There's no such thing as blueprints anymore and haven't been for many, many years. And yet the term is so ingrained in my profession that hardly a week goes by that someone doesn't ask me about "a set of blueprints". Today Architects just make "prints" of...
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It's a surprise, sometimes, for potential clients of mine to learn that the bulk of the designing I do is sketching by hand. Don't we have computer tools to handle that these days? Isn't sketching by hand more time-consuming and less accurate? Yes, actually - it's both...
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Part of an Architect’s job is evaluating products and materials for projects we’re working on. It’s surprising how much time I spend talking with suppliers about materials – even those I use frequently, that I’m completely familiar with, and that I’m comfortable recommending to my...
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The last few Project Notebooks have been about the design of remodeling projects. This one follows the progress of a new home - not a complicated house, just a simple custom family farmhouse in northeast Ohio. What I'd like to show you with this project is...
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Inspiration is one of my most important keys for getting a home design project started, and I find lots of it in the architecture books on my bookshelves. I've built a solid library over the years and I use it almost every day. My book...
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One of the keys to getting the right design in any Architectural project is embracing evolution - not the duck-billed platypus kind of evolution, this is about evolving design. That means understanding that the first design you work on probably won't be the final design....
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“Downsizing” to an empty nester home is what a couple does when the kids are grown and moved out, and the family home has become a house of mostly empty rooms. It typically means moving to a smaller home, but that’s not always the case. In fact,...
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A lot of homeowners dream of building on a large rural property with plenty of space to spread out, with no restrictions on what to build or where to build it. That's what first attracted the owner of this contemporary home makeover to the property. From...
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It's usually the smallest room in the house – maybe that’s why half bath design never seems to enough attention to make the room it truly functional, and not just a pretty place to powder your nose. And while a typical half bath design might be...
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Remodeling a home in an older neighborhood often comes with challenges above and beyond what my clients want and need for their project. In this Project Notebook, we’ll look at a small house remodeling in Upper Arlington, Ohio to see how it was updated and...
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