walnut house: certificate of appropriateness application and IKEA
September 1, 2010 – 10:54 am | 3 Comments

Today we’d like to share the Certificate of Appropriateness application for the Walnut House that was turned in to the Historic Preservation office yesterday.  As we mentioned on August 18th,  we had a very productive …

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Walnut House – Modern: Historic District
August 20, 2010 – 3:36 pm | 16 Comments

We have started moving forward with our new home design for Jacksonville’s historic neighborhood of Springfield. We will continue posting not only images but we are going to attempt to start doing video interviews with some of the people involved. We plan on interviewing the clients as well and the builder, engineer, and various sub-contractors. Our overall goal for these posts is to help people not only understand the process of building a new home from design to completion, but also to understand the process of getting new home construction approved in a designated historic district.

Our clients are extremely excited and we have met all of their requirements and needs in the design process. We have designed this project with SIPS (Structural Insulated Panels) and many of the decisions were made to make this home as green and sustainable as possible. We will definitely have this home certified by the FGBC (Florida Green Building Coalition) and later we will decide if we should go for LEED for Homes certification. While designing this home, we also had to follow the guidelines for building new construction in a historic district. Springfield has it’s own guidelines, but like most historic districts in the U.S., they are based on The National Guidelines For Historic Preservation as set forth and manged my The Office of the Interior’s, National Parks Service. Here is a link to the Springfield Guidelines. If you decide that you are interested in reading through these guidelines, pay special attention to the New Construction section.

We have just started the design review process and our first step in the process is to apply for a COA (Certificate of Appropriateness). If you would like to follow along, here is a link that explains the process. Our goal is to have our application completed and turned into the Historic Preservation Staff by September 1st, 2010. We have completed a preliminary meeting with Staff to see if there are any items that stand out as possible deal breakers. There were a few minor items that we will tweak before submitting our application. In the mean time, we have contacted the SPAR Council to do the same review with them. Once “Staff” gets our application for COA, they will do a full written report determining if historic preservation guidelines for new construction are met. Each member of the Historic Commission as well as SPAR will get a copy to review before we present to the commission on September 22nd, 2010.

We welcome your comments. We know that it is rare to make everyone happy and we know that there are going to be a lot of “I love it” or “I hate it” comments. We hope that because this project includes written guidelines and suggestions, that some of you will take the time to read them and comment based on your interpretation of those guidelines. Thanks for reading and we sincerely hope that you enjoy this series. Once the home is complete, we will invite everyone out to tour the home and enjoy delicious beer provided by Intuition Ale Works (Thanks Ben).

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Intelligentsia – Take Two
August 13, 2010 – 12:46 pm | One Comment
Intelligentsia – Take Two

This is a follow up to a previous post about Intelligentsia Coffee. Intelligentsia Coffee has hired The Department of the 4th Dimension to produce some videos about their in house processes. We have a previous …

Jean Prouve – A prefab visionary
June 25, 2010 – 3:52 pm | 2 Comments
Jean Prouve – A prefab visionary

Jean Prouve was a metal worker and designer that acquired notoriety for his collaboration with  his famous cousin Charles Edouard Jeanneret (who assumed the pseudonym Le Corbusier). This weeks video presented by Wallpaper Magazine …

Live Tonight: Urban Jacksonville Weekly (06.24.10)
June 24, 2010 – 8:20 am | No Comment
Live Tonight: Urban Jacksonville Weekly (06.24.10)

Jacksonville, you’re probably going to be hearing about this from everybody today (if you haven’t already – if so consider this a reminder), but we don’t want to miss out on spreading the word as …

Visual Acoustics – The modernism of Julius Schulman
June 16, 2010 – 9:19 am | 3 Comments
Visual Acoustics – The modernism of Julius Schulman

I must have been asleep at the wheel, but last night I realized that Visual Acoustics – The Modernism of Julius Schulman is available to watch instantly on Netflix. This is what the film’s web …

Video Fridays: Netherlands
June 11, 2010 – 4:05 pm | 2 Comments
Video Fridays: Netherlands

Above is the Wozoco Apartments in Osdorp, Nederlands
This is our second post on the Netherlands. See Adaptive Reuse in the Netherlands. This new video concentrates on an area of Amsterdam called Osdorp. It sounds …

the urban facelift project #14 (405 w beaver street) and the friday video
June 4, 2010 – 2:21 pm | 3 Comments
the urban facelift project #14 (405 w beaver street) and the friday video

For this facelift we asked our Urban Facelift Project fans on facebook what they would like to see 405 W Beaver Street become.  (click here for a map of 405 Beaver Street)  If you would …

Pod Dwellings: Sustainable Habitats and Suburban Ecosystems
June 2, 2010 – 1:52 pm | One Comment
Pod Dwellings: Sustainable Habitats and Suburban Ecosystems

We stopped into the Art Center while walking between a DVI Downtown Stakeholders meeting and lunch at the Burrito Gallery here in Jacksonville a few weeks ago and was really impressed with the Pod …

Friday Video: Roman & Williams
May 28, 2010 – 5:19 pm | 2 Comments
Friday Video: Roman & Williams

A special thanks to The Scout for making this amazing video about Roman & Williams design firm. This video really explains what it means to design in a way to evoke a feeling and emotion. …

Residential Facelift Update: 4567 Palmer
May 25, 2010 – 2:13 pm | 4 Comments
Residential Facelift Update: 4567 Palmer

We got word that the facelift we recommended for 4567 Palmer (click here for a map)  had gone into effect and since the site isn’t too far from our office we decided to go over …

friday video: smack nightclub
May 21, 2010 – 8:05 am | 7 Comments
friday video: smack nightclub

We’ve been wanting to post this video since we came across it on Monday. Smack Nightclub is located in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, UK and they’ve gotten some great publicity because of the new LED …