Oh did we mention...?

CoTY Awards 2013


We have some bragging to do:

At the 2013 Contractor of the Year Awards Building Arts took home two prizes!

We won the category Residential Addition $200,000 and Under with this beautiful porch:

And received Honorable Mention for Entire House $250,000 and Under with this beautiful Home:

Thank you to NARI for another wonderful awards evening, and thank you to all of our wonderful clients!  We look forward to a year full of new projects and hopefully some awards again next year!

Window Condensation : What causes it?

As we all start to give in to the changing temperatures and switch on the heat in our homes, there are some familiar annoyances that reappear.  Window condensation is a top complaint of many homeowners, blocking their beautiful views of the changing fall colors outside.

What causes it?

It is the excess humidity in our homes. Warm air holds more humidity and when comes into contact with the cold surface of the window, it manifests itself in the form of condensation.  The issue is not our windows, it is controlling humidity through ventilation.

How do you prevent it?

1. Run bath fans and kitchen exhaust fans for longer than just showering time or cooking time.

2. Ventilate appliances like your clothes dryer or gas burning stove to the outside.

3. Be sure the louvers venting your attic or crawlspace are open and not blocked.

4. Open the fireplace damper or air out your house for a bit to allow the air full of moisture to escape.

The excess humidity issue

Heating and Ventilating magazine did a study on the sources of water vapor in the home:

- Cooking for a family of four = 4.5 lbs./day

- One shower = .5 lbs.

- Laundry = 30 lbs./wk

- Human occupancy = 6 to 8 lbs./day

- Dishwashing 1.2 lbs./wk

The typical family of 4 easily creates 150 pounds of water vapor a week which is more than 18 gallons of water!

Allowing this air to normalize itself is the key to preventing many moisture issues within the home, come learn more at our workshop next week with Cindy Ojczyk, who specializes in the science behind beauty:

October 23rd at 7:00 PM

95 Mackubin Street, St. Paul

Our friend Cindy Ojczyk will be talking with us about all things comfort-related and the in-depth science of it so you can make your home cozy, energy-energy efficient and dry year-round.

RSVP HERE or 651.222.8750

Wine and snacks will be served. 

The event is free, for more information visit our website,

http://www.building-arts.net/workshops.html

Drafts: What to do? 3 Ways to Prevent

Fall winds are starting to blow, are you feeling the chill?  This year, get ahead of those all too familiar drafts that breach your home, and ensure yourself a cozy home all winter long.  Here are three simple ways to prevent drafts.

Draft Snakes are always an option!

1. Install a sweep. A vinyl or felt strip found at a hardware store that attaches to the bottom of your exterior doors closing the gap between the door and floor. Cold air loves to creep in this space.  Block it.

2. Weather Stripping.  Buy the self adhesive kind at a hardware store and cover the perimeter where the window or door meets the stop, when closed the foam will seal the space between.  Remember, all those cracks add up to heat escaping from your home as hot air flows to cold. Heat your home, not the outdoors.

3. Replace your storm windows. In many cases you can keep and repair or restore your home’s original windows and improve energy efficiency and comfort greatly by upgrading your storm windows.

Want to know more? Do you have questions about home performance and comfort? To learn more about how windows and heating systems work in your home and how to make your home more comfortable – come to our workshop –

October 23th at 7:00 PM

95 Mackubin Street, St. Paul

Our friend Cindy Ojczyk will be talking with us about all things comfort-related and the in-depth science of it so you can make your home cozy, energy-energy efficient and dry year-round.

RSVP HERE or 651.222.8750

Wine and snacks will be served. 

The event is free, for more information visit our website,

http://www.building-arts.net/workshops.html

Thank You! A Wonderful Weekend Homes By Architects Tour 2013

This past weekend the Homes by Architects Tour was a success!

We were so happy to see everyone who came out.  We had a great time talking with everyone, and were very appreciative of all the positive feedback!

Harvey and Ben ready to go.

A huge thank you goes out to Jon, Katie, Bryn, Paige, and Maisy for opening up their home!  Great clients make great projects- to think we met on this exact tour one year ago, what an incredible process it has been! 

Katie, Maisy, and the before house at one of our first design meetings a year ago.

To see an album of the process check out our Facebook page!

Minnetonka Remodel Album

This Weekend: Homes by Architects Tour (Minnetonka Remodel)

Minnetonka Remodel

10327 Belmont Rd.
Homes By Architects Tour
September 21-22 10am - 5pm

For two days a year, inspiration has an address...

Join Us

Saturday 10am - 5pm

Sunday 10am - 5pm

The weekend has arrived.  Join us this weekend for the Homes by Architects tour, the most unique home tour of the Twin Cities.  This year we are showing off our latest full house remodel in Minnetonka.  Building Arts plays an important role in the line up of these beautiful homes.  With this home, we show how to work within a budget and get the most out of your spaces.  Through thoughtful wall movements and the redefinition of space, we were able to transform a 1962 rambler... 

Layout before and after: we opened up the kitchen and dining by removing headers and scaling back the walls, two bedrooms became a master suite with a sliding glass door, the bathroom was enlarged and rearranged, the kitchen was opened up to more light and traffic flow.

kitchen looking toward the mudroom, before and after.

mudroom to kitchen window before and after.

the dark corner kitchen before, the centralized kitchen after flooded with daylight.

the kitchen closet was scaled back to bring light deeper into the home, a creative storage unit was placed on the end.

the back of the house, before and after.

       Come see us at 10327 Belmont Road

http://www.homesbyarchitects.org

Design Beyond Beauty: The Art and Science of Home (A Building Arts Workshop)

October 23rd, 7:00 pm

95 Mackubin Street
Saint Paul

Building Arts is hosting our very first workshop!

Come and join us for a thoughtful conversation on the ingredients for a healthy, comfortable, and future-forward home.  

Join us for an evening with Cindy Ojczyk (“o-check”) founder of More Than A Beautiful Home. She will talk about the ingredients for a better home so you and your professionals can stir them into your recipe for a beautiful home. You will even learn how to showcase your success so you can be the inspiration that helps someone else create their beautiful and better home. Wine and appetizers will be served. 

Many of us seek to live in a home of exceptional beauty with pleasing finishes and ample space. Equally important, but not as pronounced, is our underlying expectation that our homes surround us in comfort while keeping us safe. As homes have become more complex, however, the delivery of comfort and safety should not be assumed. Homeowners must learn to ask for what it is they want. Would you like to prevent or eliminate uncomfortably hot or cold rooms, ice dams, high utility bills, condensation on windows, moisture in basements, and the invisible toxins that can harm your family? If so, you must seek the professionals that speak your same language. If you want a home that aligns with your environmental values for energy, water, and resource conservation, you must ask for it. 

Cindy Ojczyk is an accomplished interior designer, green building co-author, and residential energy researcher that will provide the insight you need to stand up for what you want and get what you need.   See her website at http://www.morebeautifulhome.com/

You are Invited, October 23rd, at 7:00 p.m. 

95 Mackubin Street, Saint Paul. 

RSVP TO 651-222-8750 or info@building-arts.net 

EXTERIOR SPACE: The Transition

Summer is winding down, and here in Minnesota, we are taking advantage of our coveted porch and deck evenings.  Exterior spaces and the transition they provide between 'inside' and 'outside' have been an element of architecture since the Ancient Greek temples and the portico at the front, filtering people into the space.

The Parthenon, Athens

As a part of our homes, exterior spaces have firmly rooted themselves as a place for gathering, serving as the middle ground between the privacy of home and the rest of the outside world. They have also become a cornerstone of our culture.  (Listen here for NPR's 'All Things Considered' about the culture of sitting on the porch).

Recently, Building Arts worked on a project with a home that was lacking this transitional space:  

Jon and Katie's exterior space before.

Mostly due to a rotting deck that had to be removed, Jon and Katie's sliding glass door was met immediately by a set of stairs to ground level, and Maisy's dog door, met by a ramp.  We not only wanted to give them an exterior space, but also wanted to connect it with the reorganization we were doing inside.  We added a sliding glass door at the opposite end of the house, integrating the deck and porch into the overall flow, and opening up the home, successfully tying the inside to the outside.

Showing the flow before and after the remodel with the deck and porch.

Here is the result:

Jon and Katie's deck and porch after.

So, as these final days of summer wind down and the air gets cooler, invite the neighbors over, unwind, and indulge in the sweet spot between inside and out.  



**This project will be shown on the Homes by Architects Tour September 21 & 22.  See our Website for more details.  www.building-arts.net



Have a wonderful Labor Day Weekend!

Informal Architecture: A Walker Exhibit

Abraham Cruzvillegas: The Autoconstrucción Suites

The Walker Art Center

Exhibition view Abraham Cruzvillegas: The Autoconstrucción Suites The Walker Art Center 2013

There is currently an exhibition at the Walker Art Center that we find particularly fascinating as architects and builders.  It showcases informal architecture, specifically that on the outskirts of Mexico City, where the artist, Abraham Cruzvillegas, spent his childhood. 

In these areas, the inhabitants slowly and informally constructed their homes. Informally in the sense that there are no designs, no plans, no structural engineers, no plumbers, no electricians, no carpenters. The home owner, with the help of family and friends,  slowly constructs their own space over many years as materials become available.

The artist refers to this as Autoconstrucción, or 'self constructions'.  The families of this community used what they could find to construct, as they do not have the financial means to buy typical construction materials.  The foundations were built from volcanic rock found around the city, and above that, many found materials, most that had been created for a completely different purpose, and had once been disposed of, along with a mix of concrete, wood, and re bar.  Cruzvillegas addresses the process and content of this informal construction through his art, but also addresses the current political dilemma, as they now fight to keep the homes and communities they built themselves.

This brings us back to each of our definitions of 'home'.  These people's homes are built over decades, on land they did not own, as they found objects and building materials, creating the most intriguing juxtapositions, and they are never completely finished, always allowing for the next step.  

The ingenuity, passion, and ambition of people when creating their personal space is never lost on us.  It is always appreciated, no matter if it is here - adhering to building codes, utilizing architects, plumbers, electricians, traditional building materials, and the expertise of carpenters - or whether it is there..

Abraham Cruzvillegas: The Autoconstrucción Suites will be on exhibit in the Walker through September 22nd.  For more details check out the site.

reinventing SPACE

A shuffle of sketches representing
different solutions for a kitchen / mudroom
remodel currently in the design process.

In a recent testimonial written by one of our wonderful clients we found our design process well articulated:

"Building Arts met with us September-December for a series of conversations to help us all parse out our priorities.  At the beginning of the design process I wished we’d had a bigger budget. But the creative design solutions to our budget and space challenges ended up being my favorite elements of the finished product."

-Katie Pierson and Jon Kahle

Building Arts helps you to reinvent your space.  We listen to you. Over a series of conversations, we develop a relationship with you and a thorough understanding of your home and it's integrity.   From there we sketch many different thoughts and possibilities of how to reorganize your space, always exploring the not so obvious solutions along the way.  In the end, we want to give you a reinvented space that fits your life and your style.

"Our small kitchen feels huge. Our 1962 rambler feels spacious—and actually is classy and charming—because Megan and Harvey worked within our budget to deliver as much of our priority list as possible.  They paid as much attention to the details as they did to the existing structure of the house."
-Katie Pierson and Jon Kahle
 

Katie and Jon's Kitchen.

Homes by Architects Tour

Coming September 21 - 22

Twin Cities 

Building Arts has been selected to participate in the AIA Homes by Architects Tour again this year!  

Photo by Troy Thies Photography

We invite you all to Minnetonka to see our new whole house remodel of a 1962 rambler.  It is a great example of the space that can be made without adding large amounts of square footage.  More on the process behind this project to come...

For now, check out the tour's site:

AIA HOMES BY ARCHITECTS TOUR 2013

Building Arts is house #6 and letter 'F' on the map.

See you in September!

Photo by Troy Thies Photography

Remodeled Rows of Our Nation's Capital

Remodeled Rows

A Patriotic 4th

Washington D.C.

I decided to spend this 4th of July extra patriotically. I headed out to the East Coast, next to the Potomac river, in a district all its own, to what was once just a swamp, for a visit to our Nation's Capital.  Washington D.C. has had many formal city plans, produced by various famous architects and planners over the years. 

In the center of it all is the National Mall, a place where you can spend hours admiring the grandeur of the many architectural assets, both classical and modern. But, take a side trip out to the surrounding neighborhoods and you will find a simple residential treasure; row houses.

Row houses with a fresh coat of paint.

These enchanting 19th century brick homes line the streets, and were built to house many people on each block, while abiding to the unique 2-3 level height restriction of D.C.  These side by side homes often housed multiple tenants on each level, the floor plans are shotgun style, the space is tight, and there is little opportunity for large amounts of natural light.

Clever homeowners, many who bought the row houses for mere thousands in the late 60's, have been remodeling and creatively addressing these undesirable characteristics over the years.  Now, scattered throughout the streets are the many creative approaches the many different people have taken to freshen up their row house.  Here are some that I stumbled upon...

Restored bay windows with bold colors.

A very modern approach, opened up to loads of natural light.

A small addition, tied in nicely,  to allow light from another angle.

Massive picture windows show interiors that have been rearranged and updated.

What does home mean for you?

HOME: Where We Live.

A photo exhibition

MPLS Photo Center

5.10 – 6.23

Photo: Ryan Huggett Photography

The meaning of home evokes strong emotions in each of us, yet there are many different ways to think about the  word.   There is the tangible of home: the rooms, the decor, the windows, the nook for reading, and the space where family gathers.  There is home as a collector: keeping our books, our souvenirs from life, and our coveted photographs. Home is sometimes simply defined as people, and sometimes it is memories: nostalgic scenes of what our presence was at a point in time.   And these are just to name a few.

Earlier this year, the Minneapolis Photo Center put out a call for entries that fall under the theme 'HOME: Where We Live.'  A title that appears very straight forward, defining home within itself.  What  resulted is a collection of 70 photographs that juror David Fraher describes as , 'powerfully, and yet quietly exploring the diverse meanings and aspects of home.”

Powerful, it is, as it reinforces that the idea of home is universal.  Walking through the gallery, there is not a single photo that does not trigger something in my brain, a strong tug, and expectedly, a coinciding emotion.  Even if it is not something relative of my own experiences or my own thoughts, it resonates with each of us.  Through the serene compositions of the photos you are reminded of your own ideas of home, as you catch a glimpse into someone else's. 

The importance of home and its many meanings is not lost on us at Building Arts. We work with home every day and we are constantly thinking about all of its aspects.  We also understand, that for many people we work with, home is something they are striving for, and is yet to be discovered.  They can't particularly define it, but there are certain attributes they are sure it must have. Creating home is a discovery process.  So ask yourself,

What does home mean for you?

Scan your memories, think about what it means now, and what would it ideally mean for you.  We would love to hear your answers.  Please comment below, and in the meantime go to the Minneapolis Photo Center and visit the exhibition, which is on display through June 23rd, and start a thought process on what home is for you.

Below I detailed a few of my favorite photographs in the exhibition.

- Three children lounge, comfortably juxtaposed on a sun-washed couch.  They all are very close to each other, even though the couch is large, they are stacked on one end.  The boy laying across the back of the couch plays on a phone, the older girl has a closed laptop on her lap, and the younger girl sits on the arm, and peers over her shoulder.  A tall stack of books in the corner looks over them, seemingly protective.

- There is a couple standing in a kitchen, she has the red dot on her forehead signifying, in their culture, she is married. He is wearing a dhaka on his head, and he has a white t shirt on, in the center of it is a  large blue 'American Idol' logo.  On the table is a 'Land 'o' Lakes' tub.  They stand close to one another.

- There is a winter tent, illuminated from the inside, surrounded by darkness.  The fresh snow on the ground shows the many tracks in and out of the tent.  Smoke rises from a pipe sticking out of the tent, it rises up against the outline of the familiar trees of northern Minnesota, up past the familiar constellations of the Minnesota winter sky and to the moon, full, illuminating the smoke and gleaming back down on the tent and its tracks.

Photo: Ryan Huggett Photography, 2013  Minneapolis, Minnesota