The Island Inn at Friday Harbor

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The Island Inn at Friday Harbor is located on Washington’s San Juan island. It used to be known as 123 West, a set of buildings that are LEED Silver-certified within a tight fit community. The Island Inn originally was of seven commercial and seven residential units on 10,000 sq ft of land. But the condos were too expensive for people to afford at the time so they were left vacant. So in 2011 123 West was changed into the Island Inn at Friday Harbor a new boutique hotel. The designer of the whole hotel was Misty Todd and architect Donald K Mackay. Mackay designed the original plan and just designed a 4 room add-on.

Sitting right on the shoreline of Friday Harbor, Washington, this hotel is walking distance from the ferry and seaplane terminals for visitors to enjoy activities while they are visiting. The buildings of the Island Inn are in a clustered cube look with lanes dividing them in a hilltown style. This makes the hotel an unusual presence. Cubes with large window openings provide sweepings views. All the windows have window visors throughout with frosted glass to provide slight shade.

The buildings are put into a setting known to be an Urban Ensemble. The front of each building faces the others across from it almost identically. The design on the inside is simple and frank giving a contemporary feel. Colors of paint such as green, red and warm yellows blend with the exterior. The use of dutch doors provide a nautical touch. Stainless steel wire balconies which are found many places nowadays.

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World’s 5 Best Rooftop Bars

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Ever wanted to just go to the bar and be on top of the world at the same time? These 10 places will sure bring you that enjoyment, one bar at a time.

Number 1: Bangkok, Thailand – Moon Bar at Banyan Tree Bangkok
– Sitting on top on the 61st floor helipad, this rooftop bar has view of the Grand Palace, Royal Chapel, Wat Pho Temple, and the Chao Phraya River. The signature drink is the Vertigo Sunset, Malibu mixed with pineapple, cranberry and lime juice. This place also has a strict dress code, so dress accordingly.

Number 2: Chicago, IL – The Terrace at Trump at Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago
– Sitting on the 16th floor and has mainly specialty drinks and food. It contains many L-Shaped couches and large tables for everyone in attendance. Here you have view of Wrigley Towers, the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. The signature drink here is the Freeze Pop. Strawberry Lemonade with limoncello and strawberry juice.
On Wednesdays and Saturdays in the summer you can see fireworks over the pier, what a nice sight to see.

Number 3: Dubai, United Arab Emirates – The Lounge at At.Mosphere at Burj Khalifa
– This rooftop bar sits on top the world’s tallest building, making it the highest restaurant. At this bar you can see the Arabian Gulf, downtown Dubai and the tallest fountains on Earth. Signature drink would be the Black Forest, which contains Tanquerey 10, Creme de Mure, raspberries and blackberries. At this bar, it’s a $50 tab to just get in.

Number 4: Hong Kong, China – OZONE at The Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong
-The highest bar in Asia, in the highest hotel, this rooftop bar sits on the 118th floor. In house DJ helps will the room of the breezy outdoor terrace. The view compete with the interiors. Sights from this bar include all of Hong Kong and Victoria Harbor. The Signature drink here is the Aria 118, which is a mix of orange vodka, sake, coconut rum, passion fruit and lychee. Arrive early and dress smart if you want to be allowed in this rooftop bar.

Number 5: Mumbai, India – Aer at Four Seasons Hotel Mumbai
– This rooftop bar is on the 34th floor of the Aer. In house DJ playing high-energy music in accordance with the black and white motif of the bar. Nice foods include pizza, sushi and more. Places to see on top of this bar include the city below, Haji Ali Mosque, Mahalaxmi Racecourse and the Arabian Sea. The signature drink is called the Afterglow, gin, cucumber, coriander and grapes. There’s a cover of $37 and you must follow the dress code.

Do any of these rooftop bars seduce you into going? They sure do to me. Maybe one day we might see my rooftop bar on this list. See you next time.

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Historic Homes, No Rent or Is There?

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In the states of Massachusetts, Maryland, Delaware and Connecticut want to tell me how much rent is for a historic home? Less than $1 is the answer. Most historic homes on the east coast could be 300+ years old. Most of them either completely abandoned or turned into museums. But to those that are actually still standing, these states are renting out the homes in 20-25 year leases for as little as $1 for the whole agreement. This is because these homes are in need of desperate renovations. They have asbestos, bad septic systems, if one at all, decaying roofs and the such. These new systems of renting are known as curatorship programs. Just like earlier, a curator helps run and maintain museums.

Since the dollar amount to restoring these homes could range anywhere from $25,000 to millions it makes this a job not for a faint heart. With most historical homes, they are not up to date with modern day building codes, so this will be the greatest challenge in renovation.

Getting asked to become a resident curator is like applying for 10 credit cards at once. They need to know income, SSN, date of birth and many more questions worth of information.

If I had the equity and time I would definitely take on the challenge. I love to see a restoration in process. I have a strong will and dedication to thrive in a new place, not to mention all the money I make would go to my house.

Would you want to be put up to the challenge? Let me know!

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Massive Multi-Family Estates

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We all have the dream of owning a multi-million dollar mansion. Over 5,000 square feet, a pool, home theater, waterfalls, giant gardens, terraces and much more. We sometimes feel like we want to be Gatsby seeing the green light across the lake from his house behind him. Here I will talk about 5 estates of interest.

First on the list is La Casa Sin Nombre, which translates to “The house without a name”. It resides in Palm Beach, Florida. This estate has 5 houses on the property and tagged at $59 million dollars. It’s on a four acre lot next to the ocean. There are two resident houses and three guest homes. The main home, the Garden House was built in 1935. The Ocean House was built in 1921 and is of the Mediterranean style. (My favorite architectural style by the way.)

Next house on the list is Villa Paradiso. This estate is located in Palm Springs, California, has four houses and priced at $11.5 million. Grand walls surround the estate of four acres. Over 15,000 square feet on the estate. It was built in 1928 and has beamed ceilings, chandeliers in an Italian styles. There are three guest houses.

Following the Villa Paradiso is the DanMar Manor. This estate is located in The Woodlands, Texas has two houses and two apartments on the property and is priced at $19 million dollars. The whole compound has 30,717 square feet of living space. The main house includes bedroom suites with private sitting areas. It also contains an elevator. The two apartments are both one bedroom with full kitchens and bathrooms.

House number four on the list is the Huntsman Family Compound in Park City, Utah. This estate in particular only has 1 home, but has ten bedrooms in it. It sits at a giant $44 million dollars. The garage can fit 28 cars. It sits on a 63 acre property, which could easily house comfortably 22 more homes. This estate is here to stay in the hands of the Huntsman family.

The last home on this list is the Stone Canyon Ranch located in Paicines, California. It has four houses on it and sits at $59 million dollars. This estate is home to one of the finest horse ranches in the country. It sits on over 10,000 acres. The main residence is 8,000 square feet and is on top of a ridge line with a 360 view of the mountain range. The other three houses are only one bedroom guest houses.

Do you ever want an estate this big? Tell me!

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Biggest Kitchen Design Mistakes!

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Finally a new design post! It’s hard to find articles on this. Do you think you have the perfect kitchen? Everything sitting in the right place, just enough counter space and a million and one cabinets? Maybe, but more than likely there is one thing about it that in a designers eyes, might be bard for it.

1. Being Boring.
– Kitchens should have a soul and personality to the owner. If it looks like it has construction grade materials and laminate counter tops there isn’t any personality and you need to fix it.

2. Cabinets That Fall Short of the Ceiling.
– Cabinets that don’t touch the ceiling collect dust. When cabinets don’t hit the ceiling you are not using full potential and space for these cabinets. In the short run, do not put high ceilings in your kitchen. 🙂

3. Overdoing It.
– Don’t over design. Don’t make your kitchen a mass tiled paradise with hundreds of cabinets. Make it simple but still have personality and order.

4. Too Many Stainless Appliances.
– Yes, stainless if the new thing, but having everything stainless not only makes it look boring, but it makes it look choppy and small.

5. The Notion That Bigger is Always Better.
– Not all kitchens need to be big. A small kitchen with great architecture detail can still work for many people.

6. Too Much Storage.
– Back to having a million cabinets. It’s not needed. Balance out the storage of cabinets with a china cabinet or bookcase. Make it different.

7. Poor-Quality Cabinetry.
– You open and close your cabinets constantly. Don’t buy the cheapest hinges or wood to make them. They will lose quality very quickly and need to be updated much faster.

8. Not Having Countertops Around Wall Ovens.
– Make sure you have enough counter space near your oven. Where can you put whatever food you just cooked? 10 steps away by the sink? No, 2 steps to the right or left.

Maybe after looking at these mistakes you might rethink how your kitchen looks and if it needs updating.

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House NA, Tokyo, Japan

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House NA Floor Plans

I understand that there is already an overwhelming amount of blogs and articles about this architectural masterpiece that sits in Tokyo, but as you all know who follow me, I sure have a thing to say about it that differentiates from the rest. 😉

House NA, Located in Tokyo, Japan is a house that is completely transparent on all sides. Windows for the walls, glass for the flooring and glass for the ceiling. The design is quite amazing looking at it from a design standpoint, since no one has done it before. This 918sq foot home is made with 21 floor plates. These plates help the residents sleep, walk and sit while in the house. Some of these plates have heat which will help in the winter. (Because having windows for walls can really cause it to be fairly cold in the winter.

This house was inspired by a tree with multiple perches with the different sized plates and areas for which guests to go to. This idea is quite interesting in my opinion. The architect claims it’s a “3 story house” but with the several different perches it could be considered a 5-6 story house because of the many half floors.

I would personally never want to live in this house due to the privacy issues. Yes, even though it is curtained off for the shower and restroom areas, but that isn’t enough. Everyone needs some sort of privacy in their home. But you cannot find that in this house. It would be very uncomfortable from an interior design standpoint having multi-levels and glass everywhere.

What do you guys think?

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Stairs, Ramps and Slopes

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This post on ArchitectureWeek this week was about the basics to stairs, ramps and slopes. Which in modern architecture, is a very big design element or part of building codes. In most residential homes architects and designers tend to make each staircase or ramp as stylish as possible to help suit the owner of the home and to help with the aesthetics of the place. It could be a form of transporting oneself from one place to another, be used for storage or simply a design element. Each state and country has their own set of building codes based on how wide stairs must be, what the landing should look like, how the grade should be and the ratio between rise and tread.

For ramps, they are limited to a slope of 1:12, which to those who don’t know means for every 12 feet in distance the slope can go up or down 1 foot. So, in other terms, not a very sharp decline or increase. For handrails for ramps or stairs there are also codes they must follow. They have to be a certain amount of inches above the floor of the slope and can’t exceed another height. They can’t have opened vertical spaces and can’t have any breaks.

There are two types of stairs, monumental and egress stairs. As I said earlier, residential is more for the monumental state whilst egress stairs are for guiding traffic as if in an office building. In most places now the minimum width for a staircase is 36 inches with a rise and tread ratio of 6:10. (6 inches tall, 10 inches horizontal.) Landings for slopes, stairs and ramps have to be the same width of the staircase and cannot be smaller, but could be wider.

Who would of every thought that there were this many rules to a staircase?
Have you ever been into an old house where the stairs were less than 36 inches and hard to maneuver through? Tell me your story.

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Skyscrapers, Size and Shape Matter

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I know I just recently did a post on Washington D.C. Can’t Have Skyscrapers?!? but this article from Architecture Week, is about the rapid growth of skyscrapers in the past 10 years. Before the year 2000, there was approximately 250 buildings that were over 600ft tall. After 2000, the amount of skyscrapers doubled. That’s crazy, but this is the world we live in, (not like Land of Confusion written by Genesis). ;-). (Which I’m now currently listening to).

The tall building phenomenon started in the United States, and quickly moved over to Asia and the Middle East within the last few years. In 2009 alone, out of 33 skyscrapers built, 28 of them were in Asia or the Middle East. The tallest building in the world now is located in Dubai. First question of the blog, would you want to live in an apartment/condo skyscraper or a house?

The rest of the blog simply goes over some of the tallest buildings in the world, their heights and their uses. If I were to design a skyscraper I would try to make it as versatile as possible and could be used by anyone for basically anything, like it’s own city. Permanent housing, restaurants, business space, dog park, pools, salons, theaters, shopping centers. It would be an absolute creation all to itself. Yes, people may not leave the building to go any place… ever, but it would suit to everyone in one way or another. Second question of the blog, What kind of skyscraper would you build?

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Design With Enterprise

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This article helped me with house design really works. It’s not understood very well by most people. But according to the article there are 8 benefits to good design. Those being:

Good design can improve the quality of our lives.

Good design can enhance American competitiveness.

Good design can save time and money.

Good design can improve performance.

Good design can simplify use, manufacture, and maintenance.

Good design can improve safety.

Good design can enhance communications.

Good design can preserve historic and natural resources.

The success of a designer or architect greatly depends on how well they can follow these key benefits to design. Good design can improve the quality of ours lives and can save time and money. With good window placement, siding, insulation it could save on energy and could keep you warm when it’s needed and cool when that is needed. The use of industrial materials or recycled materials can help simplify use and have clean maintenance. Now that I know about these designer tips I will definitely try to incorporate them into my house plans and home designs.

Which of these benefits do you agree with?

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Material Flexibility

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Textiles, Rugs and ways to use materials that one would never even think about. A person isn’t going to rebuild their house every year, but they are sure to change the furnishings every year, every few months or seasonally. Most fabrics nowadays serve two or more functions not just their primary one. A few examples would be:

Weather Resistant tents in India. The actual tent portion of the structure is weather resistant and heat resistant. Very decorative on the bottom. The stone surrounding the structure is simple brick and mud. The walls are wind resistant.

Digital Textiles. In this article it was to create a wallpaper for a restaurant in New York. They were going to use a watercolor base. It became a huge hit because you could change the colors, reverse then, add in mirrored images.

Sputnick Chandelier. These chandeliers are made of twisted wire. It looks like broken glass from a distance and works really well with dispersing light in many ways. It also has a very chic design. It gives a bit of dimension and gives off more light which always makes a crowd feel better at a restaurant.

What type of Material Flexibility would you prefer out of these three?

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Hello world!

Welcome to my new blog! This blog focuses on issues and new developements in architecture, interior design and real estate. There will be a new blog post three to four times a week. They will always be posted later than 6:00pm Mountain Standard Time (-7 GMT).

Each day of the week that I post will be about a different topic.

Sunday/Monday = Architecture
Tuesday/Wednesday = Interior Design
Thursday/Friday = Real Estate
Saturday = Subscriber’s Article*

* The Subscriber’s Article will be an article of your choice. I will post in the middle of the week 3 different topics and you, the subscriber, vote to choose Saturday’s article that I will blog about. Sound fun? I think so.

So for you guys, I have one small favor to ask of you. TELL YOUR FRIENDS. Have your friends TELL THEIR FRIENDS. Let them know this is there if they are interested or even if they aren’t interested. I want everyone to know about this and to help support it. This is something that is going to be very important to me and my future career as an architect and I would appreciate being able to experience this blog to the fullest.

Link to blog: http://www.anewrisingdesign.wordpress.com

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