some recent shots we took of the Eastham treehouse in October.

Just waiting for those relaxing Cape weekends.

This is the approach from the street.

View from the top.

Decking cut around for the tree.

Roof Structure for a little shade.

Tree anchor with structure above.

View from the street with raised garden beds below.

Hope you enjoy these photos.  It was a fun project that we hope to do more of.

If you’ve ever visited the home of someone who lives in one of those cool industrial artists lofts, you know how great it can look to have so much open space.  Sometimes, however, too much open space can lead to odd furniture layouts and awkward circulation paths.  When you don’t have any walls to put furniture up against, how do you lay it out so that it makes sense?

We’ve worked on a few loft renovations, and we’re finishing up one as we speak.  This one is particularly challenging because of it’s square footprint.  What we’ve ended up with I think will be a vast improvement in how the space works and looks.

In the above diagram notice on the right there is an existing plan that shows their basic furniture layout.  Note how the centrally located pool table dominates the layout and makes it cumbersome to circulate around.  By just rotating that pool table and moving it slightly up, there’s now a more direct circulation spine that makes it much easier to circulate through the space.  We’ve added walls on one side of that circulation path both to reinforce this path, as well as to create some much needed privacy for the bedroom.

The above perspective drawing imagines these bedroom walls as places for storage and display.  Their large expanse means that, when open, they still help maintain that open loft feel.

When the doors are closed, the bedroom becomes much more private.

Check back for future updates on this Condo renovation that’s almost complete.

Concrete countertops can be a unique and cost effective way to get the most out of a kitchen renovation.  However, concrete comes with it’s own set of compromises and maintenance requirements.

What’s important to remember is that there is no perfect countertop material.  Some may resist scratching, but hot pans can’t be placed on them.  Some take the heat well, but stain easily when you spill red wine on them.  Concrete is a very porous material, even though it doesn’t look like it.  It will soak up liquids quite easily and it penetrates quite deep.  It is quite durable on the whole but the corners and edges are vulnerable to chips both in the creation stage as well as throughout it’s life.  The countertops are cast upside down in a mold made of melamine (a sheet good with a plastic veneer attached to it) and then flipped over and polished to the same smoothness of stone countertops.  Concrete must be sealed in order for it to resist staining.  We like to use a penetrating sealer which goes deep into the concrete.  This helps liquids stay on the surface longer in order to be wiped up.  Leave the liquid on top for too long and it will still stain.  This sealer needs to be reapplied every 6 months or so in order to maintain this barrier.  We also wax the countertop with beeswax to give it just a little extra protection.  If you’re looking for a countertop material that’s going to look pristine on day 1 and 10 years from now, concrete is probably not your answer.  Variation in color is common, and they all build up stains over time, no matter how careful you are.  To us, it builds character over time that is appealing.

The fun part about concrete is that you can make any shape you want out of it.  You can embed things into it that will show on the surface.  You can cast recesses for things like cutting boards, drains, and sinks.  Most of these are cast in a mold, rather than in place, so care must be taken to make them manageable in size and weight so they can be transported.  Stay tuned for more on concrete countertops and how we’ve used them in the past.

To see more of the project above visit www.linealinc.com